We are committed to helping public agencies improve the quality of their decision-making and service-delivery and also supporting agencies to meet best practice standards in complaints handling.
The Complaints Management Program (CMP) is an initiative of the Queensland Ombudsman designed to help agencies develop effective complaints management systems.
A complaints management system includes policy, procedures, personnel and technology. To be effective the system must provide the guidelines for receiving, recording, processing, responding to and reporting on complaints, as well as using them to improve services and decision-making.
Phase 1
Phase 2
PSC Directive
Phase 3
Phase 1 of the program commenced in May 2003 and concluded on 30 June 2005 with a report to Parliament on 1 December 2005.
Complaints Management Project Phase 1 Report
During Phase 1, we worked in close partnership with eight Queensland State and three local government agencies to develop complaints management systems that suited their individual organisational structure and business processes while meeting the Australian and international standards for complaints handling.
As part of Phase 1 we developed a number of tools to:
- help the agencies evaluate their current complaints management practices
- identify areas for improvement
- guide their development of complaints management policy and procedures.
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In Phase 2, we encouraged all Queensland State and local government agencies to use our resources and develop effective complaints management policy and procedures.
We held a number of information sessions for agencies as part of this.
In November 2006, the Public Service Commissioner issued a Directive which required all State government departments and authorities covered by the Public Service Act to have complaints handling systems that met certain requirements by November 2007.
The Directive resulted from a recommendation in the Ombudsman's CMP Phase 1 report and subsequent meetings between the Public Service Commissioner and our Office.
This initiative will ensure that Queenslanders have appropriate avenues for resolving problems directly with the agency concerned.
We held a series of workshops in 2007 to support agencies as they developed and rolled-out complaints management systems (CMS) that met the Directive’s requirements.
We continue to provide support and best-practice advice for agencies as part of the project.
Our Office has since commenced Phase 3 of the CMP. For Phase 3, agencies will be asked to conduct a self-audit on their CMS. We will assess the agency responses and provide further assistance where it is needed.
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