Public Administration Select Committee: Have your say on the complaints process

UKParliament

Who are we?

The Public Administration Select Committee examines the quality and standards of administration within the Civil Service and scrutinises the reports of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

To find out more information about the role of the Committee and it's recent inquiries please visit the Public Administration Select Committee Homepage .


What are we investigating?

"Hello. Do you ever complain about public services? Or do you think it is not worth complaining? My name is Bernard Jenkin MP and I chair a committee in Parliament which is looking at how the government handles complaints. We are concerned for just two things:

1. You are entitled to have your complaint respected; for your concerns to be addressed; and for anything wrong to be put right quickly;
2. Providers of public services should be much more concerned with learning from complaints. If they ignore complaints, they will never learn what’s wrong and what needs to be improved.

If an individual feels that they have been treated unfairly or have received poor service from a Government department, an effective complaints procedure should exist to resolve the matter.

If a complaint is not resolved by a government department, an individual can elevate their complaint to their MP and ask them to refer it to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO).

If an individual wants to refer their complaint about an NHS service, they can contact PHSO directly.

We have already looked into the way that complaints made by the public are handled by government departments and agencies. You can watch the sessions or read the transcripts of the meetings via the PASC website Inquiry into Complaints Handling .


We are now looking at the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) – in particular:

• The role of PHSO in investigating complaints about government services and the NHS
• The relationship between PASC, Parliament and PHSO
• Complaints and You – what is most important?

We want to hear your views about the service that PHSO provides.

MSE has kindly agreed to host our presence on this forum so that you will be able to give us ideas of the questions we should ask and areas we should explore by contributing to the discussion on this site. By doing this we can highlight issues and problems faced by members of the public such as you and hopefully effect change. Please make sure not to waste this opportunity to assist us in scrutinising the work of PHSO."


What do we want to know?

Please do not include personal details in your responses.

After exhausting local complaints procedures in government departments and agencies, an individual can elevate their complaint to their MP, and to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO).

If an individual wants to refer their complaint about an NHS service, they can contact PHSO directly.

If the complaint is about a government department, the individual must ask for their case to be referred to PHSO by their MP. This is known as the “MP filter”.

PHSO will examine whether the complaint falls within the terms of its legislation and whether any local complaints procedure has been completed. Afterwards, PHSO may resolve the problem quickly with the organisation concerned, or may choose to look in detail into the complaint. Each investigation must be focused on a specific complaint.

Like other Ombudsmen, PHSO has been given statutory discretion by Parliament to consider cases as she sees fit, within the terms of the legislation that governs her. An Ombudsman’s decision is the final stage of the complaints process (however the complainant can request a Judicial Review of that decision).


Please help us by answering these questions:

1. Do you understand the current PHSO complaints process? If not, how could it be made clearer?
To see the current complaints process please visit http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/make-a-complaint

2. Should you have to go through your MP before you can make a complaint to PHSO about a government service? From your experiences, why?

3. PHSO can only investigate something when there has been a specific complaint. Should PHSO have powers to investigate any suspected problem, even where there hasn’t been a complaint? Why do you think this should be allowed?

Please quote the question you're referring to in your response.


What we are looking for are the wider lessons that can be learned based on your experience of dealing with the Ombudsman. The Committee cannot investigate or comment on specific complaints and does not intervene in, or reconsider, cases considered by the Ombudsman.


If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren’t sure how it all works, read the New to Forum? Intro Guide.

Forum27

2. "What more does Parliament and PASC need to do to scrutinise the work of PHSO?"

• Require every MP who has either filed a complaint with the PHSO in the last five years or alternatively, has been asked to look into concerns about the PHSO on behalf of a constituent, to invite every such constituent to provide feedback direct to the PASC by a suggested deadline of 30 November 2013. This will avoid needless loss of opportunity to those unaware of the inquiry.

• Every such MP should also be required to provide evidence within the same period of time.

• Rigorous outreach is needed to secure maximum possible evidence from actual users of the PHSO service in order properly to determine satisfaction levels and systemic problems. The 'MP filter' system is the best means of achieving this end.

• In the public interest all evidence should be published.

• If needs must, establish a full parliamentary committee of inquiry involving both Houses.

UKParliament

Thank you for your response Forum27.

Best wishes
DOT

oneye14

see my comment at:
- Public Administration Select Committee: Complaints and you
- Public Administration Select Committee: PASC, Parliament and PHSO

cherrink

.1. Do you understand the current PHSO complaints process? If not, how could it be made clearer?
To see the current complaints process please visit
I understand the process but from my experience wonder whether they do - impartiality was in question for me and also the will to actually improve processes where a clear failing is indicated. Timescales not at all clear and process very long winded and in my case pointless as PHSO was very defensive.

2. Should you have to go through your MP before you can make a complaint to PHSO about a government service? From your experiences, why?
I do not have strong opinions on this but responses from my MP on previous issues have varied and I find that these days replies from MP's rarely happen. This could therefore add a pointless loop to the process. From the opposing point with my complaint to the PHSO done recently maybe they would have forced impartiality.

3. PHSO can only investigate something when there has been a specific complaint. Should PHSO have powers to investigate any suspected problem, even where there hasn’t been a complaint? Why do you think this should be allowed

My complaint was not upheld - this was in part due to the fact that the CCG had created part of the problem rather than the doctors practice which I complained about as I thought it was their issue due to their response being unclear. The PHSO did not take forward with the CCG which I felt that they should have given that I had tried to contact them and been ignored previously. In any case though my doctors had failed to provide me with accurate info despite writing formally as well as asking verbally twice and this was not handled by the PHSO either in spite of it being clear from my complaint.

My over arching feedback would be that the PHSO was not at all helpful in resolution or improving process which I thought was what they were there for.

UKParliament

Hi cherrink

Thank you for posting your comments.

Best wishes
DOT

Swingle

Within the last two weeks I have come to the end of a complaint 'session' with the PHSO investigating a NHS complaint.

It took ages for the PHSO to react in the first instance after calling for reports and opinions from the hospital. During this time I felt that they were dragging their heels and trying to way me down, in the hope that I might give up.

A draft report was eventually written by the PHSO and I could not believe its content. It was based on hindsight and opinions that were factually incorrect, it was totally without rigor Again, I felt as is this was very much written trying to protect the integrity of the hospital and was really not taking the presenting issues of the complaint.

I returned three pages on notes of comments on the draft report and yet the PHSO bent their arguments to suit my findings but again in such a way that I was felt to be a 'pain in their side'. The complaints were not upheld.

Just two examples of their finding;-

(a) "the complained action of the hospital took place as unplanned care". FACT, the procedure was planned 7 days beforehand.

(b) "Intentional rounding (IR) takes place only for elderly or vulnerable people." FACT a Freedom of Information request provides an answer which is emphatic that IR takes place for ALL patients.

I thought about contacting my MP but was it going to be considered as another layer of administration for me to battle though - I think so.

My illness still remains and at no point was that taken into account by the PHSO.

The PHSO is set-up on protecting the systems & integrity of the NHS Trust under complaint. It really has little to do with 'protecting' humans who have become trapped into a nightmare situation of being ill and something going wrong in their treatment.

ceeforina

1. I was faced with a terrible dilemma this year and had no idea of the process to complain, so I emailed NHS England via their website. In brief, my potentially life- saving treatment at the NHNN for a brain haemorrhage, had been cancelled, and I was informed gamma knife treatment was now only to be available for private patients at that hospital, ( I have MS as well, and have been under the NHNN for 12 years).

2. When I approached my MP for assistance/advice, he made it very clear, first by a series of delaying tactics, and then more implicitly, that he did not want to interfer with what might be seen as a critiscism of govt policy. He was utterly disengaged and no help whatsoever in what has been an extremely harrowing period for me and my family.

3. I have complained to NHS England, my MP and have even been featured in the nationals, but to no avail: I am still left with an untreated condition that could kill me at anytime. I presume my ood-for- nothing MP has not filed a complaint for me, despite my having begged him to do so. I feel as if I have reached a brick wall . At the moment, I feel that there is no use complaining, because no one is listening.

UKParliament

Hi Swingle and ceeforina

Thank you both for providing this information. This information will help us inform the Committee when they come to question witnesses.

We will keep you updated on the progress of the inquiry.

Best wishes
DOT

oneye14

1. Do you understand the current PHSO complaints process? If not, how could it be made clearer?
- Yes - But I believe the information provided to be grossly misleading if the PHSO does not behave sensibly.

2. Should you have to go through your MP before you can make a complaint to PHSO about a government service? From your experiences, why?
- No !.. The 'MP filter' as it has been called suppresses genuine complaints. The PHSO should provide this filter.

3. PHSO can only investigate something when there has been a specific complaint. Should PHSO have powers to investigate any suspected problem, even where there hasn’t been a complaint? Why do you think this should be allowed?
- No ! - This is open to abuse - I would not trust the present regime to investigate any 'suspected problem'.

I broadly agree with comments by Forum27; however I believe the PHSO operating in secrecy can also be defined as Conspiring to Pervert the Course of Justice. I would like to know why the Police have not had more of an input on investigating the PHSO.

oneye14

ceeforina wrote: »

....... I feel as if I have reached a brick wall . At the moment, I feel that there is no use complaining, because no one is listening.

As you have probably gathered you are not alone in reaching the same brick wall but perhaps from a different direction from others.

However we are listening ....