Shaping the future: Let us know what you think of our new strategy

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Today we are launching a consultation on our new three-year strategy. We want to consider whether the priorities we have identified reflect what you think we need to focus on. We’d be delighted to hear your views.

The consultation closes on Monday 4 December 2017 at 5pm and you can respond by completing our survey.

As you will see, our new draft strategy has three objectives:

1. To deliver an independent, impartial and fair Ombudsman service

2. To increase the transparency and impact of our casework

3. Working in partnership to improve frontline complaint handling and public services

New ways of working

As part of our new strategy we will introduce new ways of working and explore how we can use different early resolution methods to:

  • help us resolve cases sooner
  • improve the quality of our decisions
  • improve people’s overall experience of making complaints.

We will further develop our team of professional casework staff so that they build on their skills, knowledge and judgement to realise our vision of being an exemplary ombudsman service.

Stronger partnerships

We know that the full scale of our ambition will not be achieved if we work in isolation. In addition to working more effectively with complainants, we need to strengthen our relationships with strategic partners across the NHS and wider public sector, to influence how public services respond when things go wrong.

This includes working together to enable frontline complaint handlers to deal with what are often complex and sensitive issues.

How we will use your feedback

On 12 December 2017, Amanda Campbell, our Chief Executive, and I will be talking to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee about our new strategy. Your feedback will help inform that discussion and we will also take it into account as we finalise our strategy in early 2018.

I encourage you to complete the survey now and have your say in shaping the future of our service. I look forward to hearing your views.