| SPOTLIGHT |
The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) has criticised the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)’s “lack of ambition” to return to pre-pandemic service delivery levels, in a report published today (31 March).
The report, which reviews the performance of the Ombudsman from 2021-22, expresses concern with the PHSO “continuing its policy of not considering less serious health complaints, introduced to reduce the backlog of cases resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Despite successfully reducing caseload levels, MPs said they do not see the policy as an “appropriate long-term solution”.
The report features comments and recommendations for improvement in each of the following areas:
Commenting on the findings in the report, the committee said it is “regrettable that the organisation makes no reference in its recent corporate strategy for 2022-25 to how it will cope with the ongoing impacts of Covid-19 and high levels of cases”.
The PACAC revealed that it received written evidence that expressed “dissatisfaction” with the PHSO’s handling of complaints, and that it “failed to meet its targets for time taken to close cases”, as reported in its annual report and accounts.
The committee said: “The ambition to promote awareness of the PHSO's service is positive, but the strategy does not explain how the PHSO would cope with potentially increased service demand.”
The MPs repeated their calls for the Government to “bring forward Ombudsman reform law”, originally drafted by Government seven years ago.
According to the report, there is “widespread consensus” on the need to reduce complexity in the law and to bring the law in line with international best practice. The committee described the Government’s continued refusal to address the issue as “unacceptable”.
PACAC Chair William Wragg said: “When individuals are failed by a public service, they deserve the right for their complaint to be heard and any injustice redressed.
“While it is positive that the PHSO’s backlog of cases has been brought down substantially this year, we are disappointed that its policy of not investigating health complaints deemed as less serious will continue for at least another year. We have asked the PHSO to provide its evidence base for continuing this approach."
Wragg added: “Yet again, we are calling on the Government to bring forward the long-awaited reform of the Ombudsman and bring the UK in line with international standards. This Committee and its predecessors have made this recommendation for two decades. It is unacceptable the Government has not addressed this sooner.
“Finally, we want to thank those who shared evidence or experiences – sometimes deeply personal in nature – with us for this inquiry.”
The committee said it “welcomes improvement” in areas such as the PSHO’s staff management and training programmes, as well as “the speed at which the PSHO increased its caseworker numbers and developed a training academy for their induction to the role”.
In its response to the report the PSHO said: “We are pleased to see recognition of our proactive approach to managing the demand on our service, which included investment in recruitment and staff training, and means we are prioritising the most serious complaints.
“We also welcome the committee highlighting many of the positive changes we made and successes we achieved over the past year, including:
The Ombudsman also acknowledged that the committee had highlighted several areas for monitoring and improvement. “We welcome this and will work to further build on the progress we have made. We are also committed to the ongoing improvement of our complaint handling via our dedicated casework programme. We are confident this will work and will deliver an exemplary public service that continues to be value for money. We will provide a full response to the committee’s report in due course.”
