Making contracting complaints to us
How our funded service providers can complain to us, and who they can contact.
Escalating a contracting complaint
When handling a contracting complaint, we make decisions in line with the terms and conditions agreed in the contract with you.
If you're unhappy with the outcome or how we handled a contracting complaint, you can escalate the matter in the following ways:
- first escalation: internal review
- second escalation: independent internal review
- third escalation: external review or dispute.
First escalation: internal review
If you're not satisfied with how a complaint was handled, including decisions made by our contract managers, ask for the matter to be escalated internally.
Make this request through your assigned contract manager or their managers. If you ask, our contract managers are obliged to provide the contact details of their line manager, or the manager or director of their unit.
Second escalation: independent internal review
If you're not satisfied with how an internal review was handled, ask for an independent internal review by the Prudential Oversight unit in our central office.
Make this request through your assigned contract manager, their line manager, or the manager or director of their unit.
Third escalation
External review
You can escalate complaints to the NSW Ombudsman after demonstrating your organisation has first tried to resolve the complaint directly with us, and if the unresolved complaint is regarding conduct that is illegal, unreasonable, unjust or oppressive, improperly discriminatory, based on improper or irrelevant grounds, based on a mistake of law or fact, or otherwise wrong.
Dispute
If you're seeking to either:
- further escalate an issue regarding the application of the terms and conditions of the contract
- review a decision made by us about a contracting issue
or both, then you can invoke the dispute resolution clause in your contract with us.
In this case, the dispute is dealt with in accordance with that clause, commencing with your organisation issuing a dispute notice to your assigned contract manager.
This triggers the involvement of nominated, senior and legal representatives to engage in good-faith discussions, and may include the use of alternative dispute resolution.
We've listed dispute as a third escalation option because it is preferable, and usually less costly and time-consuming, to resolve issues by one of the other options identified.