Every complaint is a gift
Complaint handling and the ombudsman schemes.
Three hours on treating every complaint as insight: why voice matters, the ombudsman schemes, complaint handling codes, good responses and damp and mould.
- Level
- Focus
- Learning time
- 3 hours
- Where
- Complaints, Ombudsmen and Learning from Failure
- Price
- £69
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Housing and public service managers responsible for complaint handling
Overview
Every complaint is an honest account of a service as someone experienced it, and in services people cannot leave, an unheard voice turns into silence rather than exit. This programme starts from Hirschman's exit, voice and loyalty and the complaints iceberg, then maps the ombudsman landscape in Wales and England, from the Crossman catalogue of maladministration to the powers of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales. It compares the English complaint handling codes with the Welsh model procedure, explores the human side of a good first response and a meaningful apology, and closes on damp and mould, Awaab's Law and the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.
Aims
This programme aims to help leaders and managers in housing and wider public services treat complaints as insight rather than risk, building the judgement to welcome dissatisfaction early, respond with fairness and humanity, work confidently with ombudsman schemes and codes, and recognise when a repeat report is a warning about a home and a household.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Explain why complaints matter most in services people cannot leave, using Hirschman, the complaints iceberg and the distinction between maladministration, service failure and injustice.
- Apply the complaint handling codes, the five parts of a meaningful apology and the Principles for Remedy to respond to a complaint fairly, promptly and proportionately.
- Assess your organisation's complaint handling maturity, governance and hazard reporting, and plan how ombudsman findings can become a free review of your own system.
What you'll develop
Through this Focus course, you will build the ability to:
- Explain, using Hirschman's exit, voice and loyalty, why ignored voice in a service people cannot leave leads to silent disengagement rather than exit.
- Apply the 'however made' definition of a complaint to distinguish complaints from service requests and to identify dissatisfaction your organisation may not be recording.
- Describe who does what in the ombudsman landscape in Wales and England, including the wider powers of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales under the 2019 Act.
- Compare complaint stages and timescales under the English codes and the Welsh model procedure, and explain why both limit internal stages to two.
- Explain how missed warnings turn into formal complaints and campaigns, using the Mid Staffordshire case and the listening loop.
- Explain the purpose and main timescales of Awaab's Law in England and the different route Wales has taken through the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.
Built from 2 parts.
3 hours of learning.
- 01Listening when it countsOmbudsman and complaint handling codesBitesize3 modules
- 02Handling complaints with humanityAwaab's Law, damp and mould and complaintsBitesize2 modules
Keep going.
Part of the Complaints, Ombudsmen and Learning from Failure topic, also sold whole as When things go wrong.
Go deeper, and pay only the difference
- You are hereFocus, 3 hours, £69
- The whole topicExplore, When things go wrong, 5 hours 30 minutes, £129. Already own the Focus? You pay £60.
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Prices per person. Read the full terms
Also part of: Leading homes and communities, Ready for inspection