Mununjali Complaints and Grievances  Process

Mununjali Complaints and Grievances  Process

 

Policy statement: Our commitment

 

Mununjali is committed to facilitating our clients’ right to make a complaint about our service, to appeal a decision we have made that directly concerns them, and to ensuring that their complaint or appeal is fairly assessed and responded to promptly.

Specifically, we will:

  • promote our grievance policies to our client and stakeholders by ensuring they have access to information about it and are confident in our support for them to use it;
  • ensure our staff and volunteers are aware of our polices and are able to implement it when required;

 

Procedures

1 Information about our complaints and appeals procedure

 

We want our clients to feel able to voice their dissatisfaction with any aspect of our service, and to be confident that our organisation will manage their complaints well and respond quickly and appropriately. All clients are informed of their rights and responsibilities and our complaints by clients policy at the earliest possible stage of their involvement with our service. This information is provided during the client induction process engaged in by each program.

 

Clients are provided with information about their right to make a complaint or to appeal a decision, and the procedures that will be followed if they do. We provide this information in these ways:

  • in our rights and responsibilities documents;
  • in our public access areas of our buildings; and
  • on our website.

 

2 How clients can make a complaint or appeal a decision

 

Clients may make a complaint by:

  1. firstly discussing their concern with the staff member first they have the concern with;
  2. if you are not happy to discuss with the staff person or you are unhappy with the outcome, please contact the relevant Program Supervisor. Where no Supervisor position exists speak with the relevant Program Coordinator.
  3. if the issue is still not satisfactorily resolved the client should raise the issue

with the General Manager.

  1. if the issue is still not satisfactorily resolved, the client should raise the issue

with a member of the Management Committee.

  1. if after approaching the above people, the issue is still not resolved the client can complain to the relevant funding body

 

 

3 How staff and management will respond to a complaint or appeal

 

Step 1: Registering a complaint or appeal

We will follow this procedure when a complaint or appeal against a decision is received:

The Program Coordinator is the appropriate level officer to deal with a complaint if the issue cannot be resolved between the client and the person with whom they have the concern with.

 

The concern will be recorded in the program area Complaints Register. The Program Coordinator will inform the General Manager of the complaint being received, the nature of the complaint and suggested resolution.

 

The client will be advised of the complaint being received within 7 days of

 

  • the complaint being received;
  • the resolution process available;
  • suggested timings for meetings (and seeking agreement that they are acceptable); what supports can be received or utilised by the complainant; and
  • be invited to participate in the process.

 

    

Step 2: Investigating the complaint or appeal

Each registered complaint or appeal will be investigated and assessed in the following way:

The Program Coordinator will investigate complaints relating to their operational area;

where the complainant is about the Program Coordinator the General Manager will investigate;

where the complainant is about the General Manager, the Board Chair will investigate.

 

Where relevant and appropriate the Workplace Health & Safety (WHS) officer may be included in parts of the investigation where WHS matters need to be considered.

 

The complaint, names of investigation participants, the investigation processes and findings will be recorded. The investigation and resolution should be completed within 7 days of the complaint being received; however, the availability of persons relevant to the investigation may affect the time frames. Where this occurs all parties will be advised without breaching the right to privacy and confidentiality of any party relevant to the investigation.

 

 

Resolutions to complaints can include:

 

  • changes to existing procedures and / policies;
  • additional training of an individual staff member or all staff;
  • engagement of staff in disciplinary measures;
  • change of staff member dealing with complainant; and
  • complaint is dismissed.

 

The complainant will be advised of the outcome including resolution; details provided will not compromise the right to privacy and confidentiality of affected staff within 7 days of the determination being made.

 

Step 3: Review

If the client is not satisfied with the investigation and proposed resolution of their complaint or appeal, they can seek a further review of the matter by:

Mununjali has provided a process in which the complainant can seek a review (appeal) of decisions in step 4.2 within policy.

Details of the decision to appeal will be added to the Initial entry in the complaints register including reasons for appeal (if provided), processes engaged in during the appeal process, basis of decision made (including advices provided) and the outcome of the appeal. Records of all communications engaged in with the complainant will be kept including hardcopy letters sent to complainant, emails and other on-line contacts) and details of phone calls made w either by the organisation or the complaint.

The complainant will be advised of the outcome including resolution; details provided will not compromise the right to privacy and confidentiality of affected staff within 7 days of the determination being made.

 

Step 4: Formal external procedure

A formal external complaints procedure may follow Step 3 if the client is still not satisfied with the outcome. The client will be referred to:

Mununjali provides information to clients about what relevant external body to appeal to as part of their induction package. This will vary according to what program they are seeking services from.

 

  • For aged & disability Services this will be QADA Queensland Aged and Disability Advocacy Service or the Complaints Investigation Scheme Phone number: 1800 550 552
  • For Jymbi Wellbeing Program this will be Department of Communities on
  • For PaCE this will be
  • Mununjali’s Housing Program is self-funded. Tenancy issues are dealt with under Rental Tenancy Authority Legislation. Eligibility and grievance / appeal processes for access to the Housing Program are determined by Mununjali’s Housing and organisational policies.

 

4 Using complaints and appeals for service improvement

Information about complaints and appeals will be kept in:

We compile and assess information about the types of complaints and appeals we have received and the outcomes, and we use this information to identify issues and to improve our services in this way: The General Manager holds the complaints register and the finalised documentation record; Program Coordinators may manage elements of the complaint documentation as it is being actioned.

Complaint documentation is to be generated as soon as the complaint process is initiated. This reporting includes the date of the complaint received, the complaint issue, the process of investigation, the finding, the rationales for the determination, the communications with the parties involved in the complaint and whether the parties have accepted the findings and changes made as a result of findings.

N.B. the Workplace Health & Safety Officer maintains an Incident Register that augments client-initiated complaints. This register is reviewed monthly to identify trends in incidents that may lead to client complaints.

The General Manager and Program Coordinators will review each incident after finalisation to assess whether the incident has any operational and risk implications that can be lessened if changes are made.

The General Manager and Board will review each incident after finalisation to assess whether the incident has any organisation reputational operational implications that can be lessened if changes are made.

Records of such determinations will be made in the relevant meeting minutes.

 

Mununjali use information gathered from our complaints and appeals procedure to inform our decision making and planning processes by:

Ensuring clients are informed that Mununjali values feedback and utilises it to improve services. To ensure that people feel enabled, confident and comfortable in providing feedback including making complaint or lodging grievance (1) Mununjali policies states that there will be no organisational repercussions as a result (2) complainants are encouraged to provide an alternative action to the one offered (3) relevant program workers are asked to reflect on the feedback provided and provide suggestions for improvements. These are recorded in program team meeting minutes and in complaints/ grievance register.