We laid our Strategic Plan 2024-2028 (PDF, 1.1MB) before the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday 2 April 2024.

The plan, driven by our key values, sets out our priorities and approach for the next four years. 

"The next four years will continue to be unsettled and demanding for all of Scottish public services, including the SPSO. While my powers and duties are set out in legislation, I and my team recognise that we not only have a critical role in the oversight of Scottish public services, but also that as a Parliamentary office holder, funded by the public purse, SPSO is part of that wider environment.

I and my team remain deeply committed to our values and ensuring that we contribute actively and positively to the wider rights-based approach to public service delivery.” 

Rosemary Agnew 
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

Downloads

• SPSO Strategic Plan 2024-2028 (PDF, 1.1MB)

Essex County Council has agreed to review why previously agreed changes to its alternative education provision, for children who are unable to attend school, have not improved the service for all children who need help.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has asked the council to conduct the review after it found faults following a recent complaint that should not have occurred, had the council’s previously agreed improvements worked.

In the recent case, a young girl with significant educational needs was not provided with appropriate alternative education for some months when she was unable to attend school for medical reasons.

Instead of the council taking the lead to provide support, it passed the buck to the neighbouring council area where she attended school. Essex County Council should have taken responsibility for arranging alternative provision because the girl lived in its area.

The Ombudsman’s investigation also criticised the lack of cooperation between two of the council’s teams when deciding about educational support. This process took longer than it should because the team responsible for education welfare waited for a delayed Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan to be issued before planning for the girl’s alternative provision to be put in place.

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Ms Amerdeep Somal said:

“The council’s lack of action in this case is likely to have had a significant effect on this young girl’s academic and personal development. Her mother tells us this has impacted on her anxiety and mental health and has led to her not even wanting to leave the house.

“When councils commit to improving their services, they should do so quickly and effectively. I am disappointed to have to report on this case as the recommendations we have made in previous complaints, had they been implemented successfully, should have gone a long way to ensuring this did not happen. What has happened here, is simply not good enough and the young girl has been failed by the council that was responsible for her.

“I have asked the council to conduct a review of why things went wrong here and am pleased the council has accepted my recommendations to do so at the earliest opportunity. This needs to be a priority now.”

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman remedies injustice and shares learning from investigations to help improve public, and adult social care, services. In this case the council has agreed to apologise to the family and pay them a combined £3,120 for the lack of provision, injustice and distress caused by the faults identified in the report.

The Ombudsman has the power to make recommendations to improve processes for the wider public. In this case the council will identify a senior officer from another service to review its service improvements around alternative provision. It will also improve communication between the education welfare and special educational needs teams to ensure there are no delays in providing services to children for whom EHC Plans are being issued.

It will also produce an action plan to improve decision making on education for children who are out of school and improve monitoring of part-time timetables.

Article date: 04 April 2024

The Ombudsman has written to the Minister for Mental Health, Maria Caulfield MP, outlining his concerns over the lack of progress in eating disorder services which is causing avoidable harm.

In his letter, the Ombudsman warns that patients are being repeatedly failed by the system. He raises issues such as a lack of funding, difficulties in accessing primary care, and palliative care being offered to patients deemed too difficult to treat.

The Ombudsman calls on Government to prioritise eating disorder services and ensure there is parity of access and quality of eating disorder services for all age groups across the country.

Read the letter.

Public bodies should be transparent.  They should record the criteria for decision making and give reasons for their decisions.

This was the message given by Ombudsman Margaret Kelly and Deputy Ombudsman Sean Martin at a recent talk given to an event held in the Public Records Office Northern Ireland.

While people don't generally complain about poor record keeping, explained Ms Kelly, a significant proportion of those cases going to the Ombudsman's Further Investigation stage uncover issues with record keeping.  This often can be an indicator of other underlying problems.

Stressing how good records protect everyone, both urged members of staff working in public bodies to record their rationale when making key decisions.  This not only helps others within the public body but can act as a 'shield' if those decisions are questioned at some point in the future.

ed, 20/03/2024 - 12:00

During February we:

• responded to 65 enquiries
• made 50 decisions
  • 11 community care grants
  • 39 crisis grants
• upheld 64% of community care grants and 26% of crisis grants
• signposted an additional 64 applicants to other sources of assistance. 64% of these were calling us instead of their local council in error. Six applicants told us that they had issues getting in touch with their council as there was no freephone number, or due to difficulties getting through.
• received 14 enquiries from local council liaison contacts seeking advice on the guidance.
• raised five new issues under level one of the Support and Intervention Policy. These included not following the statutory guidance correctly, incorrectly interpreting the available information and inquisitorial failure. 

Case studies

Meeting the need

C requested an independent review of the council's decision on their crisis grant application. C had recently returned to the UK, and were waiting on their first payment of Universal Credit being made after making a new claim. They were without funds for essentials.

The council declined the application as C did not provide evidence of their address. C requested a first tier review, and the council accepted that C was sofa surfing, and awarded £112.84 based on 30% of the income support rate.

We reviewed the council's case file and spoke with C and the DWP for further information about their circumstances. C confirmed that they had applied to the council for housing, and were currently sofa surfing with a friend as they had no accommodation. C told us they felt the award amount was insufficient and they felt it was discriminatory as it did not take into account their dietary needs due to health conditions. We changed the council decision and calculated the award at 60% of the Income support rate as per section 7.24 of the guidance. We assessed that this was appropriate to meet the needs described by C.  We provided feedback to the council regarding the incorrect interpretation of information when calculating the award, written communications and that the timescales were not met.

You can find more case studies in the searchable directory on our website.