Findings published this month following investigation by the Ombudsman highlight the significance of dealing with a person’s complaint empathetically. We also spotlight how a public body was able to resolve a complaint by taking steps to put things right.
This month we have published decision reports from 18 complaints that were investigated by the Ombudsman. 13 of these were about the Health sector, three about Local Government, one about Joint Health and Social Care, and one about a University. The outcome of these 18 complaints were
- Fully upheld: 8
- Some upheld: 3
- Not upheld: 6
- Resolved: 1
One of the cases considered by the Ombudsman was closed because it was resolved. Details of this case can be found in the case summary published on our website. By resolved, we mean the public body took steps to put things right, and the complainant was happy with the outcome. Resolution is important as it can often achieve a quicker outcome, but more importantly can help rebuild relationships between public services and complainants that may have broken down. It is important, however, that learning is also identified and acted on.
Recommendations and feedback
We made 33 recommendations to public bodies. 18 of these were about steps public bodies could take to learn and improve from the complaint. Key themes include the need for good record keeping and clear and consistent communication between public sector organisations and the people they serve.
We also made four recommendations about how the person’s complaint was handled by a public body. In particular, it’s crucial that we use complaints to appropriately identify failings (and good practice), and that we drive learning from complaints to inform service development and improvement. It’s also important that complaints are dealt with empathetically and sincere apologies provided where needed. Resources for public bodies on these issues can be found on our website.
All our published decision reports can be read in full on our website.