Browsing by Person "Williams, Jane"

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A Dispute System Design Perspective on the Future Development of Consumer Dispute Resolution
(Oxford University Press, 2016-12-01) Williams, Jane; Gill, Chris; Cortes, Pablo
This chapter explores the concept of dispute system design in the context of consumer dispute resolution (CDR). While there is a growing literature on dispute system design (DSD) in North America, practitioners and scholars in the UK and Europe have failed to give significant attention to DSD as a discrete activity. As the role of CDR within civil justice systems across Europe continues to grow, the activity of ‘designing justice’ in this area should increasingly be seen as a matter of constitutional as well as practical significance. A failure to address this issue risks undermining the continued legitimacy of state-sanctioned dispute resolution for consumer-to-business disputes. In this chapter, we present a new dispute design model for CDR mechanisms and, drawing on several case studies, demonstrate how it may be applied in practice.
Confusion, gaps, and overlaps: A consumer perspective on the UK's alternative dispute resolutions (ADR) landscape.
(Citizens Advice, 2017-04) Gill, Chris; Creutzfeldt, Naomi; Williams, Jane; O'Neill, Sarah; Vivian, Nial; Citizens Advice
This report is about the help available to consumers who have experienced a problem with a business that they have been unable to resolve on their own. Some of these problems end up in the small claims courts, but increasingly consumers can turn to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) schemes. This report is about the UK's current approach to ADR. The report does 3 things. It provides an up-to-date map of ADR schemes available to consumers in the UK. It presents a detailed comparative assessment of a small selection of these schemes. And it sets out consumer insights drawn from interviews with consumers who have used ADR. The research presented in this report involved desk-based internet research, interviews with ADR schemes, and interviews with consumers. The report comes at a crucial time. There have been longstanding criticisms of ADR provision for consumers and there is wide consensus that the system is incoherent and confusing. The current government has an opportunity to address some of these criticisms in a forthcoming Consumer Green Paper. This is, therefore, an opportune time to be thinking about how to ensure that ADR meets consumers' needs and serves their interests.
Consumer representation in financial services: report into consumer representation in the payments sector
(Queen Margaret University, 2017-10-20) Brennan, Carol; Williams, Jane; O'Neill, Sarah; Chalmers, Sally
Consumer vulnerability and complaint handling: Challenges, opportunities and dispute system design
(Wiley, 2017-06-30) Brennan, Carol; Sourdin, Tania; Williams, Jane; Burstyner, Naomi; Gill, Chris
Effectively designed complaint handling systems play a key role in enabling vulnerable consumers to complain and obtain redress. This article examines current research into consumer vulnerability, highlighting its multidimensional and expansive nature. Contemporary understandings of consumer vulnerability recognize that the interaction between a wide range of market and consumer characteristics can combine to place any individual at risk of vulnerability. While this broad definition of consumer vulnerability reflects the complex reality of consumers' experiences, it poses a key challenge for designers of complaint handling systems: how can they identify and respond to an issue which can potentially affect everyone? Drawing on current research and practice in the United Kingdom and Australia, the article analyses the impact of consumer vulnerability on third party dispute resolution schemes and considers the role these complaint handling organizations can play in supporting their complainants. Third party complaint handling organizations, including a range of Alternative Dispute Resolution services such as ombudsman organizations, can play a key role in increasing access to justice for vulnerable consumer groups and provide specific assistance for individual complainants during the process. It is an opportune time to review whether the needs of consumers at risk of vulnerability are being met within complaint processes and the extent to which third party complaint handlers support those who are most vulnerable to seek redress. Empowering vulnerable consumers to complain presents specific challenges. The article discusses the application of a new model of consumer dispute system design to show how complaint handling organizations can meet the needs of the most vulnerable consumers throughout the process. 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Designing Consumer Redress: a Dispute System Design (DSD) Model for Consumer-to-Business Disputes
(The Society of Legal Scholars, 2016-04-26) Gill, Chris; Williams, Jane; Brennan, Carol; Hirst, Carolyn
This article proposes a model for designing consumer dispute resolution (CDR) mechanisms (including conciliation, adjudication, arbitration, and ombuds schemes). This field has expanded significantly in recent years, replacing courts as the primary forum of dispute resolution in some areas of consumer-to-business activity. This expansion has been ad hoc, with a lack of consistency in the design of CDR mechanisms and in the overall shape of the CDR landscape. In light of the recent implementation of the EU's Directive on Consumer Alternative Dispute Resolution and Regulation on Consumer Online Dispute Resolution, Dispute System Design (DSD) requires urgent attention to ensure that the design of future mechanisms is based on coherent principles. A failure to address this issue risks undermining the legitimacy of state-sanctioned dispute resolution. The model described in this article proposes a systematic approach and aims to: synthesise existing DSD models; apply the concepts of DSD to the field of CDR; and provide a framework that may be of use in other disputing contexts.
Designing justice: Dispute system design and consumer redress
(Thomson Reuters, 2017) Williams, Jane; Gill, Chris; De La Rosa, Fernando E.
This chapter sets out a model to assist those involved in the design and review of consumer dispute systems and highlights how it can be applied in practice. The model does not dictate what final form the design should take but instead seeks to provide a framework for design choices in order that designers can ensure that a clear rationale exists for all aspects of a scheme's design. It is envisaged therefore that the model could be of use to designers in Spain and other jurisdictions in developing ADR systems to comply with the European Union's Directive on Consumer Alternative Dispute Resolution (2013/11/EU) and Regulation on Consumer Online Dispute Resolution (EU No 524/2013). The chapter explains how the model works and draws on recent practice and examples primarily from the UK to illustrate some key issues relating to designing consumer dispute systems. The aim is to provide a practical guide to assist designers and those involved with the evaluation of dispute systems.
Dysfunctional accountability in complaint systems: The effects of complaints on public service employees
(Sweet & Maxwell, 2019-10) Gill, Christian; Sapouna, Maria; Hirst, Carolyn; Williams, Jane
This article examines the effect that being complained about has on public service employees. The volume of complaints about public bodies is significant: an estimated 543,000 complaints a year are made about central government, while the English NHS was subject to 208,415 complaints in 2016-2017. Despite the significant expansion of complaint procedures following the Citizen’s Charter reforms in the 1990s, there has been no empirical research into the way in which complaints affect employees outwith the healthcare sector. Most scholarly debate has focused on whether complaints procedures within government have improved customer service or been useful for service improvement. Little attention has been paid to the experience of being subject to a complaint and the influence this has on work practice. In this respect, the public accountability literature suggests that significant dysfunctional effects may result from accountability regimes, including: defensive practices, tick-box compliance, excessive formality, and reduced innovation. In the healthcare setting, negative effects arising from being complained about include defensive medical practice, avoidance behaviours, wariness towards service users, and reduced wellbeing. While some positive effects have been reported, the thrust of healthcare studies is that complaints have harmful effects on professionals. To date, however, the effects of complaint systems outwith the healthcare context remain uncharted: we do not know whether other public services are affected in similar ways.
Early Experiences of the Enforcement of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive in Scotland
(Springer, 2010-12) Williams, Jane; Hare, Caroline
This exploratory study examines the early impact of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC on enforcers in Scotland within the context of current policy developments regarding the use of civil and criminal enforcement mechanisms within the UK. The Directive has been implemented in the UK by means of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 SI 1277 and the duty to enforce the Regulations falls primarily to local authority trading standards services. Twenty-one in-depth interviews were conducted with a range of officers employed within the trading standards service based in eight local authorities in Scotland on their perceptions of the new Regulations. The main findings were that officers' views of the new Regulations and the civil and criminal enforcement routes available to them was affected by structural, operational, and cultural issues which varied from one authority to another. A number of officers were finding the Regulations a challenge to old ways and there was evidence that many felt unprepared for the Regulations. A number of positive views were expressed regarding the flexibility of the new Regulations and the advantages of the provisions relating to misleading omissions. Overall officers' experiences of the Regulations were heavily influenced by the complaints received by their particular local authority service. 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
An exploration into the importance of a sense of belonging for online learners
(Athabasca University, 2020-04-30) Peacock, Susi; Cowan, John; Irvine, Lindesay; Williams, Jane
Online learning provides flexible learning opportunities but with it come notable issues. Fostering a sense of belonging and a personal connection is seen as fundamental by many educational researchers regardless of the learning environment. For online learners, nurturing a sense of belonging may present a way of improving their experiences and attainment as well as reducing attrition rates. Limited research has explored specifically sense of belonging and online learning. This article addresses that gap and reports a small-scale exploratory study using qualitative data collection and analysis methods to investigate its importance, or not, for postgraduates’ online education, by exploring the origins and nature of their lived experience of online learning and their sense of belonging therein. Our initial findings emphasise its importance for them as online learners and has identified three significant themes: interaction/engagement; the culture of the learning; and support. These early findings highlight the importance of their role in promoting a sense of belonging and in ensuring that there are opportunities for meaningful group and peer interactions and will be of interest to all engaged in online education
The Impact of Parental Complaints on Teacher Mental Health and Wellbeing
(Diamond Scientific Publishing, 2022-03) Lord, Kat; Williams, Jane
This study examined the impact of parental complaints on the mental health and wellbeing of teachers within Scottish state schools during Covid-19. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, a significant proportion of teaching staff reported feeling undervalued by society (OECD, 2018) and over half of Scottish teachers reported mental ill health due to workplace stress (White, 2020). As the pandemic continued, poor mental health continued to affect UK teachers (Kim & Asbury, 2020) and a noticeable, negative rhetoric about teachers began circulating in the UK media (O'Donnell, 2020, Power, 2020; Prior, 2020; Vine, 2020; Woolcock, 2020) and via social media platforms (Chakrabarti, 2020; Education Support, 2020), with parental dissatisfaction and anxiety directed at teachers. The research was undertaken using a mixed methods sequential design consisting of an online survey followed by semi-structured interviews. The survey data was analysed using SPSS, providing descriptive and inferential statistical data about the respondent demographics, experiences of complaints, and level of wellbeing as measured through an interpretative phenomenological approach exploring how the parent – pupil – teacher – school relationship is impacted by complaints. Findings include: (i) the need for greater dialogue around the role of complaints and parental engagement in schools postCovid, (ii) what teachers believe they are able to deliver and parental expectations of that delivery, at times resulted in unreasonable and difficult parental behaviours that impacted the parent- pupil relationship in a minority of cases, and (iii) that most interviewees felt well supported but that the complaints process could be improved.
Independent review of The Public Transport Ombudsman, Victoria
(Public Transport Ombudsman, 2019-05-29) McBurnie, Gavin; Williams, Jane
This report outlines the findings of the five-year independent review of the PTO, conducted by the Consumer Dispute Resolution Centre at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Scotland.
“It’s the most ethical job I have ever had”: Complaint handling and fair decision making in the financial industry
(Inderscience, 2021-10-29) Williams, Jane; Gill, Chris; McBurnie, Gavin
This exploratory study focuses on complaint handling in the financial industry to explore how complaint handling professionals interpret the requirement to treat customers fairly. Drawing on a small qualitative case study undertaken with a major UK financial institution, it is a novel attempt to integrate the literatures on ethical and fair decision making and apply them to the practice of complaint handling. Our contribution is to highlight: (1) the impact that institutional structures and processes play on the day to day practice of fair decision making; (2) how constructions of fairness vary between complaint handlers with some adopting an explicit ethical and moral focus; and (3) the active role group support and dialogue plays in supporting individual complaint handler’s fair decision making. Several practical implications arise from this in relation to how organisations can support fair decision making.
Models of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR): A report for the Legal Ombudsman
(Legal Ombudsman, 2014-10-31) Gill, Chris; Williams, Jane; Brennan, Carol; Hirst, Carolyn
The aim of this research was to investigate what the Legal Ombudsman can learn from other Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) providers. The research was commissioned by the Legal Ombudsman to help it review and develop its dispute resolution model and ensure it remains fit-for-purpose. The research involved a case study design and fieldwork was conducted with ten organisations: four in the UK, one in Ireland, two in New Zealand, one in Australia, one in Canada and one in the USA. The research highlighted a range of dispute resolution practices and illustrated some of the key design choices that ADR providers need to make when designing or reviewing a dispute resolution scheme. These fell within four areas: the use of online dispute resolution; the early stages of dispute resolution processes; mediation approaches; and the later stages of dispute resolution and building influence.
On track for first-tier complaint handling: A review of organisational complaint handling in regulated sectors with an Ombudsman for the Office of Rail and Road [Project Report]
(Office of Road and Rail, 2018-10-30) Williams, Jane; Brennan, Carol; Vivian, Nial
1. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is the combined economic and health and safety regulator for the GB rail network and the economic monitor for England’s strategic road network. One of ORR’s strategic objectives is to support better rail customer service. Effective complaint handling forms part of the customer experience and there is a strong business case for systems and processes to be of the highest quality. 2. In August 2018, Queen Margaret University was commissioned to conduct a critical review of complaint handling in regulated consumer sectors where there is an ombudsman scheme. A key objective is to ensure that ORR can learn from and apply any lessons to the rail sector. The research identifies good practice and learning points in complaint handling to inform how first-tier complaint handling can be improved in the rail sector. First-tier complaint handling is defined as complaint handling which takes place inhouse usually at the organisation that is responsible for service delivery. 3. From the research, it was clear that significant design activity in relation to complaint handling procedures continues to take place. Regulators are taking an active role in relation to monitoring the market and designing new systems and processes, and amending rules and guidance.
Participation as a framework for analysing consumers’ experiences of alternative dispute resolution (ADR)
(Wiley, 2020-05-15) Williams, Jane; Gill, Chris; Creutzfeldt, Naomi; Vivian, Nial
This article argues that an analytic framework based on participation is useful for analysing consumer experiences of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) providing a complementary approach to analyses drawing on procedural justice theory. The argument is developed by applying McKeever’s “ladder of legal participation” (LLP)1 to a qualitative data set interviews with United Kingdom consumers. The article concludes that applying the LLP in the consumer ADR context results in novel empirical and theoretical insights. Empirically, it demonstrates that – despite low value and transactional disputes – consumers expect high levels of participation from ADR. Theoretically, it argues that the LLP supplements existing approaches by providing an unifying lens for studying consumer experiences by emphasizing the importance of participation, not only as a process value, but also in shaping outcomes highlighting the distinction between genuine and tokenistic provision of ADR.
Report for ORR: A review of good practice in complaints handling procedures and guidance
(Queen Margaret University Consumer Dispute Resolution Centre, 2021-03-30) Williams, Jane; O'Neill, Sarah
The response from Scottish health boards to complaint investigations by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman: A qualitative case-study
(Cambridge University Press, 2023-05-04) McBurnie, Gavin; Williams, Jane; Smith, Margaret Coulter
This article explores how complaint investigations undertaken by health ombudsman contribute to the improvement of the healthcare system. Using a qualitative case-study approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants form the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) and three health boards within its jurisdiction. Health board participants were frustrated by complaints process used by the SPSO, in particular the lack of communication during an SPSO investigation especially when there were differences in clinical judgment. Using Braithwaite’s typologies of motivational postures and Hertogh’s models of administrative control it was found that a sense of capitulation was the primary determinant in ensuring health board compliance with SPSO recommendations and that the relationship between SPSO and health boards was predominantly coercive in nature. For the SPSO to be more effective in contributing to system improvement requires it to review its role and means of conducting complaint investigations.
Shifting the culture and design of complaints systems: Participation, reflexivity and ethics [PhD by publication]
(Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 2022) Williams, Jane
This thesis comprises of a critical appraisal evaluating the collective contribution to knowledge of six of my peer reviewed publications in relation to how participatory, reflexive and ethical approaches to complaints can create a complaint systems culture that supports all actors affected by complaints and ensure greater accountability for learning. By adopting a constructionist approach to complaints, the appraisal draws attention to the negativity associated with complaints and the tension within complaints handling where parties to the disputes have different versions of truth and subjectivity and perspectivism play a part. Using a lens informed by critical theory and reflexivity, key learnings generated from these publications relate to the impact of power asymmetries on complaints including institutionalisation and gender. The critical appraisal goes on to develop a conceptual framework that situates complaints within conditions of power, subjectivity and underpinning values and highlights the importance of participation, reflexivity and ethics in giving agency to the parties affected by complaints. It argues that this can lead to greater accountability for learning, recognising that resolving complaints can involve different perspectives, multiple and complex issues and the answer is unlikely to be binary. Implications for practice include the fact that that the framework is a firm reminder of the role that consumer ADR, complaint systems and complaint handlers have in addressing power differentials. Further, that in order to facilitate participation, reflexivity and ethics complaint system designers may require collaborative approaches qualitatively different than some complaint systems in the UK currently accommodate.
The future of ombudsman schemes: Drivers for change and strategic responses.
(Legal Ombudsman, 2013-07) Gill, Chris; Williams, Jane; Brennan, Carol; Legal Ombudsman
The highly detailed general principles of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008
(Scottish Law Agents Society, 2009) Cathcart, Craig; Williams, Jane
Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 20082 (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations-) came into force. The Regulations have radically overhauled the existing UK provisions regulating fair trading, as part of the further harmonisation of consumer protection laws across the EU.3 This being a maximum harmonisation measure, 23 pieces of domestic law have been repealed in whole or part and a completely new framework to regulate fair trading put in their place.