FEATURES
A Service complaints system new power in the
From early 2016, the Service Complaints Ombudsman will bring a new independent voice to the Service complaints system.
For Nicola Williams, 2015 has been a memorable year. In January, she left the Cayman Islands – where she had been the Islands’ Complaints Commissioner for over five years – to return to London to take up the role of the Service Complaints Commissioner for the UK’s Armed Forces. Now, thanks to Parliamentary reforms, her role is soon to become that of an Ombudsman, with a new set of powers.
“Dr Atkins, who was the first Service Complaints Commissioner, always said that the role needed more powers in order to properly hold the complaints system to account,” explains Nicola. “And finally around a year ago, reforms were proposed which would give the role those powers – as well as improving the complaints system as a whole.”
Envoy Magazine has already met the Commissioner, when she was settling into her new role and life back in London. “I loved my life in Cayman, but it’s great to be back in London again – there’s no place like home,” she told us then.
16 Envoy Winter 2015
Since that conversation, Nicola has been busy getting out and about meeting personnel at their places of work – Cranwell, Northolt, Wittering, Brize Norton, Cyprus and Brunssum (in The Netherlands) are just a few of the places where she’s met RAF personnel and in some cases their families too. She has also been involving herself in casework and also preparing her organisation for the change to a new way of working.
“There has been an awful lot to do. We’ve been recruiting more staff, changing the layout of our office, developing our policies and procedures. All this while focusing on the day-to-day work too,” Nicola told us.
The Service complaints system is changing
So what does this mean for RAF personnel? First off, the Service complaints system itself is changing. From January, it will have two levels instead of three. The intention is that the system will be quicker and simpler to use, which will be good news for everyone.
The Ombudsman’s role will be to act as an independent arbiter at specific stages of the process. She can:
• review and overturn the chain of command’s decisions not to accept a complaint;
• consider whether there has been undue delay in the handling of a Service complaint or a Service matter (an issue raised by an individual which could become a Service complaint);
• review the handling of a Service complaint once it has finished the internal process, if the individual feels something is wrong with the way it was dealt with;
• in some circumstances, investigate the substance of a complaint once it has completed the internal process, and;
• recommend action to the Defence Council to put matters right.
She can also refer a complaint to the chain of command if the person concerned does not want to do so themselves.
Nicola explains: “In many cases, complaints are handled very well by the
www.raf-ff.org.uk
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