Australia — As the independent and impartial watchdog for community services in NSW the Ombudsman encourages awareness of the rights and obligations of consumers and service providers under community welfare legislation. This is done, in part, by reviewing complaint handling systems across the community services sector. In May this year the Ombudsman began a review of complaint handling systems in community participation services throughout the state. Twenty services, representing a broad cross section, have been randomly selected to participate. A key objective of the project is to work in partnership with services to identify areas for development as well as to support improvements to their complaint management systems and practices. Typically, complaint handling reviews also assist in identifying examples of good practice that can be shared across the sector. The review will consider the effectiveness of each service's system for managing complaints from consumers. The complaint systems from the past twelve months will be looked at and a series of brief interviews will be held with a manager, and at least one staff member. Complaint handling reviews by Ombudsman are conducted under the Community Services (Complaints, Reviews and Monitoring) Act 1993 (CS-CRAMA). This act places specific requirements on services regarding the handling of consumer complaints. The Ombudsman plans to release the results of the review to the sector on its completion later this year For further information on this release please contact Tracylee Arestides on 02 9286 1000 m/t/w NSW Ombudsman Office Source NCOSS ###