The creation of an English Public Services Ombudsman: mapping a way forward

This blog originally appeared on the website of Democratic Audit on  20 June 2014 and was written in partnership with Jane Martin.

 
Strong democracies should be backed up by robust accountability frameworks, an aspect of which includes redress mechanisms. In a new report published by Democratic Audit, Richard Kirkham and Jane Martin, the Local Government Ombudsman, explores the current debates surrounding the proposal to integrate the ombudsman community in England. In this extract from the report they consider why the consensus in support of this proposal has not yet produced agreement on the way forward.
 
Read our new report into the creation of a single Public Services Ombudsman for England

It is now widely understood that the austerity drive of the Coalition Government has triggered a distinctive shift in the model of public service provision in England. A significant aspect of this shift is the hastening of a drift towards consumer democracy which, amongst other impacts, has forced the ombudsman world to reconsider the strength of the redress service that it provides. This reflective process has led to the reappearance of the long-standing proposal to harmonise existing ombudsman schemes into an integrated Public Services Ombudsman (PSO) for England.

At its strongest, the proposal to form an English PSO entails the harmonisation of multiple schemes, plus the reconsideration of the office’s powers. Given the potential scale of the project and its need for new legislation, the formation of an English PSO should be considered a major exercise in reform. By contrast, minimalist approaches to ombudsman reform reduce the chances of meaningful reform being implemented and run the risk of the ombudsman system being restructured in a manner insufficiently robust or flexible enough to meet the challenges of the future.

But major reforms require a high degree of political will to secure implementation and are hampered by the lack of a clear process in the administrative justice system as to how such projects should be conducted. In response to this dilemma this paper highlights both the reasons why major reform in the ombudsman sector is necessary, and the different perspectives on administrative justice that should be accounted for within that reform process. As well as outlining the key features that should be included in a 21st century ombudsman scheme, we conclude the paper by drawing together some principles which should inform the creation of an integrated ombudsman scheme. So long as sufficient political capital in the project can be secured, combined these principles have the potential to align the capacity of the ombudsman system with the public service model that has evolved in modern England and in so doing allow it to contribute fully to the promotion of administrative justice.

Another False Dawn or the Moment ADR Becomes Mainstream

This blog was originally posted on the website of the UK Constitutional Law Association on 7 May 2014

The ombudsman enterprise in the UK is in a state of flux. The last two years have witnessed a series of events that could revolutionise the architecture and impact of the sector. Alternatively, in a year or so time we could be talking about another missed opportunity in ombudsman reform.

 

The big events that have briefly brought complaints systems to the fore of public policy include the widely reported outrage at the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which the 2013 Francis report found occurred in part because of a culture in the NHS of failing to take complaints seriously. Picking up on this theme, the Clwyd/Hart Report into NHS complaint-handling followed by the Public Administration Select Committee’s (PASC) twin inquiries into complaints and Parliament’s Ombudsman Service, critiqued the complaints branch of the administrative justice system, highlighting concerns about the poor service received by the user and insufficient learning from complaints. Meanwhile, the EU Directive on Alternative Dispute Resolution was passed in 2013 and is currently being consulted on by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. This Directive looks set to overhaul complaint-handling in the private sector by requiring the Government to ensure that an ADR scheme is available in all contractual disputes between a consumer and a business (although neither consumer nor business will be obliged to use the service).

This blog will not explore in detail any of these developments, but will highlight the current potential for the ombudsman/ADR sector to be redesigned to enhance its impact in the justice system and the constitution.