Community participation complaint handling - C&DS review June 2009

The Ombudsman is the independent and impartial watchdog for people receiving community services in NSW. We promote the awareness of the rights and obligations of service receivers and service providers under community welfare legislation. In part we do this by reviewing the complaint handling systems of service providers and by assisting services to improve their complaint handling procedures and practices. Complaint handling reviews are conducted under section 14 of the Community Services (Complaints, Reviews and Monitoring) Act 1993 (CS-CRAMA) (appendix 1).

This report details observations and recommendations arising from our review of the complaint handling practices of a number of Community Participation services.