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Better practice guide to complaint handling
In 1997 the Ombudsman published the Good Practice Guide to Effective Complaint Handling, created to address the failure of most government agencies to establish effective internal complaint handling mechanisms.
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Substantial change has occurred since then, and agencies now accept that complaint handling is a necessary part of service delivery. This is reflected in the well-developed complaint handling systems that now operate in Australian government agencies.
This Guide builds on that network by defining the essential principles for effective complaint handling, and can be used by agencies when developing or evaluating their complaint handling systems. -
Better practice guide to managing unreasonable complainant conduct
This manual is designed to help organisations and their staff take a systematic and consistent approach to managing their interactions with complainants. It provides a series of suggestions and strategies to assist all staff members—not just frontline officers—to deal with complainants, in particular those who behave unreasonably.
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The strategies have been developed by complaint handlers for complainant handlers, and although the focus of this manual is on the public sector, the suggested strategies may be equally applicable to customer and private sector situations. -
Automated Assistance in Administrative Decision-Making
Automated systems can play a significant and beneficial role in administrative decision making. In the right areas and with appropriate management, these systems have the potential to improve the accuracy, consistency, transparency and accountability of decision-making processes.
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The Automated Assistance in Administrative Decision-Making Better Practice Guide seeks to ensure that agencies using computer systems for administrative decision-making purposes adhere to administrative law values when developing and operating such systems.
The Better Practice Guide is designed to assist government officials manage key challenges throughout the lifecycle of an automated system. Checklist points included in the Guide are designed to assist managers and project officers engaged in designing and implementing automated systems, and with ongoing assurance processes once an automated system is operational. -
Automated Assistance in Administrative Decision-Making: Summary of checklist points
The Automated Assistance in Administrative Decision-Making Better Practice Guide is also available in this handy pocket guide. It contains a summarised checklist of all the points in the guide.
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Better practice complaint-handling for education providers
The Overseas Students education providers better practice complaint-handling guide is a checklist and workflow of industry best practice advice.
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Complaint handling at universities: Australasian best practice guidelines
The Australasian best practice guidelines for complaint handling at universities are tailored specifically for universities and are intended to assist them to make their complaint-handling systems more robust and effective. The purpose is not to infringe on the independence of universities, but to identify best practice minimum standards that will protect the rights of students, staff and the university itself.
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