Statutory guidance

Chapter 8: Complaints and Document Retention

Updated 5 August 2024

Enquiries and complaints

8.01. You must have an appropriate and effective complaints process across your whole supply chain to resolve customers’ complaints. You must explain your complaints process to the participant in your first contact with them.

8.02. Where a formal complaint has been received from a customer, a drafted response should be submitted to the AtW Contact Liaison Point at ATWPROVIDER.CONTRACTCORRESPONDENCE@DWP.GOV.UK before replying to the customers complaint. AtW Operations will review the draft response and request a rework if appropriate or confirm their approval. Once you have received an approval from AtW Operations, the response should then be sent to the customer.

8.03. You should refer to the Complaint resolution core briefing pack: DWP provider guidance - GOV.UK and the DWP: customer charter - GOV.UK when reviewing your processes.

8.04. If a customer is unhappy about the service they receive from you and raises a complaint, you should ensure that you follow each step of your detailed process robustly in order to bring the complaint to a satisfactory conclusion.

8.05. After following all steps in your process, you must include in your final response a standard text which signposts the customer to contact the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) should they wish to pursue their complaint. The text can be found in Annex H.

8.06. Complainants should be advised that they can escalate their complaint to the ICE within six months from the date of the final response that you issue.

8.07. On receipt of a complaint, ICE will contact you to confirm that each step of your internal process has been completed. If they feel that you have not completed your process satisfactorily, you may be asked to revisit some steps to seek resolution before ICE are prepared to investigate further.

8.08. You must deal with any correspondence of any nature from ICE within the stated timescales or at least within five working days.

8.09. ICE is an independent office holder, supported by DWP staff. The ICE does not act on behalf of individuals, but as an independent arbiter. The ICE Office has two primary purposes:

• to provide a free complaint resolution and investigation service to individuals who are unhappy with the final response to their complaint from the relevant DWP Agency, Business, Access to Work Provider; and
• to support DWP Agencies, Businesses, Access to Work Providers in improving their services, by highlighting where things have gone wrong and making constructive recommendations based on the complaints the ICE Office identify. Recommendations might be systemic in nature or case specific.

8.10. The Independent Case Examiner (ICE) will mediate between you and the customer to broker a resolution. If a resolution cannot be agreed between either party, ICE will ask to see the evidence. You must provide all the evidence which relates to the complaint. ICE will again attempt mediation between you and the customer (known as a ‘settlement’ if the evidence is needed to broker an agreement). If this cannot be achieved, ICE will undertake a full investigation of the complaint.

8.11. ICE has three stages of complaint examination, which will be applied to any complaints made about you. At every stage, you, the provider, will have the opportunity to give your version of events and offer any supporting evidence.

8.12. Further information regarding the three stages of complaints can be found in DWP Generic Guidance- Chapter 2 Delivering Provision.

8.13. Please note that under normal circumstances, if a complaint is upheld against you at investigation stage, a financial contribution s recovered from you to go towards funding the ICE service for provider complaints in the following year.

8.14. Further information on complaints procedures can be found in your contract and in DWP Generic Guidance- Chapter 2 Delivering Provision.

8.15. For more information about ICE, please visit the ICE website at: Independent Case Examiner.

Issues management

8.16. When you identify problems relating to any aspects of the services you deliver, you should resolve such problems in an appropriate manner.

8.17. You should report any proposed changes to the way in which your services are accessed or suggestions for improving the efficiency of the services provided to your Performance Manager in writing. Their approval is required prior to implementation.

Document security

8.18. Please refer to Chapter 8 of the Generic Guidance.

Document retention

8.19. You should keep and maintain for 6 years after the end of the contract period, (or as long as may be agreed) a full and accurate record of the contract including the services supplied under it, all expenditure reimbursed by the Department and all payments made by the Department.

8.20. In respect of completed specified reports, documents and personal notes, these can be retained for up to six months after the exit report payment. At which point they can either be:

• securely destroyed and disposed of; or
• anonymised and retained for up to 6 years.