Wednesday 17 June 2015

Welcome to SPSO News. In his overview, the Ombudsman highlights:

• how SPSO reports are being used to inform parliamentary debate; and
• this month's investigation reports.

Quick links:
Complaints Standards Authority Update
SPSO Training

This month we are laying two reports before the Scottish Parliament, both about the NHS. We are also laying a report on 68 decisions about all of the sectors under our remit.  These can be read on our website at www.spso.org.uk/our-findings.

Case numbers
Last month (in May), we received 444 complaints. We determined 444 complaints and of these we:

• gave advice on 238 complaints
• considered 144 complaints at our early resolution stage
• decided 62 complaints at our investigation stage

We made a total of 144 recommendations.

Overview

Parliamentary Committees
This month SPSO were invited to give evidence at four different parliamentary committee sessions on a range of issues.

The first session was on Tuesday 2 June with the Health and Sport Committee where we were able to highlight the case relating to palliative care that we published in our May compendium about the need to be clear whether or not someone is receiving active treatment or palliative care. As well as noting this case, our written evidence (PDF, 554KB) and our oral evidence both also highlighted the low numbers of palliative care cases that we see, in particular in relation to hospices. We did, though, note our wider experience of end of life care for elderly patients in acute settings.  We particularly highlighted the need to involve more the people who have most information about patients, their carers and families, in discussions and decisions around end of life care - especially where there are capacity issues.  Most importantly, we recognised the communication skills and the support required by NHS staff to be able to communicate early and well with families about end of life care and also to help families have these difficult conversations in a society where we find it hard to talk openly about death and dying.

On Tuesday 9 June, we spoke in front of the Justice Committee in relation to the draft Apologies (Scotland) Bill. We highlighted from the cases that we see that saying sorry is what many people want most, and the power an apology can have if done well to repair relationships. We recognised the special importance of being able to do this when there are ongoing relationships and there isn’t ‘choice’ about where to go to receive services. Paul McFadden, Head of CSA, noted:

‘From a very early point in the journey of many of the complaints that we see, it is clear that, if a simple, timely and human or empathetic apology had been given, the complaint would not have escalated. The failure to make that apology results in a breakdown of the relationship between the individual citizen and the public body, which then escalates, builds and exacerbates the situation—it grows arms and legs.’

For this reason, we offered our broad support for the Bill. In our experience, there continues to be a common misconception that saying sorry is automatically an expression of negligence. We know from speaking to staff and delivering our training on apology that there continues to be a culture of fear around apologising.  The proposed legislation has the potential to help create a safe space for public bodies to say sorry. Our written evidence for this session is also available on the Scottish Parliament website (PDF, 174KB).

On Wednesday 10 June we attended the Education and Culture Committee in relation to the complaints process for complaints about additional support needs. On the same day we also gave evidence to the Local Government and Regeneration Committee regarding the health and social care integration agenda and the range of complaints routes that a service user might have to pursue depending on what aspect of their care they were raising concerns about.

In both sessions we highlighted the need to ensure that complaints processes are as streamlined as possible to ensure the best access possible. In his evidence to the Education and Culture Committee, which can be read in full on the Committee’s webpage, Jim Martin said:

‘The direction of travel in Scotland is to reduce complexity and to make it as easy as possible for people using the system to complain and to have their complaint resolved as quickly and as well as possible. If we present people with a complex landscape, they will go to the wrong place, go round in circles, get tired, drop out and not pursue their rights.’

In summary, these evidence sessions gave us a strong platform to highlight three of our core messages – the need for good communication in order to deliver good care, the benefits that flow from having the capacity and support to be able to apologise early and do it well, and finally the need for easily accessible complaints processes where the barriers to complaining are removed.

Read my overview and summary of this month's investigation reports in PDF (102KB) or via the links below.

'Given the importance of the timing of surgery, I am concerned about the potential impact of the Board's bed management criteria. While I appreciate that there can be fluctuating pressures on resources, particularly bed availability, I am not satisfied by the evidence that the failure to prioritise Mr C was reasonable given his clinical need. In addition to the clinical effects the delay had on Mr C, it was also clear to me that the delay was extremely distressing for Mrs C who continues to be concerned about its impact on Mr C's post-operative recovery.'
Hospital transfer, care of the elderly
Highland NHS Board (201304732)
View a summary of this case and download the full report on the SPSO website

'Whilst the risk of [the side effect] occurring is very small, given the GMC's guidance that patients must be told about recognised serious adverse outcomes, even if they are rare, I consider that the surgeon should have warned Mr C of this potential adverse outcome. There is no clear evidence to demonstrate this was done or indeed that discussion took place about other major structures close to the operative area being at risk of injury with possible significant consequences.'
Consent; record-keeping
Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS Board (201401527)
View a summary of this case and download the full report on the SPSO website

Complaints Standards Authority

Local government
The Local Government Complaints Handlers Network met most recently on 12 June 2015.  Issues considered by the network included good practice in dealing with complainants who have mental health issues, learning from complaints, the peer review of annual complaints reports and solutions to complaints handling issues through the complaints surgery.

Building on the positive outcomes of annual complaints reporting for 2013/14 which produced the first ever baseline of complaints performance information for the sector, the network will soon be looking at performance in the year 2014/15.  This information will be compared with the baseline data and will be used to benchmark for improved performance across the sector.  

NHS
Our work continues towards bringing forward changes to the NHS complaints handling arrangements. This includes liaising closely with key stakeholders to examine the present arrangements and to consider opportunities for improvement.  For example, we recently met with Tayside NHS to consider the issue of how complaints from prisoners are handled within a prison heath centre.  We will continue to work closely with our NHS partners as we work towards developing a model complaints handling procedure (CHP) for the NHS, which takes account of the framework of the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011, is based on the current guidance while prioritising the early resolution of complaints, and places a requirement on service providers to learn from complaints.  More information will be provided in our following updates.

Housing
The next meeting of the Housing Complaints Handlers Network will be held in July.  We would like to remind all attendees that as part of the meeting we will consider the quarterly performance information of members against the requirements of the SPSO complaints self-assessment indicators for the housing sector (PDF, 188KB). We ask that attendees prepare their complaints performance information from the first quarter of 2015/16 in advance of the meeting so that we may move quickly towards benchmarking performance within the network.

We are encouraged that interest in this network continues to grow.  Further information on the role of the network, including details of how you may join can be obtained from anne.fitzsimons@tollcross-ha.org.uk. 

Further education
The Further Education Complaints Advisory Group is making excellent progress as it works towards driving up the standards of complaints handling and learning from complaints across the sector.  It met most recently on 8 June 2015 when the issues discussed included the use of the ‘online complaints handling tool’, a review of the successful workshop event held in May, complaints categories and key performance indicators, measuring customer satisfaction with the complaints process and the impact of complaints on the quality of learning, teaching and support services across the sector. A small working group will consider the current categories of complaints used across the sector in more detail with a view to identifying opportunities to standardise across the sector.  The group will also review the current approach to measuring satisfaction with the complaints procedure with a view to identifying and sharing good practice across the sector.

We would encourage any colleges that wish to join the Further Education Complaints Advisory Group to contact us at CSA@spso.org.uk and we will pass your details on to the Chair of the group.

Higher education
We encourage all higher education institutions to contact us directly at csa@spso.org.uk for advice on performance reporting, the compliance requirements of The Scottish Higher Education Model Complaints Handling Procedure or for generalist advice on complaints handling.

For all previous updates, and for more information about CHPs, visit our dedicated website www.valuingcomplaints.org.uk.  You can also contact the CSA directly at CSA@spso.org.uk
 

Forthcoming SPSO Training Events

Bookings are now open for the first ever SPSO Conference

Thursday 8 October 2015
COSLA conference centre, Edinburgh
Complaints processes generally concentrate on ‘putting it right’ for the consumer. Using the intelligence that can be derived from complaints, how can we ensure we ‘get it right’ next time for everyone else? How do we ensure that our complaints processes and responses are fit for purpose and allow us to identify where there is learning and meet the needs of the consumer?

Keynote speakers from SPSO, public and private sector organisations will talk about their real-world challenges in changing organisational culture, embedding potential learning and improving future practice. A series of workshops and ample networking opportunities will enable delegates to meet with colleagues across the public sector and beyond.

Who Should Attend?
Those with lead responsibility for monitoring and improving organisational performance;
Managers with responsibility for Organisational Learning from Complaints and Feedback;
Quality Assurance Managers;
Complaints and Customer Service Managers; and
Organisations with an interest in consumer redress.

Where and when?
9am - 4pm, COSLA conference centre, Edinburgh (near Haymarket train station)
Price: delegate rate £150 pp, including refreshments and conference materials

For booking forms or further information, please contact us at training@spso.org.uk

Booking now open:
Complaint investigation skills (stage 2 of the model CHP): 1 day open course
Our next open training course for staff handling second-stage complaints (Investigation Skills) is on Wednesday 9 September 2015 in central Edinburgh. This is open to staff from all sectors under the SPSO’s jurisdiction. Full course details are available on the SPSO Training Unit website.

Course price (per course): £180pp - to apply, please email training@spso.org.uk 

For more SPSO course information, please visit the SPSO Training Unit website: www.valuingcomplaints.org.uk/training-centre/

We also have a flyer available which details all of the training available from SPSO in 2015 (PDF, 40KB)
 

Jim Martin, Ombudsman | 17 June 2015