Cases of complaint relating to the Social Services Act Cases are dealt with more quickly
Summary of Report of the Norwegian Board of Health Supervision 6/2011
Study of current practice – background and aims
As the highest authority for the Offices of the County Governors when dealing with complaints relating to the Social Services Act, the Norwegian Board of Health Supervision has responsibility for ensuring that complaints are dealt with satisfactorily and that the legal safeguards of people who complain are ensured. Because people’s rights according to the Social Services Act Chapter 4 relate to clients who are completely dependent on help with daily tasks, it is important that they receive sufficient help at the right time.
In this study, we registered and analysed decisions made in 2009 by the Offices of the County Governors in cases of complaint relating to the Social Services Act Chapter 4. More specifically, we looked at the decision alternatives reversed administrative decision and revoked administrative decision.
The most important findings
The study showed that the decision alternative administrative decision revoked and the case sent back to the municipality led to a significantly longer time for dealing with the complaint. The mean length of time for dealing with a complaint was 86 days for administrative decisions that were reversed, but 170 days for administrative decisions that were revoked and the case sent back to the municipality, i.e. the case took twice as long to be completed.
Thirty six per cent of the administrative decisions that were revoked were returned to the municipality, but the corresponding figure for reversed decisions was 64 per cent.