Safeguarding

120 ANNEX E Recommendations of the Neale Inquiry
No Inquiry recommendation Government response
Para
Response
21 Unified and centralised training should be
provided for all PALS officers.
22 Complaints handling should be aligned to
quality management and patient services
rather than claims management.
23 The head of the unit dealing with
complaints should be an appropriately
trained manager.
24 Complaints handling training should be
mandatory for all levels of clinical, nursing
and administrative staff.
The Department of Health sets national
standards for PALS training, but SHAs
also have an important role in ensuring
that local health communities carry out
an appropriate analysis of specific
training needs and provide the training
needed. Centralised training has been
arranged on occasions, in response to
particular national needs, but this is not
the norm.
4.13–14 Accept. The government fully agrees
that complaints handling should be
regarded as an integral part of clinical
governance and that complaints should
be seen as a vital source of information
for improving the quality of services
and identifying any potentially unsafe
practice. The government will consider
with stakeholders how existing statutory
responsibilities can be strengthened.
5.12–13 The Department agrees that complaints
handlers in PCTs or hospital trusts
should be appointed at a sufficiently
senior level and with appropriate
training, and that they should have
direct access to the member of the
executive board with overall
responsibility for clinical governance
issues.
The Government agrees that all front
line NHS staff need to have an
awareness of local complaints handling
processes so that complaints, wherever
they are received in the organisation,
are swiftly transferred to the complaints
handling team. We will address the
implications for training and induction
processes in the review of the
complaints system described in chapter
5 of this response.