The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has been working with the NHS and other public service organisations, members of the public and advocacy groups to develop a shared vision for NHS complaint handling. This is called the Complaint Standards Framework.

The Framework sets out a single set of standards for staff to follow and provides standards for leaders to help them capture and act on the learning from complaints. 

This version of the Framework is for:

• All NHS staff, including all clinical and non-clinical staff and senior leaders, to:
  • provide a clear vision of how to approach feedback and complaints effectively
  • set out how they should approach learning from complaints to improve services.   
• Everyone who provides feedback or makes a complaint about the NHS, and the people who support, advise or advocate for them. It sets out what they can expect to see and experience when doing so.
• NHS staff who are being complained about. It will make sure they are supported and that the complaint is seen as a learning opportunity rather than a finger-pointing exercise. 

You can read more about this here.

How to get involved

Have your say in shaping the future of NHS complaint handling by taking part in the survey.

Click here for an easy read version of the survey.

The consultation closes on 18 September 2020.