One in five people had problems when using public services last year, with many finding it difficult to make a complaint, a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed.
NAO found that 25% of people using social care services faced problems such as poor quality of service, with 10% of childcare users not being happy with the service provided.
However, the report said 35% of people do not make a complaint as they think nothing will be done, with only 31% of those complaining saying they were happy with the outcome.
The NAO is calling for improvements to the complaint system, such as councils adopting a standard approach to recording or reporting complaints.
‘At present, the complaints and redress system in the public sector cannot be regarded as good value for money,’ said Amyas Morse, head of the NAO.
‘If government took the power of redress to improve public services seriously, it would recognize that the present system is incoherent and dissatisfying to users and would show urgency in reforming and rationalizing the system.’
The report also said it cost £48.5m to run the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) in 2013-14.
Local Government Ombudsman, Dr Jane Martin, said their own research had shown people wait an average of nine months before trying to resolve their complaint. The LGO is calling for a single public services ombudsman to provide a clearer complaints process.
She said: ‘We agree that more focus should be on the outcomes and learning from complaints. That is why we publish thematic reports that feedback our learning and best practice to the sector, and why we are working to provide more detailed information on our complaints. For example, we now publish all of our decisions and now report on the number of complaints that we uphold.
‘We are proud of the efficiency journey that we have made over the last few years and despite the constraints of the existing system, we now offer a significantly improved service at a considerably lower cost.’
