Social Welfare and Family Law Issues and the Local Government Ombudsmen for England

White, Jerry

doi:10.1080/09649060701423222

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“…The local government ombudsmen in England have also raised concerns about the operation of complaints review panels, arguing that many complainants' dissatisfaction with the process often arises when local authorities fail to implement the recommendations of review panels (White 2007). Recent cases illustrate the problem.…”

Section: Community Care Complaints Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 97%

Independence in complaints procedures: lessons from community care

Gulland

2009

Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law

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This article looks at internal complaints procedures and considers the role of independent elements in procedures which are designed to be simple, informal and low cost. Taking the example of local authority community care services as a case study, the article discusses research which looked at the views of complainants, potential complainants and those who run the procedure. Most people do not make formal complaints at all and very few people seek an independent review of their complaint. When they do seek such a review, they expect it to be transparently independent of the body complained about. The article concludes that the current system of local authority complaints review panels or committees does not provide the independent element that complainants seek. Complaints procedures are often contrasted with more formal appeal procedures but a recent report by the National Audit Office considers that the distinction between complaints and appeals is unhelpful, arguing that what we need is a combined system for 'getting things put right ' (2005, p. 7). In a sense the local authority complaints procedure for community care services provides this already: since there is no appeal mechanism, all grievances about local authority community care services must be dealt with initially through internal complaints procedures. This looks like an ideal system for 'getting things put right' without the trappings and expense of formal mechanisms. It provides a useful case study for investigating the expectations of complainants.Purely internal mechanisms for resolving citizen's grievances have value in allowing relatively easy participation and encouraging grievances to be heard at a level close to where the problem arose. They should also enable organisations to learn from their mistakes and improve services in the future. They provide a means of 'proportionate dispute resolution' (Department for Constitutional Affairs 2004, p. 6). However, as Le Sueur argues, although a mechanism aimed at 'nipping disputes in the bud has a commonsense attraction that is hard to resist ' (2007, p. 327), there is a danger that other important values are lost. Here, Le Sueur is pointing to the conflict between different 'models of justice' and arguing that where this conflict arises 'legal' values should be valued more highly in order to protect citizens' rights (p. 335). Adler (2006) shows that models of justice provide a guide to understanding criticisms of particular dispute mechanisms. Adler argues that 'legal models', which rely on values such as independence and due process, contrast with alternative models of justice where other qualities are valued, such as following bureaucratic rules, providing information to management or ensuring that 'consumer' views are listened to. Adler considers that complaints mechanisms do not usually fall within the legal model of justice and are more likely to be used to promote consumerism in public services (Adler 2006). * Email: Jackie.gulland@stir.ac.uk 2 Consumerism has also been described as giving...

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Section: Community Care Complaints Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 97%

Independence in complaints procedures: lessons from community care

Gulland

2009

Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Social Welfare and Family Law Issues and the Local Government Ombudsmen for England

Cited by 1 publication

References 1 publication

Independence in complaints procedures: lessons from community care

Independence in complaints procedures: lessons from community care

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