Public Complaints

Number of public complaints reported

Complaint categories	Sub-categories	Example	Number of complaints 2021–22
Professional behaviour	Staff attitude	Failure to demonstrate values such as empathy, respect, fairness, courtesy, extra mile, cultural competency	3
Professional behaviour	Staff competency	Failure to action service request; poorly informed decisions; incorrect or incomplete service provided	1
Professional behaviour	Staff knowledge	Lack of service-specific knowledge; incomplete or out-of-date knowledge	0
Communication	Communication quality	Inadequate, delayed or absent communication with customer	1
Communication	Confidentiality	Customer’s confidentiality or privacy not respected; information shared incorrectly	0
Service delivery	Systems/technology	System offline; inaccessible to customer; incorrect result/information provided; poor system design	0
Service delivery	Access to services	Service difficult to find; location poor; facilities/ environment poor standard; not accessible to customers with disabilities	3
Service delivery	Process	Processing error; incorrect process used; delay in processing application; process not customer responsive	1
Policy	Policy application	Incorrect policy interpretation; incorrect policy applied; conflicting policy advice given	0
Policy	Policy content	Policy content difficult to understand; policy unreasonable or disadvantages customer	2
Service quality	Information	Incorrect, incomplete, outdated or inadequate information; not fit for purpose	0
Service quality	Access to information	Information difficult to understand, hard to find or difficult to use; not plain English	0
Service quality	Timeliness	Lack of staff punctuality; excessive waiting times (outside of service standard); timelines not met	0
Service quality	Safety	Maintenance; personal or family safety; duty of care not shown; poor security service/premises; poor cleanliness	6
Service quality	Service responsiveness	Service design doesn’t meet customer needs; poor service fit with customer expectations	3
No case to answer	No case to answer	Third party; customer misunderstanding; redirected to another agency; insufficient information to investigate	11
		Total	31

Additional metrics	Total
Number of positive feedback comments	3
Number of negative feedback comments referred to other parties	11
Number of negative feedback comments relating to the Agency	20
Number of suggestions	1
Total number of feedback comments	35

Data for previous years is available at: https://data.sa.gov.au/data/organization/office-for-recreation-sport-and-racing

Service improvements

There was very little overlap between the subject matter of complaints this year. Hence, each complaint was investigated and where issues were found, service improvements were made.

The top three categories for complaints were service quality (safety and service responsiveness), service delivery (service access) and professional behaviour (staff attitudes).

Three (3) complaints were made about the conduct of contractors (or former contractors). The complaints provisions within our existing contract management protocols are critical to ensuring the delivery of high-quality services by third parties. The existing protocols were found to be sufficient on each of these occasions.
Three (3) complaints were made about access to services, including disabled access to venues, excess lighting at a venue, and removal of support for athletes. These resulted in changes to the Agency’s DDA Plan, managing compliance with the terms of leases with the lessee and reviewing the grounds for the decision to remove supports.
Nine (9) complaints were made about service quality, including safety and service responsiveness to customers’ needs. The complaints covered maintenance of public venues, accidental damage to private residences from sporting equipment, objections to being asked to remove a helmet to enter a venue, safety concerns about high-performance training environments, noise spilling from sporting venues and concerns regarding additional information required from Sports Voucher providers. Each of the issues was explored and responded to individually. At times, in the case of Sports Vouchers, the additional information is critical to understanding policy levers and determined to be appropriate in the circumstances. In other instances, such as the high-performance safety concerns, understanding the issues and best practice responses requires a more detailed examination of the issues.

Compliance statement

The Agency is compliant with Premier and Cabinet Circular 039 – complaint management in the South Australian public sector.	Y
The Agency has communicated the content of PC 039 and the Agency’s related complaints policies and procedures to employees.	Y