3.1. Culture is more than compliance

The National Standards for Disability Services include a specific standard about feedback and complaints (standard four).

The Disability Services Act 2011 (the Act) and the Disability Services Regulations 2015 include the requirement for funded disability service providers to seek regular feedback on their services and to use the feedback to review and improve services.

There are also a number of existing Departmental policies in place for the management of complaints. These are:

• Disability and Community Services Compliments and Complaints Procedure (2015)

In addition, service providers must develop and implement guidelines and procedures for receiving feedback and resolving complaints from consumers about the delivery of the services under their funding agreement with the Department.

Compliance is about meeting legislative and contractual requirements. Organisational culture, however, is a step beyond that: where complaints resolution becomes part of the organisation’s way of thinking and doing (not just an action item on its ‘to do’ list). Where complaints are seen only in the context of compliance, and not about improving service quality or forming part of the shared values of the organisation, a complaints resolution process may, at best, not be fully supported by the culture or at worst be at odds with it.

Complaints resolution processes not only provide an effective means of dealing with complaints, they also provide an opportunity for your organisation to find out where problems may be occurring and where changes need to be made. Complaints data offers a valuable source of information as to where and how organisations can improve service delivery. Efficiencies gained through complaint resolution processes are a major justification for setting up and maintaining such a system.

Michael’s story

Michael lives in his own home with the support of a disability service. His mother contacted the service provider, concerned that she was unable to contact him. She advised that Michael had a history of behaviours of concern and tended to get into trouble when he was not well supported. When she contacted the service provider, she was told that his case worker had not had contact with him for several days.

The service provider set up a meeting with the case worker, Michael and his mother for the following day to discuss how best to support Michael, especially when contact couldn’t be made.

His mother later advised that the meeting had been very productive. Both his mother and the case worker were unsure about how to best work with Michael but were able to share valuable information. They discussed and agreed a process for when Michael was hard to contact, which included visiting him at his house either late at night or early in the morning. They decided this was the best option as he tended to be out all day and would not return phone messages. They agreed to review this process in three months time or sooner if needed.

However, unless these processes are supported by a strong culture which sees complaints as an important way of receiving feedback from people using services, they tend to become simply a collection of manuals, policies and procedures which are not reflected in the practice of the organisation.

Tip

To help with the integration into the culture it can be helpful to develop a complaints vision. This can be something to aspire to, a mantra to motivate people and a general statement that complaints are valued.