Complaint Handling Guide for the Victorian Public Sector
This guide is designed to assist Victorian public sector agencies in achieving standards of excellence in complaint handling.
Copies of the guide and related resources can be found below:
Guide
Complaint handling good practice guide (PDF version)
Additional resources
Managing Unreasonable Complainant Conduct Practice Manual
Unreasonable Complainant Conduct project report
The development of this guide is in keeping with the Ombudsman’s promotion of fairness, integrity, respect for human rights and administrative excellence in the Victorian public sector.
The Ombudsman investigates complaints about more than 600 public sector bodies including professional boards, municipal and shire councils, universities and government schools, prisons including private prisons, and authorised officers on public transport.
The Ombudsman can also receive disclosures under the Protected Disclosure Act 2012.
In 2008, with the requirement for all public sector agencies to comply with the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (the Charter), an additional function was introduced to the Ombudsman’s office to enquire into or investigate whether any administrative action is incompatible with a human right set out in the Charter.
There are a wide range of agencies handling a diversity of complaints that call for different mechanisms of complaint handling. Nevertheless, there are a number of common key features and requirements in dealing with complaints. It is hoped that this generic guide will be useful to the range of agencies under my jurisdiction for which complaint handling is an important aspect of their overall work.
We invite agencies to contact this office for further assistance in developing and enhancing their complaint handling systems.