El Departamento de Ciudadanía y Derechos Sociales de la Administración autonómica ha informado al Justicia de Aragón que regulará, en las normas correspondientes de desarrollo de la Ley de Servicios Sociales de Aragón, en lo que se refiere al régimen aplicable a las entidades privadas que desarrollen actividades de servicios sociales, las condiciones mínimas materiales y funcionales exigibles a estos.
De esta manera, se da respuesta afirmativa a una reciente Sugerencia de la Institución en la que se hacía constar la imprecisión de la norma actual respecto al personal necesario en función del número de residentes.
Dicha imprecisión, motivó la queja de los responsables de una residencia que había sido sancionada por la Administración al entender que no disponía del personal necesario, cuando en una inspección anterior, con los mismos residentes y el mismo personal, la valoración había sido positiva. Añadía la persona firmante de la queja que sentía “inseguridad jurídica e indefensión al no existir una regulación legal que disponga la forma de cálculo de este índice”
En su Resolución, el Justicia señala que la norma que regula las condiciones mínimas que han de reunir los servicios y establecimientos sociales especializados pronto va a cumplir veinticinco años de vigencia y son los propios profesionales del sector quienes la califican de ambigua e insuficiente, al no especificar de una forma clara y taxativa la forma de cubrir los turnos del personal del establecimiento, ni qué tipo de trabajadores son los que hay que incluir en las ratios que señala. De esta manera, se puede contabilizar como personal presencial a cualquier empleado con independencia de su cometido, que puede no ser de atención a los residentes.
Por las razones expuestas, Fernando García Vicente califica de muy positiva la aceptación de la Sugerencia por parte del Departamento que dirige Mª Victoria Broto y la voluntad de ordenar y clarificar la normativa que regula estos servicios, por cuanto contribuye a dotar de seguridad jurídica a un sector sensible que satisface la necesidad social de cuidado y atención a las personas mayores.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has today published a set of quality standards, which are commitments to people who use the service about what they can expect from it.

The quality standards, available in the form of a Service Charter, have been published alongside more detailed guidance about what happens when a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman service, at each stage of the complaints process.

This explains the different things that are considered when looking into a complaint, how decisions are made, what to expect if a complaint is investigated and the reasons why a complaint might not be investigated.

The Service Charter and the detailed guidance about processes were drawn up with a range of people, following a public consultation and extensive engagement with past and future complainants, NHS and public sector organisations, advocacy groups and staff.

People told the Ombudsman service that they wanted it to be clear about its role and the things it can and cannot do, explain the process for deciding on complaints, keep people updated, complete casework as quickly as possible, and to be open about performance against the commitments in the Service Charter.

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Julie Mellor said:

'We have listened to people and are clear about what they want and expect from us.

'This is reflected in our new Service Charter, which is a set of quality standards which we will report on, and our commitments to people who use our service.

'We recognise it will take time for us to meet these commitments but we will work hard to do so and will be open and transparent about our progress.'

Satisfaction with any ombudsman service is closely linked to whether or not a complaint is upheld or not. The Service Charter commits the Ombudsman service to clearly explaining any decision made on complaints, and how those decisions were reached, so that people understand the decisions and have confidence in the service.

Changes have already been made to the Ombudsman service to help ensure that the commitments in the Service Charter are met, such as providing more regular updates to people who use the service.

The Ombudsman service will begin publishing information regularly on its website, from the end of 2016, about its performance, in line with the commitments in the service charter as well as report to Parliament about it. This will include the length of time investigations have taken and customer satisfaction data.

The Ombudsman service makes final decisions on unresolved complaints about the NHS in England, UK government departments and some other UK public organisations.

It investigates around 4,000 investigations a year and around 80 per cent of these are about the NHS in England.

To view the Service Charter, click here. You can get a detailed description of what happens at each stage of the Ombudsman’s process here.