The quality of public services depends not only on how organisations respond when issues arise but on how well they learn from them. Complaints provide a unique source of insight that allow leaders to identify risk early, improve services and prevent recurring problems.
Across government departments there is a well-established, sizeable industry of collecting information about performance, risk and delivery. Yet one of the clearest indicators of how services are experienced by the public – complaints – is too often overlooked.
Every day, citizens tell public bodies where services are not working as intended, where systems break down, where policies are not coherent or effectively communicated, and where mistakes are repeated. Very often those complaints will also reveal the cause – or the root cause – of why these services are falling short and how they could improve.
Improving services cannot rely solely on major reform programmes or organisational change; government needs to make better use of the insight it already has. That is why our recently launched strategy places learning from complaints and improving public services at the heart of our work.
For permanent secretaries and senior civil servants, this means treating complaints for what they often are; a source of customer feedback. Complaint trends should be considered alongside other performance data, helping identify emerging risks, improve services and intervene before problems become systemic. Complaints are a gift.
As the ombudsman for public services, we put things right for individuals while using what we learn to point to where and why services are failing the citizen and how they can improve. The complaints we investigate provide a unique perspective on how public services are experienced and where organisations have the greatest opportunity to improve.
Across our investigations, the same themes emerge repeatedly: poor communication and complaint handling, delays, and a lack of coordination between teams and organisations. Taken individually, these failings may seem minor, but together they shape people’s experience of the state and influence trust in public institutions. Complaints provide the opportunity to give citizens confidence that concerns will be heard, taken seriously and used to improve services for others.
Our Government Complaints Standards provide a practical framework for departments to handle complaints consistently, fairly and effectively. Alongside the Standards, we offer free complaint handling training to every government department, with continuing professional development accreditation for participants.
We have been working with some departments to strengthen complaint handling but there is an opportunity for far wider adoption across Whitehall. Making greater use of the complaint standards and training would help build capability, identify problems earlier and turn complaints into lasting service improvements.
Standards are only part of the answer. Leadership, governance and culture determine whether complaints lead to change. Senior leaders should ensure that thematic insights are routinely reviewed at executive and board level, with audit and risk assurance committees considering complaints alongside the risk register as a source of assurance. Complaint teams should be empowered to escalate concerns, and learning should be translated into tangible improvements in service design and delivery.
Complaints can also sometimes operate as an early warning system. Acting early is not only better for citizens – it is better for government. Identifying issues before they escalate can reduce the financial and human costs of service failure, avoiding expensive remediation, litigation and public inquiries. Prevention is almost always less costly than responding after harm has occurred.
Government has ready access to the citizen’s voice through the complaints it receives. It must listen to it, learn and act.
Complaints are more than a route to redress. They are one of government’s most valuable sources of insight into how public services are performing. If we are serious about improving services and rebuilding trust, we must make better use of what citizens are already telling us.
Paula Sussex is Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman