Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Accepted
Outline collaboration with stakeholders to increase mediation emphasis in NHS and Government complaint standards.
Conclusion
We welcome the increase in the number of cases resolved by mediation and PHSO’s ambition to widen the range of cases resolved by mediation in 2023/24. The PHSO stressed that the cultural attitudes of stakeholders, notably in the NHS, were a barrier to increasing the number of cases resolved through mediation. The PHSO should outline how it is working with stakeholders to place a stronger emphasis on mediation in the Complaint Standards for the NHS and for Government. The PHSO should also write to us before our next annual inquiry into the PHSO, setting out whether it has matched its ambition for 2023/24 to maintain the number of cases resolved by mediation and to appropriately widen the types of cases resolved to include more complex cases and cases beyond those focused on healthcare. It should also set out what its medium- and long-term aims are for mediation and the measures it is intending to take to achieve those aims. (Paragraph 23) 28 Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Scrutiny 2022–23
Government Response Summary
The government confirms it maintained the number of cases resolved by mediation and widened the types of cases in 2023-24. It commits to providing a further update on mediation prior to the Committee's next inquiry.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
Mediation is an important tool which can achieve, in appropriate cases, significant positive impacts for complainants and the organisations that we investigate. Our ambition in 2022–23 was to double the number of cases that we closed by mediation in comparison to the previous year as we developed our in-house capabilities. In 2023–24 we aimed to maintain the number of cases that we closed by mediation and we were successful in this. We also widened the use of mediation to include more complex cases, cases involving multiple organisations and cases regarding government departments and agencies in order to test the possibility of mediation on different types of cases. However, it is not appropriate to use mediation in all cases. Our focus has been on building our capacity in order to enable us to use mediation where it can deliver efficiencies and better outcomes for complainants and the organisations that we investigate. We welcome the Committee’s recognition that successful mediation is dependent on the support of all parties to a complaint and that the barriers to mediation cannot be overcome solely by PHSO. For example, at the oral evidence hearing, we outlined the cultural barriers regarding attitudes towards mediation amongst clinicians. In 2024–25, we are aiming to strengthen the data we collect on our mediation cases to help inform a mediation strategy. This will allow us to make better decisions earlier in our processes in the future, improve our understanding of where mediation is likely to be the most appropriate tool and also determine whether mediation actually provides value for money as a long-term alternative to investigations. The Committee proposed using the Complaint Standards to place a stronger emphasis on mediation for NHS and government department complaints. The Complaint Standards were designed to support organisations to provide a quicker, simpler and more streamlined 6 Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Scrutiny 2022–23: Government and PHSO response complaint-handling service. The Standards set out a complaints procedure rather than a mediation process and therefore do not address mediation specifically. Nevertheless, they can empower staff to prioritise the early resolution of complaints and to embed learning. As requested, we will provide a further update on mediation prior to the Committee’s next inquiry.