Select committee: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Conclusion 4
2nd Report - Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Scrutiny 2018–19
Published 3 Jul 2020
Paragraph 20
Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Scrutiny 2018-19 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The PHSO’s decision to pause NHS complaints as a result of Covid-19 was a reasonable immediate reaction. However, this is not a long-term sustainable position, as there is a risk of a backlog of cases developing, which could leave complainants seeing longer periods of stress and uncertainty and may serve to distort the PHSO performance in terms of completed cases in a satisfactory amount of time. The PHSO should ensure that its reporting on the time taken to complete cases is not distorted and may need to compensate with extra information in its 2020–21 annual report, for example, by publishing further information on the time taken to complete NHS cases that do not include the time lost to Covid-19. This will present a clearer picture of the PHSO’s productivity.
From: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, 2nd Report - Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Scrutiny 2018–19 (HC 117), paragraph 20, 3 July 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 28 September 2020 (deadline 3 September 2020).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) welcomes the Committee's report and responds to each recommendation, agreeing with most and endorsing the call for a fresh start on Ombudsman reform legislation.
- On explaining its decisions, PHSO agrees there is a need to improve how it explains how it gathers and uses evidence. It says it no longer publishes internal process scores against the Service Charter, which have been replaced by a Quality Assurance Framework.
- On Covid-19 and timeliness, PHSO agrees transparency matters and is "currently considering how to present this information in the next Annual Report". On clinical advice, it says planned changes "may" be delayed and that it will conduct an independent evaluation during the next Peer Review.
- On legislation, PHSO "fully endorse[s]" starting the process anew and calls on the Government to revisit its plans for a single Public Service Ombudsman. It also supports removing the 'MP filter', calling the status quo "an outdated barrier to accessing justice".
- PHSO accepts the recommendation on compliance reporting and says it will "explore how best to report on compliance in the 2020–21 Annual Report". On the Complaints Standards Framework, it says the consultation will conclude by the autumn and it plans to pilot the Framework once finalised.