11/07/2023
On 22 January 2014, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) disclosed three complaint handling documents about the PHSO’s handling of complaints made about the PHSO. The freedom of information request, the communications between the requester and PHSO, and disclosed documents is still accessible on the Whatdotheyknow website (see above link). The disclosed documents are entitled: ‘FINAL What to do if you think our decision about your complaint was wrong Nov 2013.pdf’ ‘FINAL How to complain about the way we dealt with you Nov 2013.pdf’ ‘Review section of CPG.pdf’ (The first page of the document is headed with “Reviewing complaints about us in line with the Principles of Good Complaint Handling”) 1. One of the documents is entitled ‘Review section of CPG’ (identified above). What does CPG mean? Does this mean Complaint Process Guidance? 2. Further to the above, please provide a copy of the CPG (Complaint Process Guidance?). 3. Are these three PHSO 2014 documents still applicable in 2023 or have they been replaced by more up-to-date documents? 3.1 If replaced by replaced by more up-to-date documents, please provide copies. The document entitled ‘Review section of CPG’, states (paragraph 4.2.1): “Complaints about us: policy and process Why does PHSO need a complaints procedure?” “PHSO is committed to applying to itself the standards that we expect of others in handling complaints and we welcome complaints as an important aid to continually improving our service. Section 4.1 explains how we apply the Ombudsman’s Principles (with particular reference to the Principles of Good Complaint Handling) to complaints made about our actions or decisions.” 4. Is the PHSO still committed to applying to itself the standards that the PHSO expects of others in handling complaints, and does the PHSO still apply its own ‘Principles of Good Complaint Handling’ to itself with complaints about the PHSO? 4.1 If not, please provide information that explains why the PHSO no longer applies its own ‘Principles of Good Complaint Handling’ to itself with complaints about the PHSO. 4.2 If so, please provide up-to-date information / documents about how the PHSO applies its own ‘Principles of Good Complaint Handling’ to itself with complaints about the PHSO. 5. Is the PHSO committed to applying to itself the standards that the PHSO expects of others with good administration and remedy, and does the PHSO apply its own ‘Principles of Good Administration’ and ‘Principles for Remedy’ to itself. 5.1 If not, please provide information that explains why the PHSO does not apply its own ‘Principles of Good Administration’ and ‘Principles for Remedy’ to itself. 5.2 If so, please provide up-to-date information / documents about how the PHSO apply its own ‘Principles of Good Administration’ and ‘Principles for Remedy’ to itself. 6. Please provide up-to-date policies, processes, procedures, protocols, complaint standards, and guidance used / followed / applied by Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman involving complaint handling about the PHSO. 7. Please identify a PHSO email address that a complainant can use to submit a complaint to the PHSO about the PHSO, including situations where there may be a need to do this without submitting a complaint to / through a PHSO caseworker, especially if the complaint is about a PHSO caseworker and a complainant is vulnerable and feels unsafe about submitting a complaint to / through a PHSO caseworker (e.g. a female complainant and male PHSO caseworker, inappropriate behaviour, sexual harassment, intimidation, stalking, previous refusals to act on / process a complaint, threats of retaliation, etc).
10/07/2023
I am assisting someone with a Chc appear and need to be able to refer to produce and refer to the above decision but despite my best efforts, the links leading to the decision don't work. Please could it be possible to send to me a copy of this very important decision.
07/07/2023
Can you please supply me with your policies for accommodating with people with disabilities, as per the Equality Act 2010
06/07/2023
Can you provide me with details of when PHSO became a member of the International Ombudsman Institute? Can you provide a yearly breakdown of time spent by Ombudsman Rob Behrens on work connected with the Internation Ombudsman Institute? That would include visits abroad, hosting guests, video-conferences etc. A breakdown by year would be helpful for the full term of membership.
Thank you for your response. I would be grateful if you could supply further information. On your website, you state that you follow a three-step process. https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/making-complaint/how-we-deal-complaints [Q1] The term 'primary investigation' must indicate step two in the process - deciding whether to investigate your response. These used to be called 'assessments'. Can you confirm this is correct? [Q2] If cases are closed at this stage no report will be written so is it accurate to call these 'primary investigations'? [Q3] There is no paper trail for these cases that would enable big-picture analysis of maladministration hotspots. Has this deficit been considered by PHSO? In your annual report, you state that 612 cases went on to detailed investigation in 2021/22. That represents just 8.3% of the total number of primary investigations for that year. [6,760 + 612]. [Q4] Has PHSO carried out any research into the reason why such high numbers [approx 92%] of people put forward complaints with no evidence of maladministration? Dismissing a high volume of invalid cases at primary investigation stage is costly. How does the Ombudsman propose to educate the public so that they don't waste time putting their complaints in writing [via their MP] when there is no substance to their complaint?
Please provide the evidence that supports the claim made on your website that Amerdeep Somal is a Judge. I do not dispute that she may have been a Judge in the past but I can find no evidence on the internet or anywhere else that she is still a Judge.
04/07/2023
The Tavistock Adult & Adolescent department was I believe the name you require- 2014 to 2016 would be the relevant period when it came to the PHSO. Help me understand how I can help you narrow the focus of your search to only what is relevant. Looking at the attached spreadsheet you have sent already I don’t see any closure dates that you mention as being there in your email, only the date of the complaint itself (?).
1) For each of the years 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 YTD Please give the numbers of complaints received by PHSO about University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust and the number of complaints upheld by PHSO. a) If the information is centrally stored and easily accessible, please give the proportion of complaints which related to surgical services. b) If the information is centrally stored and easily accessible, please give the proportion of complaints which related to fatal incidents c) If the information is centrally stored and easily accessible, please give the proportion of complaints about fatal incidents that had also been referred to the coroner 2) Did the PHSO refer any of the complaints received about the trust to the police? 3) Please disclose any correspondence to PHSO by Health Education England in 2020 about surgical services and/or poor governance at the trust 4) How does PHSO store information on complaints for each NHS organisation? Are the complaints coded in any way? Are the complaints categorised and if so, what are the categories? Are there clinical categories? Are there categories by outcome eg.death, permanent disability etc? Please disclose the PHSO policy(policies) which governs how information on each organisation’s complaints are stored and categorised and how databases are organised.
I asked in regards to the algorithm used to quantify a paltry £200 for three years of suffering, and the data that you used to input onto the system to come to the £200 damages for three years of suffering, also why do you collaborate with the trust in regards to damages before you communicate with the complainant? Can you provide me with the provision within the regulations
03/07/2023
Please could you kindly let me know what the: figures / statistics / data / numbers / evidence / facts show for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) being awarded to those people who have a rare Syndactyly disability (Fusion of Fingers)? Regarding Diversity, Equality and Inclusion, I would really like to know where Syndactyly fits into it.
30/06/2023
...could you please provide the following information: 1. The number of complaints regarding health submitted to your office during the calendar year January to December 2022. 2. Of the total number of complaints identified in 1. above, how many complaints were progressed/investigated and how many were not progressed/investigated? 3. Of those not progressed/investigated as identified in 2 above, what were the reasons for this *: a. Prematurely submitted before the complaint with health organisation was completed b. Time-barred c. Legal action had been started d. Not considered serious enough e. Resource-heavy f. Other (please specify) ** If your data can only be extracted using alternative, pre-defined criteria, please use these instead. 4. Referring to the numbers identified in 2. above **: a. Of complaints progressed, please advise how many patients were under 65 years of age and how many patients were 65 or over. b. Of complaints not progressed, please advise how many patients were under 65 years of age and how many patients were 65 or over. ** If your data can only be extracted using an alternative age bracket, for example under/over 60 or 66, please use the best match with my request.
I am making a FOI request for all closure dates of complaints made to the PHSO about the Tavistock Clinic. I believe you are obliged to retain basic records like closure dates for audit reasons and for the PHSO to spot patterns and assess when a Trust is the subject of many complaints for instance. I obviously do not expect to see details of the complaints that are private personal data.
I am making a formal request for information regarding complaints made about UK Government departments and other public organisations that have resulted in a financial award to the person or company making a complaint. This does NOT include the health service. This is intended to only concern claims that are considered severity 6 and awarded financial compensation of over £10,000. Specifically, this is to include: • How many complaints in the last 5 years to UK Government departments and other public organisations have been considered severity 6. • Of the above complaints considered severity 6, how many were upheld and awarded financial remedies, and what amount was awarded. • Of the above complaints that were awarded a remedy of more than £250,000, can you provide a copy of the summary in the complainants Complaint Form, and the response they received from the PHSO. Obviously, any personal or confidential information may be redacted. My apologies if this has been asked before or the information is in the public domain, but I could not locate it when searching.
29/06/2023
I’m struggling to understand how I search the decisions database for decisions on children’s continence products – most likely decisions on a limit on the number of products supplied per day. Can you let me know the best way to search for those types of decisions? I have tried: Healthcare Setting->Hospital outpatient Medical condition -> Children’s Health But when I get to specific condition there is nothing relevant. Does that mean there are no decisions in this area, or am I searching incorrectly?
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews. I am writing to request an internal review of Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's handling of my FOI request 'Decision review requests'. I believe that I have not been given the correct information. I have requested to know the total number of review requests for 2020/21 and the number provided is considerably lower than the number of reviews undertaken. This response suggests that all review requests are met with a review and this is not the case. I would like a full explanation. A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.whatdotheyknow.com_request_decision-5Freview-5Frequests&d=DwICaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=Rbm6SSzB-RuZkBxvZzo7QNA7NNDpFVaH5P9CXsuN3oBHEawj63j348bb4fUMN5xG&m=kdvNwNnh5QhYt8h1t1dzy1FI48Y0zICGHS0jE9mnB2U&s=3Y1Fj-xgRUl3fameZk6n-rtsOGl294BEhwkGgU83S8Y&e=
28/06/2023
1. Copy of the latest policy/process for managing cases of this nature 2. Copy of the latest policy/process for escalating concerns of failed process 3. Complaints process against the PHSO
27/06/2023
The PHSO considers 1000s of complaints every year and sometimes a complaint is closed as Upheld or Partly Upheld. Is there any information available for analysis and scrutiny, regarding whether either of these types of 'uphelds' were actually a specific part of the complaint, as follows: In the instance where a complaint was upheld or part upheld, but the issue found was: (1) Not in the detail of original complaint? (2) Related to issues submitted, but not specifically claimed as complaint? (3) An issue not related to the complaint? and (4) Does your case data recording system facilitate extraction of this data?
26/06/2023
• Any equalities and human rights training Ms (name redacted) attended; • A copy of your Equality Scheme and Plan of the Ombudsman Service • Number of complaints about health providers the Ombudsman received in the last 5 and 10 years in general • Number of complaints against health providers the Ombudsman received from ethnic minority complainants in the last 5 and 10 years • Number of complaints against health providers the Ombudsman upheld in the last 5 and 10 years generally • Number of complaints against health providers the Ombudsman upheld against health providers in the last 5 and 10 years, complaints that were made my ethnic minority complainants • In the last 5 years how many investigations Ms (name redacted) investigated against Health Providers in general? How many did she uphold? • In the last 5 years how many investigations did Ms (name redacted) investigate against health providers submitted by ethnic minority complainants and how many did she uphold?
23/06/2023
I would like to know how many other people have been caught in this situation. Could you tell me please how many complaints concerning this matter that DVLA have received in the last 2 years? REQUEST AFTER CLARIFICATION: If it is possible to send me the number of complaints DVLA have received for non receipt of documents in the last 12 months that would be very useful.
From my last FOI question I noted that--in the context of my question--you had no information retained regarding PHSO claim of conformance with ISO9001, the International Standard for Quality Management, with which I wrongly assumed you still claimed as operative. Can you then either : a---Confirm that the PHSO had never claimed BSI ISO 9001 accreditation or operation or b---Supply the start and end dates for the period or periods in which PHSO so claimed Accreditation , Operation and Conformance with ISO 9001, the International Standard for Quality Management.