I recently joined our senior caseworker James Glover for a special episode of our podcast series Making Complaints Count. It gave me a chance to reflect on my first few months as Ombudsman and to share what excites me most about the future.
Why listening matters
There's one thing that stands out above all else since I became Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman in August: the tremendous commitment and values I see in our caseworkers.
When our caseworkers listen to someone's complaint, it's not just about providing individual redress. It's showing that the state will listen to its citizens and act when things go wrong.
In an environment of low trust, that really matters. When we identify something that needs putting right, we can then arm organisations with the tools to help them fix it.
Welcoming complaints
Before becoming Ombudsman, I was the CEO of the Student Loans Company. I used to review a sample of complaints every week with the team, using them as an internal audit function. It helped me to understand exactly what was happening in the organisation. Is this widespread? Is it in our systems, our culture, our processes? Most fundamentally – how does it feel to the user?
Since I started in this role, I've visited health trusts where the very top team reviews complaints from patients almost daily. As one chief executive told me, they use them "as a way to understand what was happening on the ground".
That's the gold standard I want all organisations to reach - embracing complaints with open arms and listening, acting on and learning from them. They are the voices that drive improvement. This cultural transformation must start at the top - with senior leaders across government and health leading the way.
Making change that lasts
The recent case of Mr Tobierre and his daughter Charlotte shows what's possible. They persisted with their complaint about the Windrush Compensation Scheme. Our work identified a flaw – his loss of private pension wasn't being included in the calculation. The Home Office responded quickly, putting the same issue right for other Windrush victims too.
As one colleague said to me: ‘I just don't want this to happen to anyone else again.’ That's what our systemic work achieves – getting to the root cause and stopping it happening to other people.
Beyond the last line of defence
We are the last line of defence, but we can do more by playing a more proactive role in improving public services. The insights from our data give us powerful opportunities to identify and address systemic issues that can change lives at scale.
What matters most is how organisations respond to mistakes and that they learn from them. When senior leadership has the courage to engage, acknowledge what went wrong and make changes, they don't just resolve individual cases – they prevent the same thing happening to others.
You can listen to my full conversation with James on Making Complaints Count.