Put in place a feedback and complaints management system that encourages and supports older people and others to make complaints and give feedback.

Make sure your feedback and complaints management system outlines:

• clear and documented processes, roles and responsibilities on how feedback and complaints from older people and others are:
  • received
  • registered and acknowledged
  • recorded
  • investigated
  • responded to
  • managed
  • resolved
  • reported on
  • learnt from to improve aged care services.
• how you will encourage and support older people, their supporters, family, carers and others to provide feedback and make complaints. This includes empowering older people and others to access language services, advocates and external services for raising and resolving complaints and feedback. This also includes offering different ways older people can share this information with you and your workers.
• how you keep feedback and complaints confidential, if this is what the older person wants. This needs to be in line with your information management system (Outcome 2.7). Make sure:
  • older people or others do not face retribution because they give feedback or raise a complaint
  • you make efforts to reduce administrative burden  
  • you resolve all feedback and complaints
  • you identify any patterns or trends.
• how you can escalate feedback and complaints in a timely way
• how you can access information about external complaints and feedback mechanisms, including the Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS)
• processes to collect, store, use and disclose any information related to feedback and complaints from older people with their informed consent. This needs to be in line with your information management system (Outcome 2.7).
• how you can provide positive feedback to encourage and strengthen good practices you observe
• what feedback or complaints need to be recorded. Make sure the system describes any situations where you don’t need to record feedback. For example, if the older person chooses not to have the feedback recorded.
• any feedback or complaints that you need to respond to. Include:
  • who you should involve in this process
  • timeframes
  • situations where you need an investigation, such as after an incident or near miss (Outcome 2.5).
• how you discuss and resolve complaints. You should do this in consultation with the older person and others who made the complaint. Communicate with older people in a way that meets their needs and preferences. Consider their:
  • spoken language
  • culture
  • medical conditions, including cognitive ability
  • needs and preferences (Outcomes 1.1 and 3.3).
• how you analyse and resolve complaints and feedback. Focus on identifying any trends or organisation-wide issues during performance monitoring. For example, aspects of care which aren’t delivered well may suggest that your organisation needs additional worker training (Outcome 2.3).

The feedback and complaints management system should also provide guidance and information on how to practise open disclosure (Outcome 2.3) when things go wrong.
 

Use your feedback and complaints management system to acknowledge, manage and respond to feedback and complaints.

Have mechanisms to provide feedback and complaints that work well for older people, their supporters, family, carers and others. This means that these mechanisms are accessible, prompt and fair for older people. These can include:

• formal complaint and feedback channels
• the complaints escalation process
• anonymous surveys or questionnaires
• feedback forms
• the Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) process
• through a Consumer Advisory Body.

Consider the different ways older people would like to give feedback and make complaints. This can include sharing information verbally, in writing, digitally, openly, confidentially and anonymously. Make sure these options are available within your mechanisms for giving feedback and making complaints.

Also, consider the language and communication needs and preferences of older people (Outcome 1.1). Facilitate access to supports such as advocates and language services during this process, if they want it.

If you find issues or ways you can improve through this process, you need to address them. If things go wrong, you need to:

• practise open disclosure (Outcome 2.3). This means being open about what has gone wrong. Share what went wrong with older people, their supporters and others they may want to involve, such as family and carers.
• put in place strategies to mitigate the risk of things going wrong again.

Collect and look for trends in your complaints and feedback data from older people, their supporters, family, carers and others to find organisation-wide issues and ways for the service to improve. Do this as part of your broader performance monitoring activities (Outcome 2.3). Report these outcomes to the governing body and older people.

Have a feedback register to monitor feedback and complaints from older people and others. 
 

Put in place strategies to help workers use the feedback and complaints management system well.

Put in place policies and procedures that support and encourage using your feedback and complaints management system. Make sure these are:

• current and informed by the latest contemporary, evidence-based practices
• regularly reviewed
• clear and accessible for workers and relevant people (Outcome 2.7).

Provide workers with guidance and training on how to use the feedback and complaints management system. This needs to be in line with:

• the organisation’s policies and procedures
• worker's roles and responsibilities.

Make sure workers understand:

• their role in the feedback and complaints management system
• how to use the system to manage feedback and complaints you receive when delivering aged care services to older people.

The guidance for Outcomes 2.8 and 2.9 has more information on workforce planning and human resource management. 
 

Monitor how well you use the feedback and complaints management system to manage feedback and complaints from older people and others.

Regularly review your feedback and complaints management system to make sure it works well for older people and others. Look for ways to improve the system.

To check if you’re managing feedback and complaints well, you can review:

• older people’s aged care service documents (Outcome 3.1)
• complaints and feedback
• incident information (Outcome 2.5)
• worker performance and how well they’re using the feedback and complaints management system. You can do this through quality assurance and system reviews (Outcome 2.9).
• feedback meeting minutes and records.

Also, talk with older people, their supporters and others they may want to involve, such as families and carers, about the aged care services they receive (Outcome 2.1). For example, ask them if they know about the ways they can make a complaint or give feedback on their aged care services. These conversations can then inform continuous improvement actions and planning (Outcome 2.1).

You will know things are going well if older people say that they are confident that:

•    their complaints had been closed out appropriately in a timely manner
•    they feel heard.

The guidance for Outcome 2.3 has more information on monitoring the quality system.