Making Complaints Count

An audio version of our Spotlight on accessible communication report.

Sadia Mir, member of our Public Engagement Advisory Group joins us on the latest episode of our podcast. The Group gives us feedback and ideas about how to make sure complainants get a high quality, empathetic and timely service from us.

Sadia shares her experiences of being a member of the group, how the group improves the service of PHSO for the people that use it and why it's so important to be involved.

We're joined by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Paula Sussex in our latest episode of Making Complaints Count.

Paula speaks to senior caseworker James Glover about her first few months in the role and shares what most excites her about the future.

The theme for this year’s World Patient Safety Day is Safer Care for Every Newborn and Child. In our latest Making Complaints Count episode, we explore what this means for families and the NHS.

Sandy Lewis, Director of the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations Programme (MNSI), joins Policy and Public Affairs Officer Roshana Amiri on the latest episode of Making Complaints Count to discuss:

how families can be supported when something goes wrong in maternity and newborn care

- why listening to feedback is vital for safer care

- the biggest patient safety challenges facing the NHS in this area.

- Listen below, or find us on iTunes, Spotify or your preferred podcast provider.

This week, we're joined by Paul from DEFRA, Gemma from University Hospital Birmingham and Tina from Natural England to discuss the Complaint Standards.

The Complaint Standards set out how NHS and UK central government organisations should approach complaint handling in a clear and consistent way. They help organisations to:

- deliver everyday good complaint handling

- meet the expectations of people making complaints about their service

- use feedback from complaints to make service improvements.

Gemma, Paul and Tina explain the difference the Complaint Standards have made to complaint handling at their organisations and the value of learning from complaints to drive improvements.

In the latest episode of Making Complaints count, our Outreach and Engagement Officer Alison Smith is joined by Lisa Cowley, CEO of sight loss charity Beacon Vision. Lisa attended one of our Complaint Champions workshops that support organisations with the tools they need to help people that use their service to navigate the complaint process. They discuss what Lisa found out during the workshop and:

- the barriers people with sight loss face when accessing public services

- the value of complaints in making improvements

- the 150-year anniversary of Beacon Vision.

Our Policy and Public Affairs Manager Anna Davies is joined by Dr Tony Dysart, Senior Lead Clinician at the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

They discuss the launch of Tony’s new patient safety blog series and:

- how his work at PHSO informs his work as a GP

- the biggest patient safety challenges facing the NHS and how these can be overcome

- what culture changes are needed to improve patient safety

- how the NHS Complaint Standards can drive improvements.

In the latest episode of Making Complaints Count, our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisor Annie Wakefield is joined by Bishop Dr. Desmond Jadoo MBE, Chair and director of the Windrush National Organisation.

They discuss the Windrush Compensation scheme and:

- our report which spotlighted common reasons people were wrongly denied compensation

- his personal experiences with Windrush

- the steps the Government should take in righting some of these wrongs

- the role of advocacy organisations in supporting people seeking justice.

Acting Ombudsman Rebecca Hilsenrath kicks off the first episode of our brand new podcast, Making Complaints Count. Joined by her Private Secretary, Faye Glover, she talks about her upbringing, priorities and future plans as Ombudsman.

In a very special episode of Radio Ombudsman, Rob Behrens takes the hot seat as he’s interviewed by his Private Secretary, Faye Glover. As his term comes to an end, he reflects back on seven years as the Ombudsman, his early life and career, and shares his future plans.