Complaints procedure

How to make a complaint about the UK Health Security Agency.

Section A – complaints policy

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is an executive agency, sponsored by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). We are responsible for protecting every member of every community from the impact of infectious diseases, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents and other health threats.

UKHSA is taking forward many of the functions and responsibilities previously held by Public Health England (PHE) and NHS Test and Trace.

UKHSA aims to deliver work of the highest quality and to provide excellent service. However, there may be times when we get things wrong and complaints are made about us. This document sets out our policy for handling complaints.

Where things have gone wrong, we will try to put things right for you. We will learn from what you tell us and try to improve what we do and how we do it.

Our core principles

We work in line with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s (PHSO) ‘Principles of Good Complaint Handling Guidance’.

We adopt the following core principles in handling your complaint:

  • at all stages, we will make the process of complaining as clear and easy to understand as possible

  • we will try to respond to all complaints as quickly as we can and certainly within 20 working days of first hearing from you. If we can’t reply within 20 working days, we’ll contact you and explain why we need a bit more time

  • we will be fair and impartial when investigating your concerns
  • we are responsible and accountable for our work
  • we will not defend the indefensible
  • we will reply in simple language, avoiding technical and scientific jargon as far as we possibly can
  • we will make reasonable adjustments where we can in communicating with you
  • we will respect your privacy
  • we will share information from the complaints we receive with UKHSA’s senior leadership team so that lessons can be learned and improvements made across our services

How we use complaints information

Correspondence on complaints is held in a system which can only be accessed by certain members of staff who work on UKHSA’s complaints.

Your complaint will be handled confidentially and in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998. We will not share your personal information unnecessarily internally or externally. We may sometimes have to provide your personal information to UKHSA colleagues who are asked to help us reply to you.

We will only share your personal information with other external organisations if you give us permission to do so. And we will only share that information in rare circumstances so that we can provide you with a full response to your complaint.

We categorise all complaints by subject matter. This helps us to identify the areas in our work that are causing concern for members of the public and giving rise to complaints. Senior UKHSA managers receive regular reports on what kinds of complaint we are getting. The information on complaints is used as part of our commitment to continuously improving how we work.

Unreasonable behaviour

We will deal with all complaints we receive in the manner set out below (Section B – complaints procedure). However, we reserve the right in certain circumstances not to respond to complaints. We will not reply to individuals who use hostile, threatening or abusive language either in writing or in telephone contact.

We will also not engage with individuals who repeatedly complain to us about the same thing even when we have sent them our final response.

Section B – complaints procedure

What is a complaint?

We consider a complaint to be any expression of dissatisfaction with something we have done or have failed to do in carrying out our work. If we do not feel your complaint is something that UKHSA can consider, we will let you know at the earliest opportunity and give you advice on which organisation you should contact.

Who can complain?

Any member of the public can make a complaint either on their own behalf or on behalf of someone else. Where you make a complaint on behalf of someone else, we may ask you to provide permission from the other person to reply to you. We will also respond to members of parliament and other elected officials who are complaining on behalf of their constituents.

We may not consider complaints from you where:

  • you are a professional individual or body which receives a service from us under contract or a service level agreement (SLA)
  • we have previously replied to you on the same issue and have given you referral rights to the PHSO
  • you are a member of UKHSA staff and your complaint would more appropriately be handled through another process
  • you are complaining about something that happened more than 12 months ago or more than 12 months since you became aware you had cause for complaint. We may, at our discretion, consider complaints raised outside of these timeframes if there are exceptional circumstances that prevented you complaining to us within them. This will be considered on a case by case basis

How to complain

You can complain to us in various ways: by email, by letter, by phone or by using our online webform.

If your complaint is about NHS Test and Trace:

Online form: Get help with coronavirus (COVID-19) enquiries and complaints

Telephone: 119

Post:

UKHSA
Complaints Team
17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR

British Sign Language: BSL users can call 119 using the InterpreterNow app, or on a PC at NHS 119 – British Sign Language (BSL) Service

If your complaint is about any other area of our work:

Email: Complaints1@UKHSA.gov.uk

Post:

UKHSA
Complaints Team
17 Smith Square
London

SW1P 3JR

We will try to make reasonable adjustments to receive, investigate and respond to your complaint.

What happens after you complain

Early resolution

If you have contacted us by phone, one of our agents will try to find out what has happened during the call and hopefully resolve the matter for you. If you are satisfied at that point, we will close our record.

Acknowledgement

We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days of receiving it (not including the date of receipt). Our acknowledgement will provide you with your complaint reference number and we ask that you quote that reference in all future correspondence.

Our investigation

A Complaints Officer will seek input and information where necessary from colleagues who have specialist knowledge of what you’re complaining about. We may have to get back in touch with you if we need more details about you or your complaint. If you have brought your complaint to us in error, we’ll try our best to find out which organisation you should contact.

If your complaint is very complex, we may need more time to issue our findings to you. If that’s the case, we will write to you on or before the 20th working day since receiving your complaint to let you know what is happening and when you can expect a response.

Our response

Our formal response will set out our findings and tell you whether we do or do not agree that you had cause for complaint. We will close the complaint when we issue our response. Most complaints are closed at this stage.

If you are not satisfied with our response, we may re-open your complaint only if you provide new evidence or clarify which elements of your complaint we did not respond to.

If you are dissatisfied with our response, you have the right to refer your complaint to the PHSO for an independent review. We explain the PHSO’s role in more detail below (other information) and provide contact details for them.

Section C – redress

Where we have agreed that your complaint is justified, we will try to put things right. We can do this in the following ways:

  • giving a formal, sincere apology

  • letting you know what changes we will make to improve how we work and to prevent the same thing happening again. For example, this may include recommending training for certain members of staff, changing our published guidance, or updating an operational process

  • where you have suffered financial loss or additional expense as a direct result of an action or a lack of action by us, we may consider reimbursing you. Depending on the amount being claimed, and the complexity of the case, you may be asked to submit a claim outside of our complaints policy. We can only consider financial redress where we have full documentary evidence to support making a payment. When determining any financial loss or additional expenses, we will have regard to the PHSO ‘Principles for remedy’

  • in very rare circumstances, we may consider making what is called a ‘consolatory payment’ ie where you may have suffered upset or distress. UKHSA is funded by taxpayer monies and any such payments will be small

Section D – other information

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)

The PHSO was set up by Parliament to provide an independent complaint handling service for complaints that have not been resolved by NHS England and UK government departments. Their service is free to members of the public.

By law, the PHSO can only look at complaints about UK government departments and other UK public organisations if a Member of Parliament refers the complaint to them. UKHSA will cooperate fully with any investigation undertaken by the PHSO.

For more information you can contact the PHSO on their Helpline 0345 015 4033 or visit the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman website

Contents