Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to issue national guidance on (a) response times and (b) service standards for Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS).

No assessment has been made of the consistency of National Health Service trusts in responding to Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) enquiries.

Generally, there are no required national timeframes or service standards for responding to enquires made to PALS. However, where PALS are responding to complaints raised under the formal NHS complaints process, they must follow the requirements in The Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009 which set out in law the minimum standards NHS organisations must adhere to.

The 10-Year Health Plan committed the Department and NHS England to improving the handling of patient complaints, including to update complaint regulations. It is intended that this will also consider related matters, such as the introduction of new forms of feedback and the role of PALS services. This will be within the portfolio of the new National Director for Patient Experience, for which recruitment is underway.