Resolving contracting complaints — responsibilities of funded service providers
The requirements for an effective complaints mechanism.
Dealing with unreasonable complainant conduct
'Unreasonable complainant conduct' is any behaviour by a current or former complainant that, because of its nature or frequency, raises substantial health, safety, resource or equity issues for the parties to a complaint.
Even if a complaint appears to be motivated by malice, it must be reviewed on its own merits as it may raise a legitimate issue.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to managing unreasonable complainant conduct. To deal with it, you can include strategies such as:
- limiting the complainant to a sole contact point
- restricting the subject matter of communications
- restricting communication to being in writing only
- limiting or terminating access to services (which requires a specific procedure to be followed).
If your organisation decides to implement any of these strategies, ensure it's well-documented in case the complainant escalates the matter to us, another state, territory or federal authority, or other interested party.
For help, refer to the NSW Ombudsman’s model policy and procedure on unreasonable complainant conduct.