Service driver

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) fills an important niche in the administrative justice framework in Scotland. It offers a free, independent and impartial complaints service to members of the public who claim hardship or injustice as a result of maladministration or service failure on the part of a listed authority that comes within the remit of the SPSO.

That somewhat formal language translates into an organisation that considers complaints from ordinary citizens about all manner of public services, from the implementation of free personal care policy to neighbour disputes to school closures to clinical treatment in an NHS hospital. Last year, the organisation determined a little more than 3,300 complaints, and dealt with just over 900 enquiries.

Background and remit

The SPSO was set up in 2002, after an extensive Scottish Executive consultation process that concluded that the most appropriate ombudsman service for post-devolution Scotland was a “one-stop shop”. The SPSO Act 2002 merged the offices of the former public services ombudsmen in Scotland: the Health Service Commissioner for Scotland, the Scottish Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, the Commissioner for Local Administration in Scotland and the Housing Association Ombudsman for Scotland. Its remit was expanded to include new areas of jurisdiction (Mental Welfare Commission, the Enterprise Network, and Further and Higher Education).

The SPSO can consider complaints about councils, the NHS, housing associations, Scottish public bodies, enterprise companies, cross-border authorities, universities and colleges, the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, and the Scottish Government and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies.

Its remit is set to expand further following provisions of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 and the Scottish Parliamentary Commissions and Commissioners etc Bill, which passed stage 3 on 9 June. These pieces of legislation take forward recommendations made in the report from the “Fit for Purpose Complaints System Action Group” (the Sinclair Report), which followed publication of the Crerar Review.

The Sinclair Report recommended that the functions of the Scottish Prisons Complaints Commissioner (SPCC) should be transferred to the SPSO. The Scottish Government accepted this recommendation and the SPCC etc Bill sets out a target transfer date of 1 October 2010. The Sinclair Report also recommended that the complaints function of Waterwatch should be transferred to SPSO, with other aspects of the organisation being transferred to Consumer Focus Scotland. At stage 3 of the Public Services Reform (PSR) Bill an amendment was made that delays the commencement order for the transfer to 12 months after Royal Assent. The likely transfer date is 1 July 2011.

There is a wide range of issues that the SPSO cannot consider. It cannot look at properly made decisions, for example by a council (even if the complainant disagrees with that decision). It cannot look at personnel/superannuation issues, or most commercial or contractual matters, or complaints about UK departments or agencies. It cannot take complaints that have an alternative right of appeal (such as employment tribunal, arbitration or mediation), or complaints that have been to court. There is also a bar on the SPSO looking at complaints brought more than 12 months after the complainant becoming aware of the issues that gave rise to the grievance.

The Complaints Standards Authority

A further recommendation in the Sinclair Report was that “a set of principles… founded on consumer focus and simplification” be established. The principles “should form the basis of all public service complaints handling processes, which will be developed in partnership between the SPSO and service providers”.

The PSR Act included a provision to enact these proposals, and, accordingly, the SPSO has developed a statement of principles. These were published, along with guidance for model complaints handling procedures, on 16 June.

The principles and guidance are being consulted on over the summer (see the SPSO’s website for public sector complaint handlers, www.valuingcomplaints.org.uk), and the principles will be submitted to the Parliament for approval in autumn 2010. The next stage will be for the SPSO to establish the Complaints Standards Authority (CSA) later this year. The CSA will lead the phased implementation of model complaints-handling procedures in the public sector.

Investigation and redress

A complaint that is “fit for SPSO”, i.e. which is about an organisation and a matter that the organisation can consider, is usually handled by the SPSO’s early resolution team. The majority of complaints that come to the SPSO are handled by this part of the service. Other complaints, often those that are more complex and all that the Ombudsman believes should be put into the public domain, are dealt with by the investigations team.

The final outcome of a complaint is a decision letter, or an investigation report that is laid before the Scottish Parliament and becomes a public document. The individual who made the complaint is not identified in the report, nor, as far as possible, is any other individual. The organisation that the complaint is about is named.

Where maladministration or service failure is found (which is the case in over two-thirds of those cases that culminate in a published report), the SPSO often makes recommendations for redress.

These remedies may have two aspects. There are recommendations designed to put things right for the complainant, which may include an apology or explanation, action to mitigate any injustice, reimbursement of actual loss or costs and, possibly, modest payment for time and trouble.

There are also recommendations to stop the same thing happening again. These may include changes to procedures or policies, staff guidance or training, and asking the body to circulate the learning from the complaint. The SPSO sets deadlines by which the organisation must comply with recommendations and follows up to ensure that it implements the actions to which it has agreed.

Learning drives improvement

As well as ensuring individual redress, the SPSO expects the outcomes of investigations into complaints to be used to drive improvement in the delivery of public services. To this end, the Ombudsman widely disseminates the conclusions of investigation reports.

The reports are posted on the SPSO’s website and a monthly newsletter summarising the reports is emailed to more than 1,300 interested parties, including bodies under the SPSO’s jurisdiction, MSPs and ministers, advocacy groups, voluntary organisations and the press. The newsletter – the Ombudsman’s Commentary – highlights trends and issues, shares complaint handling good practice and draws attention to areas that require improvement.

Many reports, in particular those about the NHS, are picked up by journalists. One case study concerns the process of an SPSO investigation into a complaint where an elderly man endured what the Ombudsman’s nursing expert described as “the worst case of pressure sores” she had ever seen. His hard-hitting commentary was reported and expanded on in several newspapers. His investigation findings were linked to concerns over the dignity of older people who are treated in hospital, and advocacy and patients’ groups also used it to highlight the issue.

The Ombudsman’s report made 11 recommendations to the health board concerned. The Ombudsman was pleased to report some months later that the board’s response “has been swift, thorough and systematic. Their actions demonstrate that the report has been studied in detail, lessons have been learned and steps put in place to improve health services not only in the hospital concerned, but across all levels of the organisation”.

In 2009-10, the Ombudsman made in excess of 400 recommendations about more than 300 issues in over 50 bodies. The recommendations are aimed not only towards putting things right for the individual person, but also to ensure that there is no recurrence of the problem. In this way the Ombudsman service works to resolve disputes, and to restore confidence and drive improvement in our public services.