Resolving contracting complaints — responsibilities of funded service providers

If we receive a complaint about your organisation, we'll forward it to you for comment or resolution using the Contracting Complaint Referral form.

We refer contracting complaints to you to investigate and manage when the complaint:

• is about casework practices
• is about service delivery
• relates to a service provider’s internal management practices.

Contracting complaints referred to your organisation for resolution will be monitored by your assigned contract manager. In this way, we can provide any information and advice required to assist you to resolve the issues raised in a complaint.

It's important to view matters referred by us as an opportunity to act in good faith and identify areas for improvement, and so avoid or minimise the possibility of the issues recurring or the complainant escalating the matter.

To respond to complaints forwarded by us, we expect your organisation’s nominated representative to:

1. Commence implementing your organisation’s complaint management procedure to review or investigate the matters raised.
   This requires communicating with the complainant.
2. Record relevant details of your organisation’s findings in Part 3 of the Contracting Complaint Referral form.
3. Return the completed form within the timeframe specified.

We may request a short turnaround time, depending on the reason for the referral. In either case, the timeframe will be communicated clearly on the referral form.

If the matter will take longer than expected to investigate, notify us within the timeframe specified.