CHG110 | Introduction: The role of CPST and CCAST

Throughout this guidance you will find reference to two HQ teams: the Complaints Policy and Strategy Team (CPST) and the Central Complaints Advice and Support Team (CCAST). CPST is housed in Central Customer & Strategy Directorate, while CCAST is housed in Customer Directorate. The two teams work closely together and their roles are complementary.

CPST’s key responsibilities are to:

• Maximise customer insight to influence design/policy change to improve customer experience and reduce potential for complaints.

• Develop the meaningfulness, accuracy and value of complaints reporting and briefing to support HMRC decision making and actions to improve customer service.

• Manage and assure all HMRC level complaints data and act as system administrators for the Complaints Handling Analysis & Reporting Tool (CHART) the Enterprise Complaints & Correspondence System (ECCS).

• Support key stakeholder relationships, e.g. with operational complaint teams, the Adjudicator, PHSO, to maximise value of actions taken from insight and improve the customer experience.

• Provide support and advice to operational staff to improve complaint handling on complex or sensitive cases, minimise potential for reputational damage to HMRC and improve customer experience.

• Continuously improve the policy for complaint handling for our staff to improve internal complaints resolution and ensure the root causes of customer dissatisfaction are tackled at all levels.

• Support the Cross-Government Complaints Agenda to learn from other Government departments and share best practice/knowledge.

CCAST is responsible for:

• Giving advice on specific cases, including issues concerning financial redress, to business areas across the department aiming to respond within 5 working days.

• Helping with complex or contentious cases to ensure decisions are robust and reflect policy intention.

• Providing the link between operational complaints handling teams and CPST by feeding operational issues and experiences into the policy making process.

• Supporting robust complaints handling within business areas.

• Supporting the Adjudicator’s and Ombudsman’s handling of case enquiries, giving advice and helping to achieve an agreed outcome.

• Supporting the Processing business in developing a system for learning lessons from complaints.

• Devising and delivering workshops on improving complaints handling, including financial redress issues and letter writing.

• Providing assurance to CPST that policy is fit for purpose and is being implemented reasonably and consistently across HMRC.