May 2024 - Child Friendly Complaints Handling Process Guidance

Following a mutli-year project of extensive consultation and co-design, we can now share our new Child Friendly Complaints Handling Process Guidance. The guidance is intended to sit alongside the Child Friendly Complaints Handling Principles (subject to approval by the Scottish Parliament), to provide detailed best practice guidance on how to deliver the Model Complaints Handling Procedure in a way that meets children’s rights under the UNCRC. 

By taking an approach of focusing on core principles supported by best practice guidance, we hope to provide public bodies with the flexibility to continue with existing local good practice, whilst also providing detailed step-by-step guidance for those who would find it useful. 

View the Child Friendly Complaints Handling Process Guidance.

May 2024 - Submission of Child Friendly Complaints Handling Principles to Parliament

Following the completion of the public consultation on the draft Child Friendly Complaints Handling Principles, we carried out detailed analysis and made a number of amendments based on the consultation responses and feedback. The resulting version of the Principles has now been submitted to the Scottish Parliament for approval. You can find and download a copy of that version below, though please note this may be subject to change following parliamentary comment and scrutiny. 

Once approved, the final version of the Principles will become part of our wider Statement of Principles, which all public bodies under our jurisdiction must ensure their complaints procedures comply with.

View the Child Friendly Complaints Handling Principles (PDF, 113KB).

January 2024 -  Consultation on Draft Child Friendly Complaints Handling Principles

Note this consultation is now closed.

Our consultation on the draft Child Friendly Complaints Handling Principles is now open, and we are accepting responses until 1 March 2024. The purpose of this consultation is to gather responses on the current drafts, to ensure they are clearly communicated and easy to understand. This consultation is also a legal requirement, as we will be looking to amend our Statement of Principles to include the Child Friendly Complaints Handling Principles in the next few months, following parliamentary approval. 

The consultation is open to all, but we are particularly looking for responses from:

• Anyone under 18
• Anyone with caring responsibilities for someone under 18
• Public services and third sector organisations who work with people under 18 or have an interest in promoting their rights 

The consultation questionnaire only takes about 10 minutes to complete. It can be found here: Consultation on Child Friendly Complaints Handling Principles

Alternatively, you can download and complete a word version of the consultation (Word, 30.4KB) and submit this to ISE-CSA@spso.gov.scot.

June 2023 - Pilot of Draft Child Friendly Complaints Guidance

Following an extensive co-design project with a wide range of children, young people, and other stakeholders, we have now launched a pilot of a draft version of the new approach to handling complaints involving children. This consists of two key guidance documents - the Child Friendly Complaints Handling Principles, and a Child Friendly Complaints Handling Procedure.

The purpose of the pilot is to test the new approach in a real world setting, to ensure it achieves the goal of meeting children's rights and needs, and to identify any changes required or improvements that may be beneficial. The pilot is open to any public body under our jurisdiction, to trial and test the new process at a scope and scale that they feel is appropriate and manageable, with the SPSO available to support that implementation and answer any questions that may arise during the handling of a complaint.

If your organisation would like to learn more about the draft guidance, or would like to take part in the pilot, please contact us at ISE-CSA@spso.gov.scot and we will be happy to help.

December 2022

The SPSO is currently working on a new approach to handling complaints that involve children. We are doing this by working with children & young people from a range of backgrounds, and from across Scotland, to co-design this new approach and ensure it is a system fit for purpose. We have also enlisted the help of a wide range of parents, advocates, and professionals that work with children in the public sector, to test and refine the approach and ensure it will work in a practical setting. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude and thanks to everyone who has helped us in this work so far.

We now have a first draft of a guide that will ultimately be implemented by all public bodies under our remit. This guide will set out how existing complaints processes can be adapted when a child or young person is involved. It will aim to ensure that their rights under the UNCRC are met throughout the complaints process and that their concerns are handled in a way that they have told us meets their needs.

We had initially planned to carry out a public consultation around now, aiming towards publishing the guide under our model complaints powers and requiring all relevant public bodies to have their own version in place by 1 April 2023. Following feedback from our engagement and testing work, we have decided to carry out a more targeted pilot first.

The pilot will focus on key services provided to children and young people, such as schools, social work services, and children’s health services. The aim of this work will be to test the new approach in practical settings, both to ensure it results in the right outcomes for children, and that it is efficient, practical and workable for the public sector bodies managing the process.

We will still hold a full public consultation before publication of the final guidance, but this will now take place after the pilots are complete and any changes made. We are still in the process of refining the pilot, and will provide further updates on the timeline and launch when we have definite dates. We will also be aiming to share further details of the approach before the 1 April 2023, so that all relevant bodies, including those not involved in the pilot, will have a better understanding of what to expect.

If your organisation would like to be involved, or you would like further information about what your involvement might entail, please contact us at CSA@spso.gov.scot and we will do our best to help.

July 2022

The SPSO is being funded by the Scottish Government to develop a child-friendly way for public bodies to handle complaints. On 25 April 2022 we launched our two-year project to develop and implement new guidance for the public bodies we work with.

Children and young people are users of a wide range of Scottish public services, including schools, children and families social work, and health visitor services. Many of these focus on wellbeing, health and development. Children have the right to complain if they are unhappy with those services.

We are developing guidance that will cover complaints about public services:

• made by children and young people themselves
• made on behalf of children and young people with their permission (e.g. by their parents, carers or third-party advocates), and
• concerning children and young people (e.g. made by their parents, carers or third-party advocates without permission or input from children and young people).

Project aim

Co-design and implement a public sector complaints service that meets children’s rights and needs, working in co-operation with children and young people, public bodies and wider stakeholders

It is important that complaints handling processes both enable children and young people to exercise their rights, and ensure those handling complaints hear and respect children and young peoples’ views and voices. Taking a co-design approach that hears those voices from the outset will help ensure young people have a real impact in shaping the new guidance.

Timescales

We will be running design workshops with a wide range of people over the next few months.  If you would like to take part in our workshops, or if you have any questions about the project, please contact us by emailing CSA@spso.gov.scot.  

Downloads

• Child Friendly Complaints update June 2023 (PDF, 150KB ) 
• Child Friendly Complaints update December 2022 (PDF, 91KB)
  • Child Friendly Complaints announcement July 2022 (PDF, 215KB)

Today, 27 May 2024, Human Rights Ombudsman Peter Svetina convened the 12th meeting of the Council of the Ombudsman for Human Rights (Council), which was dedicated to healthcare. Last year, the Ombudsman dealt with around 450 cases in the field of health care and insurance, and the number of complaints considered confirms that this area is facing serious and acute problems.

As Svetina said, it is frustrating because a number of questions in the field of health care have remained unanswered for many years. This is particularly difficult to understand when it comes to vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, and the disabled. "We are aware that the problem did not spring up yesterday and cannot be solved tomorrow, but it is high time to finally start actively solving it. The longest medical strike does not contribute to solving the accumulated problems, but it certainly seriously threatens the health system. Public health is a fundamental common good, and the absence of convergence of views only exacerbates the problems. The problems with which the complainants turn to the institution of the Ombudsman point to anomalies in the system that require a serious and decisive approach. During the strike, I have therefore repeatedly appealed to the authorities to cut the Gordian knot and find compromise solutions as soon as possible, because the impact is most felt by vulnerable groups and the socially threatened," said Ombudsman Svetina at the meeting.

He reiterated that a strike is a legitimate way to achieve goals, but that strike goals must not be pursued to the detriment of vulnerable groups of the population. "I am satisfied that after the interventions of the emergency services and ourselves, URI Soča heeded the recommendations of the Ombudsman and, after several weeks, finally started to carry out medical examinations in the Outpatient Clinic for drivers with special needs. It is unacceptable for any side to take disabled people hostage during a strike," said Svetina.

The members of the Ombudsman's Council agreed that the months of inability to converge positions only deepen the problems in health care, and cause additional delays and even longer waiting times. At the meeting, Dr. Dijana Možina Zupanc, Deputy Ombudsman, who heads the Council of the Ombudsman for Human Rights, highlighted the problem of long queues, which will unfortunately only get longer with the current strike. Such a large number of people, who are in line for treatment beyond the permissible waiting period, shows that something is seriously wrong with the Slovenian healthcare system. In addition to all the thousands who do not have a personal doctor of their choice, too many face problems in accessing one. "We have also been contacted by many complainants who claimed that they could not access their doctor. Because we wanted to check the situation, we sent a questionnaire to all public health centres about the availability of general and family medicine clinics. The analysis showed unacceptable differences between the general and family medicine clinics, as there are no uniform standards and criteria for what good or appropriate accessibility even means," explained the Deputy Ombudsman.

The members of the Ombudsman's Council emphasised that the large differences in responsiveness between clinics at the primary level are unacceptable, as everyone in the country must have equal access to health services and receive the necessary medical measures when they need them. "The institution of the Human Rights Ombudsman has therefore sent recommendations to the Ministry of Health to regulate the area in such a way that there will no longer be such differences between clinics and the patient will see a doctor when they need one," said Ombudsman Svetina.

He added that the biggest problem is not only the lack of doctors, but in Slovenia we are dealing with a chronic shortage of all other medical personnel. Deputy Ombudsman Dr. Možina Zupanc stressed that difficult working conditions and, at the same time, unstimulating pay year after year force the most stressed health workers to work on ethical grounds alone. Unfortunately, even this wears out eventually, so the country urgently needs a clear vision of what kind of public health care it wants to have and to finally tackle the health care system reform. The interlocutors agreed that Slovenia is a welfare state, so it must ensure the conditions for public health care to function in such a way that people receive quality treatment and health services in a timely manner.

Stanislav Křeček and Vít Alexander Schorm have presented the Annual Report of their office for the year 2023. They welcomed the fact that ministries and authorities had successfully used the Ombudsman’s findings to correct maladministration in individual cases and to change inappropriate practices. On the other hand, they also drew attention to some topics that remained open, such as the transformation of large institutions for people with disabilities and, above all, the upcoming establishment of a children’s ombudsman.

“Usually, our reports published throughout the year describe various issues we have identified. I would like to stress, however, that the individual errors committed by authorities represent only one side of the coin. On the other side is the fact that in 97% of cases, the authorities eventually corrected the maladministration we discovered. And that figure gives one hope for the future,” said the Ombudsman, Stanislav Křeček.

He also mentioned several specific cases where he had persuaded the authorities to change their approach last year. The Ombudsman traditionally deals with the largest numbers of complaints in the area of social security; last year, he addressed over 1 400 complaints in this field. For example, he helped a woman obtain an additional eight hundred thousand crowns of her disability pension, together with a significant increase in the amount she was entitled to – based on the Ombudsman’s report, the Czech Social Security Administration retroactively recognised the eligibility of the period of her studies (page 69 of the Annual Report).

Similarly, the Ombudsman’s intervention also helped, for example, the family of a boy with autism who had been seeking for years to move a temporary bus stop away from the windows of their house (page 79 of the Annual Report).

“I am most pleased when we help people with specific problems and this eventually results in a systemic change. This was the case, for example, with parents being able to stay with their children in hospital. The lack of consistency among healthcare facilities in this regard had led to misunderstandings and conflicts between healthcare professionals and parents. After years of discussions the Ministry of Health issued a methodology last year, unifying the rules for hospitals,” said the Deputy Ombudsman, Vít Alexander Schorm, and added that lawyers from the Public Defender’s Office actively co-operated in the preparation of the methodology (page 54 of the Annual Report).

Conservationists now also benefit from uniform rules of procedure established thanks to two inquiries by the Ombudsman into the circumstances of the demolition of historic buildings in Prague and Brno. And the same can be said, for instance, of the staff of construction authorities, since they will also be following the new methodology of the Heritage Inspectorate of the Ministry of Culture for assessing the cultural and historical values of buildings that are not subject to heritage protection (page 90 of the Annual Report). In response to the Ombudsman’s inquiry, the Ministry of Culture has also promised to discuss with the Ministry of Regional Development the options for better enforcement of provisional protection for buildings which are still being evaluated in terms of heritage protection.

The Ombudsman completed seven surveys in 2023. He examined the accessibility of buildings, both in terms of construction law (page 84 of the Annual Report) and based on the experience of people with disabilities (page 128 of the Annual Report). He also dealt with mothers’ experience in the area of employment (page 121 of the Annual Report), children’s contact with their imprisoned parents (page 56 of the Annual Report), issues surrounding the protection of animals against cruelty (page 93 of the Annual Report), the regulation of odorous substances (page 92 of the Annual Report), the provision of housing for people from vulnerable groups (page 123 of the Annual Report), and the provision of health support to children in schools (page 122 of the Annual Report).

“We tried to determine what stood in the way of faster and more effective deinstitutionalisation and the development of community social services. Major obstacles in this regard include, for example, the low public awareness of what living in an institution really means. This then translates into low and wavering political will for change,” said the Deputy Ombudsman in summary of a survey on deinstitutionalisation, noting that one of the key long-term topics was the right of people with disabilities to live independently in the community.

According to both officials, the biggest challenge to face the Ombudsman’s office in 2024 is the upcoming establishment of children’s ombudsman and the transformation of the Public Defender of Rights into a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI). An amendment to the Public Defender of Rights Act that would allow for both changes received government support in early April. “We participated in the preparation of the amendment in the working group of the Minister for Legislation. Its adoption and the establishment of a children's ombudsman and the so-called NHRI would represent an important step in strengthening the protection not only of children’s rights, but of human rights in general,” concluded Ombudsman Stanislav Křeček.

Hay que asegurar a los trabajadores que todo el período de tiempo que han trabajado en la Administración han cotizado para la jubilación
 

La institución del Síndic de Greuges ha tenido conocimiento de anomalías en las fechas de cotización de la vida laboral de empleados públicos de la Generalitat. A partir del análisis de las quejas recibidas, la institución ha constatado un decalaje temporal entre la fecha de inicio de la prestación de servicios en la Administración de la Generalitat y la fecha de alta en la Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social. La demora en el alta tiene efectos en las prestaciones del sistema, dado que reduce el período de cotización para la jubilación.

La Secretaría de Administración y Función Pública ha derivado las peticiones individuales a los departamentos. Sin embargo, la institución considera que la Generalitat debería examinar la situación de forma proactiva y sin esperar a la llegada de las reclamaciones individuales, para después poner en marcha las actuaciones necesarias para regularizar los períodos de cotización.

En este sentido, el Síndic de Greuges recomienda al Departamento de la Presidencia que dirija directrices e instrucciones a los demás departamentos para que, de acuerdo con un calendario, los departamentos le remitan los datos de los empleados afectados. También le sugiere que, de forma complementaria, se envíen avisos informativos a todos los empleados para que accedan a su informe laboral y puedan comunicar las anomalías que detecten.

La institución también se ha dirigido al Departamento de Economía y Hacienda y le ha pedido que fije las directrices a aplicar para regularizar las situaciones en las que se confirme el decalaje de fechas.

Iniziativa promossa dal Garante regionale dei diritti. Dopo la prima esperienza ospitata nel capoluogo regionale, figurano in calendario due appuntamenti che andranno ad interessare le province di Macerata, Ascoli Piceno, Fermo e Pesaro Urbino

Nuovi incontri formativi di aggiornamento per i tutori volontari di minori stranieri non accompagnati già iscritti nell’apposito elenco del Tribunale dei Minori di Ancona. L’iniziativa, promossa dal Garante regionale dei diritti, si prefigge di rafforzare l’attività di accompagnamento e supporto agli stessi tutori, anche attraverso una proficua condivisione delle esperienze maturate nel corso del tempo e cercando di far fronte a esigenze specifiche emerse nella concreta gestione dei minori, sempre tenendo conto del superiore interesse di quest’ultimi.
Nell’aprile scorso un primo confronto a tutto campo, ospitato nel capoluogo regionale, è stato destinato ai 47 tutori della provincia di Ancona, mentre altri due incontri formativi di aggiornamento andranno ad interessare i 58 delle province di Macerata, Ascoli Piceno, Fermo e Pesaro Urbino.
Il primo si terrà il 14 giugno a Macerata (al “Polo Bertelli” dell’Unimc in contrada Vallebona), mentre il secondo è in programma per l’11 ottobre a Fano (presso la Sala Ipogea della Mediateca Montanari in Piazza Amiani).
Per fornire maggiore sostanza all’iniziativa, il Garante ha previsto il supporto di esperti appositamente individuati negli ambiti giuridico, socio – sanitario, fenomenologico – antropologico, nonché di rappresentanti delle istituzioni coinvolte del sistema di accoglienza.