FOI 2026/1789

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This request concerns the ICB’s statutory oversight of complaints handling, particularly in relation to Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH), and the governance arrangements through which the ICB assures itself that complaints are managed transparently and in accordance with national standards. I would be grateful if all information could be provided electronically. If any part of this request requires clarification, please contact me before refusing it.

Complaint Timeliness Data Held by the ICB

1. I would be grateful if you could provide any reports, dashboards, audits or datasets held by the ICB that contain information on GMMH’s average and longest time to acknowledge formal complaints, and its average and longest time to provide a final response. If the ICB does not hold this information for the period January 2023 to June 2026, please confirm this explicitly.

Escalation to Independent Review and to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

2. For the financial years 2023/24 and 2024/25, please disclose the number of GMMH complaints that were escalated to independent review under the NHS complaints procedure, and the number that were referred to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. If the ICB does not hold this information, please explain what steps have been taken since the Assistant Director’s correspondence of 27 May 2026 to require GMMH to collect and report it.

Complaint Outcomes and Resolution Patterns

3. Please provide GMMH’s upheld, partially upheld and not upheld rates for formal complaints for the financial years 2023/24 and 2024/25, including any categorisation used by the ICB to understand the nature of the concerns raised. If the ICB does not hold this information, please confirm.

ICB Committee Oversight of GMMH Complaints

4. I would be grateful for copies of any minutes, agenda papers or reports presented to the NHS GM Quality and Performance Committee, or any equivalent committee, between January 2023 and May 2026 that discuss GMMH’s complaint volumes, trends, upheld rates, response times or compliance with complaints regulations and internal policies.

Executive Leadership for Patient and Customer Experience

5. Please confirm whether the ICB has a board‑level executive with explicit responsibility for patient or customer experience, including oversight of complaints and patient feedback. If such a role exists, please provide the job title, name and a brief description of responsibilities. If no such role exists, please confirm whether the ICB intends to create one and, if so, by what date.

ICB Audits of GMMH’s Compliance with Its Own Complaints Timescales

6. Please provide any audits, reviews or performance assessments conducted or commissioned by the ICB between January 2023 and May 2026 that examined whether GMMH met its internal timescales for acknowledging and responding to complaints. If none exist, please confirm.

Transition Planning for Healthwatch Functions

7. Please provide any internal plans, risk assessments or transition documents prepared by the ICB relating to the transfer of Local Healthwatch functions under the Health Bill 2026, including how the ICB intends to ensure editorial independence in the publication of patient feedback, protect complainants from fear of retribution, and maintain engagement with under‑represented communities. If no such documents exist, please confirm.

Action Plan Responding to Healthwatch England’s A Pain to Complain

8. Finally, please provide the action plan referenced in the ICB email of 27 May 2026, response regarding the actions being taken forward together with any progress updates, monitoring reports, implementation timelines and details of responsible officers.

1. Greater Manchester Mental Health (GMMH) are an NHS responsible body under the NHS complaints regulations and under the Regulations are responsible themselves for collating information about complaints handing. This information belongs to them as the data controller.

NHS GM as strategic commissioner has quality oversight of local providers, including GMMH. We do not hold complaints data in the level of detail outlined in the request.

2. NHS GM does not hold complaints data in the level of detail outlined in the request.
3. Please contact GMMH for this level of data. To assist you please find a link to their website below and information about how to make a Freedom of Information request.

Freedom of Information | Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS FT

4. The NHS GM Quality and Performance Committee papers are on the NHS GM website https://gmintegratedcare.org.uk/ You should look at the section titled What’s happening and then use the search function to find the minutes of the Quality and Performance Committee.
5. Charlotte Bailey, Chief Strategy, People and Partnerships.

Chief Strategy, People and Partnerships is the Lead for the Comms, Engagement and People and Culture Plan and is accountable for:

• Overall system sustainability strategy
• Corporate standards, policy and regulation
• Public engagement
• Wider system relationship management
• Place relationship management
• VCSFE relationship
• Workforce regulation and practice

6. NHS GM does hold this information.
7. Patient Services has no such plans, and no work has been done by us to pick up the role of Healthwatch.
8. Any actions relating to the A Pain to Complain report are within the paper to Quality and Performance Committee. Please refer to the response to question 4 and the link to the NHS GM website.