Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 9
9
Deferred
Paragraph: 51
Publish PHSO digital ambition progress update and financial savings analysis in Annual Report
Conclusion
We welcome the PHSO’s digital ambition and believe that this is a sensible way to increase value for money. We request from the PHSO a further update on progress Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Scrutiny 2022–23 29 towards achieving these aims, along with a detailed analysis of any financial savings expected to be made as a result, with both to be included in the PHSO’s next Annual Report and Accounts.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response did not address the request for an update on digital strategy progress or financial savings. Instead, it discussed the need for legislative reform for the PHSO and called on political parties to include such commitments in their manifestos.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
51
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
The nature of PHSO’s work means that we have the potential to harness data to identify recurrent failings in public services nationally and advise on system improvements. Our DDaT strategy launched in September 2023 sets the direction over the next five years for how we will use technology and data to improve our service. Our ambition is to be a leading digital ombudsman through a full digital service pathway from finding out about PHSO to the closure of a complaint. This will enable us to deliver a more accessible service that is tailored to the needs of individuals: 3 Institute for Government, Whitehall Monitor 2024, Whitehall Monitor 2024: Part 1 | Institute for Government Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Scrutiny 2022–23: Government and PHSO response 9 • Complainants and members of the public to be guided through the complaints process as easily as possible, including being able to track the progress of their complaint • MPs and their staff will be able to use our digital services to access information and insight about the complaints they have referred and the issues that we are seeing in their constituencies • Organisations we investigate will understand how we investigate complaints and what we expect from them, as well as being able to safely and securely share evidence with us online. • PHSO colleagues will be digitally confident using technology that simplifies delivery so that we can be more data driven to help predict demand and spot trends. efficient by saving time where it is appropriate to use such technologies. service, is informed by the 2022 independent peer review of PHSO’s service and is in line with HMT’s public value framework. We are concluding the embedding of review recommendations which include taking steps to understand and plan for the demand implications of increased public awareness and widened access to our service. We have made efficiencies in our casework processes, which have enabled us to date to absorb demand above forecast levels. Through the introduction of our public value model and the improved use of data analytics we will be better able to predict demand for our service. We will provide a progress update in our next annual report, and prior to the next inquiry we will report back to the Committee on potential financial savings that have been identified to date through the delivery of our Digital, Data and Technology strategy. We anticipate that we may potentially begin to realise some of these benefits from year 2–3 of the DDaT strategy in 2026 up until 2030.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗