Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Every day we hear stories of how people have faced injustice, whether in the services provided by the health sector or in those provided by Government and its agencies. These stories are about people who didn’t get the support they wanted at the most difficult of times.
Sometimes they are about two sides who can’t communicate. Sometimes they are about failure to do the right thing. Sometimes they are about tragedy. It is these stories that drive us to resolve disputes, to champion rights and to help organisations learn from mistakes so they are not repeated, and public services are improved.
A journey of continuous improvement
Our last strategic plan underpinned a journey of transformation for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). In this new plan we set out how we will move on to the next stage of our journey of continuous improvement.
This comes against the background of the impact of the pandemic and the need to learn the lessons of COVID-19, both for us as an organisation and for organisations we investigate.
Helping more people benefit from our service
As we move into recovery, we need to make sure we benefit from the opportunity to learn and see what works, what needs to change, and where we can improve as a modern and vibrant service that defends people’s rights.
As a result, our new strategy focuses on broadening access and raising awareness of our service so that more people benefit from it, including disadvantaged communities and voices that are heard less often.
Harnessing the power of data and technology
The strategy gives prominence to the harnessing of data and using technology to increase transparency and to maximise the impact of lessons learned. It provides for a significant increase in effort to enable the provision of a modern, digital casework service, that can meet the increased demands placed upon it.
Above all, this will be a partnership effort, a task we will need to undertake with stakeholders across the NHS and Government, across the justice and advice sectors, and with advocacy organisations.
An internationally respected public services Ombudsman
We will also take this work forward in partnership with international stakeholders, playing our part in the global effort to modernise the Ombuds institution and holding ourselves to account in meeting international standards.
We have consulted extensively, both internally and with our partners, on the new direction set out in this strategy. It was heartening to see the level of interest we had, and the degree of consensus that our approach is the right one. Now we must deliver.
An exciting new era
I am proud of our dedicated and skilled team who are eager to put this strategy into practice. Everything PHSO achieves is because of their efforts, and their development and support is at the heart of our approach.
It is my great honour to work alongside Amanda Amroliwala, Chief Executive, to lead PHSO through this exciting new era. We look forward to sharing our success with you in the months and years to come.
