The BBC has committed to develop an overarching framework for its complaints procedures, review how its complaints teams are resourced, and ensure employees have clarity over how to raise a concern, following an external review of its non-editorial complaints processes. The report, by Deloitte’s, was launched after it emerged the BBC acted too slowly when it received allegations about presenter Huw Edwards last year, has been accepted by the BBC.
The report found that BBC employees largely understand how to raise a complaint and are confident it will be dealt with, but the review said that some employees had lower levels of confidence in how robustly the complaint will be handled if it was a grievance about another member of staff, “particularly where there is an actual or perceived power discrepancy between the complainant and the subject of the complaint“. Moreover there was no framework of overarching processes and procedures for complaints routes, nor was there a consolidated complaints process overseen by specific leadership or technology that provided senior management insight. There were a large network of routes through which complaints could be made and are dealt with by seven triage and investigation teams, each of which has a specific remit and is staffed by specialists. However, there were different case management systems with cases often logged manually.
The BBC has agreed to develop an escalation mechanism for serious non-editorial complaints, which will be overseen under a specialist case management framework. It will also develop an improved process to select hearing managers and pilot new ways to help resolve staff concerns before they become formal grievances. The BBC also plans to make better use of technology to manage complaints to ensure there is a complete picture of all cases across the teams dealing with them.
