2. Aim of the Commission’s complaints function

There are 5 sections to our Complaints Handling Policy:

Overview
Aim of the Commission’s complaints function
Guiding principles
Complaints process
Personal and protected information

We aim to deliver a high-quality complaint handling service that is consistent with best practice complaints handling principles. The Commission’s complaints function plays an important role in the aged care sector as it goes to the heart of older people’s experience of aged care. We want to understand what isn’t working for older people and work with providers to improve aged care services.

In handling complaints, we aim to:

protect and enhance the safety, health and wellbeing of older people receiving aged care services, by holding providers accountable
support the will, independence, rights and preferences of older people
understand what is not working well for older people
make providers aware of issues so that they can, within the framework of their responsibilities under the law, work with older people to:
- remedy the problem
- restore the relationship and build trust and confidence between providers, workers and older people. This includes practicing open disclosure
- prevent the problem from happening again
educate and empower older people, and those who represent them, to complain freely, confidently and without retaliation
educate and build the capacity of providers in managing complaints effectively
use complaints to understand where a provider needs increased supervision by the Commission to ensure the services they provide are consistent with the requirements under the law or their Commonwealth funding agreement
use complaints to understand common issues and drive continuous improvement in services for older people across the sector.

We acknowledge that older people come from a diverse range of backgrounds and aim to provide a complaints service that is accessible to and meets the needs of all, including:

First Nations peoples
people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
people who live in rural or remote areas
people who are financially or socially disadvantaged
veterans
people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless
care leavers
parents separated from their children by forced adoption or removal
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, asexual and other sexually or gender diverse people
people with a disability.