External Complaints - Child Support investigations 277-17091400

Scrutinise the enquiry:

• Ministerial response, agency response, Executive correspondence, and Parliamentarian written response, go to Step 2
• Media alerts and Media briefs, go to Step 7
• Ombudsman complaint, see the Managing complaints from the Ombudsman table
• Parliamentarian verbal enquiry, Executive Minutes, Waiver brief request, Ministerial and agency brief requests, see the Management of other communication table

If the correspondence is from a complainant with an active ExCCS investigation, go to Step 4

Can the complainant be identified in Cuba?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, go to Step 3

Record the complaint on the ExCCS Workbook spreadsheet as a non-customer.

If the complainant has included some contact details, e.g. phone, email or postal address and complaint contains:

• a risk of self-harm or harm to others, discuss with the ExCCS PM before taking further action
• a threat of media escalation, go to Step 7
• no threats:
  • If an email address is available but no telephone number, email the complainant requesting further information via the Ministerial mailbox
  • If a telephone number is available and/or the complainant’s address, inform the ExCCS Service Officer on allocation. They will decide whether to call the complainant or prepare a general response

Allocate to ExCCS Service Officer as per the allocation principles.

If additional correspondence is received from a complainant with the same or new issues and there is already an active complaint investigation:

• send the new correspondence to the ExCCS Service Officer managing the complaint and copy their Service Support Manager
• seek advice from the ExCCS Service Officer whether to add it to the existing parliamentary document record (PDR) or create a new PDR

Follow the advice the ExCCS Service Officer provides:

• Add the correspondence to the existing PDR:
  • refer the correspondence back to MST to add to the existing PDR
  • add a note to the View/Add Comments window
  • if new issues are raised, restart the 10/15 day timeframe
• Do not add the correspondence to the existing PDR, manage as per new correspondence, go to Step 5

If the complaint contains a risk:

• of self-harm and/or harm to others, go to Step 6
• of media escalation threat, go to Step 7

Prepare an email to Social Work Services:

• request an assessment and/or for the customer to be contacted by them
• attach the customer’s correspondence

Note: before sending the email, check for Personalised Services (PS) management

Is the customer managed in PS?

• Yes, communicate with the PS Service Officer (PSO) about the referral to a social worker
  • If the referral is agreed to, send the email and copy in the PSSO, PS SSM and PS Service Manager
• No, send the social worker email and prepare a PS referral. See Customer Referral Guidelines, Personalised Services

If a request for an assessment on a customer has been sent to Social Worker Services, save a copy of the email in the Customer Information folder on the National shared drive.

Complete the Customer Incident Reporting Tool (CIRT) as soon as possible. See Customer aggression - Reporting and recording incidents.

The Resources page has a link to the Security Incident Reporting page, which includes information about when and how to complete:

• Security Incident Reports, and
• the Security incident Report Form

Email the correspondence to the ExCCS SSM in the WA/VIC team, or in the absence of this officer, to an ExCCS SSM in another team.

The ExCCS SSM will make a decision about further action, including informing the Media team.

If the Media team considers it necessary, they will send a request for a case summary or social media review to APH mailbox for the ExCCS team to action.

The ExCCS SSM will advise which ExCCS Service Officer to allocate the media brief to.

Record allocation on the ExCCS Daily Allocations Spreadsheet.

MST will create all PDR’s relating to Ministerial and Agency responses.

MST forwards all correspondence relating to Child Support including referrals from other Departments to ExCCS for review.

The ExCCS PSO will scrutinize the correspondence to determine if the correspondence contains Child Support service delivery issues that we can answer. If necessary, the ExCCS PSO can ask for ExCCS staff to review.

Were Child Support service delivery issues identified?

• Yes, ExCCS PSO will return the correspondence to MST. The MST will create a PDR, and assign back to Unit Co-ordination – External Complaints Child Support position for allocation
  • Create a step 3 complaint in the Feedback and Review window
  • Use the Document upload request macro to forward any attachments to the mail handling team for scanning to the View correspondence window. The attachments must be either PDF or TIF format. The completed macro creates an email including the customer's information
  • Save the email sent to the mail handling team and the incoming correspondence to the ExCCS Customer Information folder on the National shared drive
  • Delete the automatically generated Ministerial Unactioned intray and create a Departmental Response- NMR intray, route to the appropriate ExCCS Service Officer
  • Assign the PDR to the appropriate ExCCS Service Officer and CC the SSM and record on the ExCCS workbook spreadsheet and ExCCS Daily Allocation Spreadsheet
• No, ExCCS PSO will return the correspondence to MST:
  • with comments as to why Child Support are not accepting, and
  • who would be best placed to respond to the correspondence

• Create a PDR in PDMS, add a copy of the correspondence as an attachment
• Create a step 3 complaint in the Feedback and Review window
• Use the Document upload request macro to forward any attachments to the mail handling team for scanning to the View correspondence window. The attachments must be either PDF or TIF format
• The completed macro creates an email including the customer's information
• Save the email sent to the mail handling team and the incoming correspondence to the ExCCS Customer Information folder on the National shared drive
• Route the Step 3 Complaint intray to the appropriate ExCCS Service Officer
• Assign the PDR to the appropriate ExCCS Service Officer and CC the SSM

Record on the ExCCS workbook spreadsheet and ExCCS Daily Allocation Spreadsheet.

• Record on Cuba in Feedback and Review window as a Step 3 complaint
• Delete Ministerial Unactioned intray and create an MP enquiry intray
• Route intray to the ExCCS Service Officer
• Forward email from Parliamentarian to the ExCCS Service Officer, copy their Service Support Manager. If the customer is managed by Personalised Services (PS), copy the PS Service Officer, their SSM and their SM
• Send any attachments via Document upload request macro for scanning onto customer’s record

Record on the ExCCS workbook spreadsheet and ExCCS Daily Allocation Spreadsheet.

ExCCS Service Officers take Parliamentarian complaints by phone on the Child Support Parliamentarian Advice Line. Once finalised, they email the APH mailbox supplying the following:

• Parliamentarian/Senator's name
• Customer's name
• Customer's Child Support reference number (CSID)
• Category of complaint
• Complaint issues raised
• Date received
• Date finalised

The ExCCS PSO enters this information onto the ExCCS Workbook spreadsheet for reporting purposes.