Recommendation F113: Complaints handling
From Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry, published 6 February 2013.
Recommendation
The recommendations and standards suggested in the Patients Association's peer review into complaints at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust should be reviewed and implemented in the NHS.
In brief (written by this site)
DHSC and NHS England stated in February 2026 that the recommendation was completed, referring to action regarding the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman NHS Complaint Standards (DHSC and NHS England, Feb 2026). In February 2026, the Thirlwall Inquiry legal team noted that following universal expectations published in November 2014, the ombudsman publishes NHS Complaint Standards with a summary of expectations, a model complaint handling procedure and detailed guidance (The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team, Feb 2026).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
About this summary
This recommendation applies across many organisations. The record reflects central policy activity; adoption in individual organisations may vary.
Government response
Accepted.
At present, standards of complaints handling are judged on the basis of the 2009 regulations and the Health Service Ombudsman’s Principles of Good Complaints Handling. While both of these remain important, a more formal statement of standards is likely to be of benefit to the NHS, whether complaints managers and Trust Boards at local level, or regulators.
The Review of the Handling of Complaints in NHS Hospitals recommends that:
• Commissioners and regulators establish clear standards for hospitals on complaints handling. These should rank highly in the audit and assessment of the performance of all hospitals.
The Government has asked the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and Healthwatch England, working with the Department of Health, to develop a patient-led vision and expectations for complaints handling in the NHS. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Healthwatch England and the Department of Health will work with the Patients Association, patients, regulators, commissioners and providers to develop universal expectations for complaints handling. These will be used across the NHS to drive improvements in patient satisfaction with complaint handling. The vision and expectations will inform:
• Patients about what to expect when they make a complaint about NHS services
• The work of the Healthwatch network in challenging local providers to improve their practices
• Providers and commissioning bodies about what they can do to use patient concerns and complaints to improve services and how they can measure their own progress
• Regulatory assessment of hospital complaint handling
• The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman investigation of complaints about NHS services brought to them by patients and their families.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: This is volume two of "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (Cm 8777-II), the government's response to the Inquiry's 290 recommendations, published by the Department of Health on GOV.UK on 19 November 2013 and dated to that day here. The PDF the row links to is the accessible edition, whose title page reads "January 2014". The Department of Health has been the Department of Health and Social Care since January 2018. The volume says it includes accounts from each of the national organisations the recommendations name, but it does not mark which passage each organisation wrote, so every row is filed under the Department that published it.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
Government responded via "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (2014), a single document covering all 290 recommendations with a blanket acceptance. Individual recommendation responses were not broken out.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England say completed (27 February 2026)
Please see response to recommendation 112 regarding the PHSO NHS Complaint Standards.
Site note: DHSC and NHS England's own account of progress, supplied to the Thirlwall Inquiry in September 2024 and printed in the Inquiry legal team's Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). It is not a finding of the Inquiry. Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Implemented - Closed”. Table row: section 18.2 No. 113, PDF page 478-479.
Department of Health and Social Care says in progress (11 February 2015)
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, working with Healthwatch England and the Local Government Ombudsman, published universal expectations for raising concerns and complaints to support improvements in complaint handling in November 2014. The user led vision and expectations represent a comprehensive guide to how a good experience of raising a concern or complaint should look and feel.
For the person who has raised a concern or complaint, the ultimate vision is for them to be able to describe their experience as: “I felt confident to speak up and making my complaint was simple; I felt listened to and understood; I felt that my complaint made a difference.” The expectations provide a tangible way to measure the extent to which the expectations of users of health and social care services are being met through the complaints arrangements.
This work will inform the Care Quality Commission inspections to help to assess to what extent the service is responsive.
Site note: This is the supporting annex published on 11 February 2015 with "Culture change in the NHS: applying the lessons of the Francis Inquiries" (Cm 9009), attached to the GOV.UK page as "Culture change in the NHS supporting annex". The annex has no title page; that title is GOV.UK's and the PDF's own. Its table has four columns (No., Recommendation, Hard Truths Government response, Progress update), and the row carries the Progress update cell. No column says which organisation wrote an update, so the row is filed under the Department of Health (now the Department of Health and Social Care), which published it.
Site note: The Inquiry addressed this recommendation to the NHS, not to the Department of Health. The annex gives this update in the Department's publication and does not say who wrote it, so the row is the Department's report of the progress made on it.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (27 February 2026)
This recommendation was accepted by the Government.
In the January 2014 Hard Truths report, the Government said it had asked the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and Healthwatch England develop a patient-led vision and expectations for complaints handling in the NHS, to be used across the NHS to drive improvements in patient satisfaction with complaint handling.
In November 2014, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman published a document containing universal expectations for raising concerns and complaints. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman now publishes NHS Complaint Standards, with a Summary of Expectations, a model complaint handling procedure and detailed complaint handling guidance.
Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). The review does not colour its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green; it leaves the cell uncoloured where a recommendation was rejected, where evidence of implementation was insufficient, or where steps had been taken but implementation was not yet complete. Table row: section 18.2 No. 113, PDF page 478-479.
Earlier findings (1)
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (15 May 2024)
This recommendation was accepted by the Government.
In the January 2014 Hard Truths report, the Government said it had asked the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and Healthwatch England develop a patient-led vision and expectations for complaints handling in the NHS, to be used across the NHS to drive improvements in patient satisfaction with complaint handling.
In November 2014, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman published a document containing universal expectations for raising concerns and complaints.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman now publishes NHS Compliant Standards, with a Summary of Expectations, a model complaint handling procedure and detailed complaint handling guidance.
Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024). The review does not colour its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green; it leaves the cell uncoloured where a recommendation was rejected, where evidence of implementation was insufficient, or where steps had been taken but implementation was not yet complete. Table row: section 16.2 No. 113, PDF page 444-445.
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Department of Health and Social Care
Response, delivery statement - DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding