Is the ombudsman service independent assessor really independent?

meer53

It's hard to get your head round, isn't it?

Not something i'd worry about really, I think you need a new hobby. I've had bank accounts for over 40 years, never once had cause to go to the FOS ? You must be very unlucky

OceanSound

eskbanker wrote: »

....
If you feel strongly about it, and have evidence of raising the same issue repeatedly without resolution, then perhaps it would be worth flagging this to someone senior within FOS itself?

I've always followed the service complaints process.

It used to be adjudicator ---> Manager ----> Senior Manager ----> Independent Assessor.

From recently the Senior Manager stage has been removed.

Now after complaining to Manager and your service complaint is turned-down, you have to approach Independent Assessor.

Before, I found that complaints are often turned down at Manager stage (because FOS thinks that you would just go away). But if you complaint to senior manager, he/she will often hear you out and uphold complaint. Now that the senior manager stage has been removed, the Manager simply refers to the service complaint process and say 'ok. go ahead. complain to the independent assessor'.

OceanSound

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Have you considered getting over it?

You should say that to a vegetarian who has just been served a meat dish.

OceanSound

meer53 wrote: »

It's hard to get your head round, isn't it?

Not something i'd worry about really, I think you need a new hobby. I've had bank accounts for over 40 years, never once had cause to go to the FOS ? You must be very unlucky

Those who bend the knee so quickly seldom have cause for complaint.

eskbanker

OceanSound wrote: »

I've always followed the service complaints process.

It used to be adjudicator ---> Manager ----> Senior Manager ----> Independent Assessor.

From recently the Senior Manager stage has been removed.

Now after complaining to Manager and your service complaint is turned-down, you have to approach Independent Assessor.

Before, I found that complaints are often turned down at Manager stage (because FOS thinks that you would just go away). But if you complaint to senior manager, he/she will often hear you out and uphold complaint. Now that the senior manager stage has been removed, the Manager simply refers to the service complaint process and say 'ok. go ahead. complain to the independent assessor'.

You may feel that the service complaints process isn't as good as it used to be, but they're hardly going to turn round and reinstate the old one so it seems futile to pursue that line of argument.

It strikes me that your complaints to managers are being accepted in the narrow context of each particular case (oops, we messed up, sorry, we'll make sure it doesn't happen again) and likewise the independent assessor is also only looking at an individual case and responding accordingly (manager has apologised and promised to improve so no further action needed if there's no tangible impact).

While I agree with other posters that there are way more important matters to get exercised about, I do accept your fundamental point that repetition of the same recognised failing shouldn't be considered acceptable if they've made regular commitments to change. Hence my suggestion that if you feel strongly enough about it, you should collate your evidence of the FOS commitments being repeatedly ignored and submit that to someone high enough up within FOS, rather than hoping it'll be addressed within a process geared to reviewing individual complaints....

OceanSound

eskbanker wrote: »

......
While I agree with other posters that there are way more important matters to get exercised about, I do accept your fundamental point that repetition of the same recognised failing shouldn't be considered acceptable if they've made regular commitments to change. Hence my suggestion that if you feel strongly enough about it, you should collate your evidence of the FOS commitments being repeatedly ignored and submit that to someone high enough up within FOS, rather than hoping it'll be addressed within a process geared to reviewing individual complaints....

It's up to the Independent Assessor to make a recommendations to the Senior Staff (Chief Ombudsman). It says so in the link you posted:

13) If the independent assessor decides that the ombudsman service hasn’t met its service standards, they can make a recommendation to the chief ombudsman. This might be that the ombudsman service should apologise - or should pay compensation for any damage, distress or inconvenience caused by the poor service. Compensation will be equivalent to what the ombudsman would award against a business in similar circumstances.

Now that the Independent Assessor has decided no recommendation is necessary, is the senior staff gonno say to me 'okay. I see. you have a point'. How's that gonna make the Independent Assessor look?

eskbanker

My point is that in the context of an individual case/complaint the independent assessor, like the managers before her, doesn't see the need for a recommendation, in the apparently mistaken belief that such occurrences are isolated incidents that'll be resolved.

However, if you're contending that this is a repeated and systemic issue then raising it via a different channel would seem worth trying if you really feel strongly enough about it.

Or of course you could just come on here and sound off about it while casting aspersions about the IA's independence!

OceanSound

eskbanker wrote: »

My point is that in the context of an individual case/complaint the independent assessor, like the managers before her, doesn't see the need for a recommendation, in the apparently mistaken belief that such occurrences are isolated incidents that'll be resolved.

However, if you're contending that this is a repeated and systemic issue then raising it via a different channel would seem worth trying if you really feel strongly enough about it.

Or of course you could just come on here and sound off about it while casting aspersions about the IA's independence!

It's not the first time I've had dealing with the Independent assessor. and it's certainly not the first time I've felt one of her decisions was way off. This one really takes the biscuit.

She sees it as a 'learning point' but does not see cause to make recommendations??.. How does one explain this? How will the FOS learn if she doesn't make recommendations. IS she hoping that someone like you tells me to contact a senior staff member?

Some of us may think this is making a mountain out of a molehill, but communication preferences are there for a reason. THey are to be adhered to. For marketing preferences, if a company asks you do you want to be contacted via sms, email, post, and you select email, and they send you SMS. I think that company will be in more than a spot of bother.

There is a good reason, I cannot receive postal mail at home. Has any of you considered that I many have a sick parent living with me that makes receiving postal mail impossible. If I don't receive the postal mail how do I become aware of what is going on about the complaint. Why is it so hard to honour someones communication preference?

We respect peoples culinary preferences, why not their communication preferences?

eskbanker

OceanSound wrote: »

She sees it as a 'learning point' but does not see cause to make recommendations??.. How does one explain this? How will the FOS learn if she doesn't make recommendations. IS she hoping that someone like you tells me to contact a senior staff member?

Her most recent annual report includes:

I am keen to encourage a culture of continuous learning and improvement from service complaints. Where I find failures in the Service’s handling of a case I make recommendations as to how I feel it should put things right, if necessary. However, sometimes there are learnings within a case that, if taken on board may prevent the same failures recurring in other cases. To ensure these are noted and adopted I issue learning points to the Service instead of or within my recommendations.

This year I issued 26 learning points to the Service. The majority of which have been around the Service’s communication with its customers. These have included:

[...]

• Ensuring staff update customer accessibility needs/communication requirements on all relevant case files in a timely manner. This will ensure the Service remains consistent in its communication, especially where there are vulnerable consumers.

[...]

Although the Service has accepted and welcomed the points I have made I have found implementation to be slow. For instance, I first made recommendations around its staff updating systems to reflect leave in October 2018. I reiterated this in the feedback I provided to senior managers at the Service in November 2018. Yet I had to reissue the same learning point in February 2019.

The Service needs to put in place measures to ensure that learnings are taken on board and are quickly embedded throughout the organisation to prevent the same mistakes happening again.

[...]

As the Service grows it is imperative the Service continues its appetite for continuous improvement by taking on board my learning points.

You'll probably disagree with the apparent second-tier ranking of learning points below recommendations (and your issue being classified as the former) but to me this text emphasises her independence, in that she is clearly frustrated at the lack of support within FOS and is able to say so publicly like this, hence my view that if you feel she's not delivering then you'll need to find another route to get this taken on board by FOS....

snilloct1957

But did you you get the judgement you were seeking, or was that a bust too? Concentrate on the principal, not the trivial.