The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has today published a set of quality standards in the form of a Service Charter to inform service users what they can expect from the service.
The Ombudsman service investigates around 4,000 cases a year and makes final decisions on unresolved complaints about the NHS in England, UK government departments and some other UK public organisations.
Detailed guidelines have also been published today in a bid to educate individuals about what happens when a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman service, at each stage of the complaints process.
The publications were drawn up following a public consultation and extensive engagement with past and future complainants, along with input from the NHS and public sector organisations, advocacy groups and staff.
During the consultations people told the Ombudsman service they wanted it to be clear about its role, 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.'
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.
The Ombudsman have already made changes to their service in a bid to meet the commitments in the Service Charter, including the provision of more regular updates to people who use the service.
The Ombudsman service will begin publishing information regularly on its website, from the end of the year, about its performance, in line with the commitments in the service charter as well as report to Parliament about it.
