Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Seventh report - Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Scrutiny 2019–20
Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
HC 843
Published 25 January 2021
Recommendations
4
Para 20
The Committee appreciates that there is a risk that complainants could be overwhelmed with information...
Recommendation
The Committee appreciates that there is a risk that complainants could be overwhelmed with information if all the evidence the PHSO has collected is shared with them, but it remains the case that complainants need to be assured that all …
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9
The Committee recommends that the PHSO should publish a target for responding to correspondence, and...
Recommendation
The Committee recommends that the PHSO should publish a target for responding to correspondence, and should track its performance against that standard and report to the Committee each year. (Paragraph 31) Value for Money
Conclusions (12)
1
Conclusion
Para 12
The information provided in the PHSO’s annual report on the outcome of enquiries and complaints should be made more transparent. The grouping of cases that “are not ready to be taken forward” and “should not be taken forward” should be ended. Presumably the former could still lead to investigations being …
2
Conclusion
Para 14
In May 2020, the PHSO reported to the Committee that it had experienced an increase of 13 per cent in demand compared to the previous financial year. Due to the introduction of a new digital casework management system, comparisons between years were not possible. This means that the 13 per …
3
Conclusion
Para 17
The Committee welcomes the PHSO’s efforts to set stretching target section scores for its Service Charter commitments, but continues to regard the relatively low scores against commitments 8, 11 and 13 as continuing priority areas for improvement and requests an update from the PHSO when data for the mid-year point …
5
Conclusion
Para 22
The PHSO should report in its annual report and accounts the number of new enquiries and complaints that have been received in that financial year. This number is separate from the number of enquiries and complaints that the PHSO has “handled” in that same financial year.
6
Conclusion
The PHSO should provide a breakdown of how long health cases that are over one year old have been open for. This information should also be produced next to the general information the PHSO provides on the amount of time it has taken to close cases in that financial year. …
7
Conclusion
Para 26
The PHSO should report regularly in its annual report the number of cases in the queue for allocation to a caseworker and the average amount of time it took for cases to be allocated to a caseworker. This will be particularly important to understand the impact covid-19 has had on …
8
Conclusion
Para 29
It is necessary for complaints to the PHSO to be time-limited, as there needs to be some level of certainty about when matters that could potentially be complained about can no longer be taken forward. However, the Committee’s view is that if an organisation cannot demonstrate that it has informed …
10
Conclusion
Para 35
The Committee believes that regular peer review studies will be an important source of assurance of the effectiveness of the PHSO’s processes and in turn, its value for money. The Committee recommends that peer review should include specific assurance on the quality of the PHSO’s casework. This should involve analysing …
11
Conclusion
Para 36
While peer review does require some degree of understanding of ombudsman services, fresh independent perspectives are valuable to avoid groupthink setting in. The Committee recommends that the next peer review should include in its panel an independent member, such as an auditor who has experience of looking at complaints handling …
12
Conclusion
Para 37
The Committee recommends that the value for money study should adopt the following broad structure in its report: For each area examined, the report should first set out what is expects to see of a modern ombudsman organisation, it should then explain what it did actually find and finally it …
13
Conclusion
The Committee reiterates its conclusion that legislative reform of the PHSO is required. The PHSO’s legislation is out of date compared to modern Ombudsman standards. While the Committee appreciates the pressing priorities facing the Government, including covid-19, reform of the PHSO should not be treated as a trifling matter and …
14
Conclusion
Routinely publishing the PHSO’s casework online, including levels of compliance with the PHSO’s recommendations will help to demonstrate the impact of the PHSO on other organisations. For recommendations that are of a more long-term nature, such as forming and implementing an action plan, publishing casework online also helps interested parties …