Service delivery charities 'must improve complaints procedure'

Finance | 1 Jun 2007

The complaints procedure for users of public services provided by charities needs to be strengthened before the sector is encouraged to engage in further service delivery, according to the Independent Complaints Reviewer.

Jodi Berg, whose remit covers the Charity Commission, Audit Commission, Housing Corporation and several other non-departmental public bodies, made her views clear in her written submission to the Public Administration Select Committee inquiry into third sector delivery of public services.

She used her submission to attack the reluctance of many charities to address complaints about their service and renewed her call for a Charities Ombudsman.

Berg contended that ‘the ethic of volunteering and doing one’s best is not always sufficient in a situation where people are entitled to a professional service delivered by professionals’. She said beneficiaries of charity-delivered services ‘expect no less in standards than they would from the public body commissioning the work. This difference must be reflected within the governance and management of charities and, in particular, it must be reflected in their arrangements for responding to user and public concerns and complaints.’

June 2007

Directory: Charity Commission

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.