Introduction
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This report contains summaries of five recently completed Ombudsman investigations: three are complaints about the NHS and two are about government agencies.
What they have in common is that they all involved poor service to people with disabilities; and in each case that poor service included a failure by those public bodies to recognise and respond to those people’s rights and their individual needs, leading to poor service and unfair treatment.
In recent years we have investigated a growing number of complaints where people’s disability and equality rights are clearly engaged. It is not the role of the Ombudsman to adjudicate on matters of disability discrimination law or to determine whether the law has been breached: that is a matter for the courts.
That is not to say, however, that the Ombudsman has no role in addressing poor service and unfair treatment provided to people with disabilities when it happens, as the cases in this report clearly show. This report sets out the Ombudsman’s distinctive role in the provision of justice and how we approach that role when addressing disability issues. This report also illustrates the outcomes which can be achieved when complaints are brought to the Ombudsman.
I am putting this information into the public domain so that someone who has a complaint that a public body has acted unfairly towards, or provided poor service to, a disabled person can make an informed decision about where to take their complaint. I also want organisations within my jurisdiction to see how the Ombudsman considers complaints about such matters.
The Ombudsman’s approach includes an overall concept of fairness, a fundamental commitment to the humanity of individuals and their right to equality in treatment and outcomes. Issues of discrimination and equalities underlie many of the complaints which come to the Ombudsman, and recourse to the Ombudsman is a very positive option for many people with complaints about disability issues. These issues are reflected in the Ombudsman’s Principles (see below) and are always part of our consideration of complaints.
