Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to help ensure effective local oversight of complaints management in the NHS, in order to help reduce the number of complaints being referred to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) makes the final decision on National Health Service complaints where it has not been resolved locally and the matter has been escalated to the PHSO. Where the PHSO identifies opportunities for learning, they provide recommendations directly to the relevant NHS organisation to improve complaints handling. The Department has worked with the PHSO on the pilot of the NHS Complaints Standards which aim to support NHS organisations in providing a quicker and simpler complaint handling service, with a focus on early resolution which would prevent escalation to the PHSO. The Standards also emphasise the importance of senior leaders regularly reviewing what can be learned from complaints and how this should be used to improve services.