Local Government & Social Care OMBUDSMAN. Corporate Strategy to 2021

Transcription

1 Local Government & Social Care OMBUDSMAN Corporate Strategy 2018 to 2021

2 Contents Foreword 1 Our strategy 2 Our aims 3 Strategic Objective 1 5 Strategic Objective 2 8 Strategic Objective 3 10 Strategic Objective 4 12

3 Foreword Our vision is to be an exemplary ombudsman scheme. This strategy sets out how we will work towards that goal over the next three years. It builds upon the excellent work already done by our staff, and proposes further innovation and modernisation in our service. However, it does that without ever losing sight of our core casework responsibilities or compromising our defining principles of independence, impartiality and fairness. Transparency is already at the heart of our approach. Over the next three years we are committed to creating even greater openness about the way we work, the processes we follow, the decisions we take, and the recommendations we make. We will support greater public and democratic scrutiny of services, including our own, by sharing more data and more information on line. We will continue to move the national conversation about our work away from a simplistic focus on complaint volumes. While we will continue to deliver individual remedies, we will instead turn the spotlight on the value we can add for the many, through our recommendations for wider service improvements and sharing learning from our investigations. although we cannot take them forward during the life of this strategy, we will keep in our sights for the future. Over the next three years we will explore what we need to do, and what support we need to ask for, to make these ambitions a reality. In the meantime, we have a clear set of goals that will shape the content of our business plans over the next three years; that will continue to develop LGSCO as an excellent, twenty first century ombudsman scheme; and which will cement our position as a key pillar of administrative justice in England. We have just two assets to deliver these goals our staff and our supporting technology. We will invest in both over the next three years to create a modern, accessible service with a learning culture that helps our staff do a tough job with confidence and pride. Underlying all of these ambitions is a genuine humility about the role we play. We recognise we are just one thread in the fabric of accountability and justice. Our strategy will only be successful if it is delivered in partnership with others. So, over the coming years we will work in collaboration with many other bodies, particularly with our sister ombudsman schemes and sector regulators, to improve the effectiveness of all that we do. This is an ambitious strategy, but it is also realistic. We will prioritise our focus so we use our limited resources to greatest effect to help improve local public and adult social care services. We have many aspirations that, Michael King Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman March

4 Our strategy The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman conducts independent, impartial and fair investigations into complaints that faults or service failure have led to injustice. Where we find fault, we make recommendations to provide a remedy. Where the evidence supports it we also recommend changes to policy and practice to address wider systemic failures. We feed back learning from our work to improve services elsewhere. As the Social Care Ombudsman, we provide a one-stop-shop for complaints about services provided by all registered social care providers. Our powers to investigate include complaints about publicly and privately funded social care. This gives people a clear route for redress, rather than having to navigate complex processes in an often-confusing social care system. In this way, we help to make sure local public services and social care services are accountable to the people who use them. This strategy sets out our priorities for action. It will help to keep us focused, taking account of ever increasing public expectations, public sector funding constraints we have seen, and the fundamental changes which are currently taking place throughout local government. We have developed this strategy with the involvement of those who use our service, our staff and our key stakeholders, including the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman who we continue to work with in preparation for the potential introduction of a new Public Services Ombudsman. 2

5 Our aims Our mission To remedy injustice and help improve local services. Our values Listen carefully with respect and empathy Understand by assessing information impartially, effectively and proportionately Learn and share knowledge openly to improve Communicate clearly, professionally and constructively in plain language 3

6 Our strategic objectives 1. Our service is easy to find and easy to use 2. We remedy injustice through impartial, fair and rigorous investigations 3. We use what we learn from complaints to help improve local services 4. We are accountable to the public and use our resources efficiently Our priorities for the next three years are set out in the following pages, along with a summary of how we will measure our success. Our service is easy to find and easy to use We use what we learn from complaints to help improve local services We remedy injustice and help improve local services We remedy injustice through impartial, fair and rigorous investigations We are accountable to the public and use our resources efficiently 4

7 Strategic Objective 1 Our service is easy to find and easy to use Our priorities are to: Ensure our service is transparent by publishing guidance and policies used by staff to reach our decisions > > Seeking and acting on feedback from people who use our service to see if they understand the information we publish and whether we should publish more or improve what is already published. > > Monitoring requests under the Freedom of Information Act to ensure we are publishing any document that is regularly requested, unless there is a specific reason why this is not appropriate or possible. > > Implementing a document review schedule to ensure all our published documents are kept up-todate and remain relevant. Publish clear information which sets out what we do and how well we are doing against agreed standards, which can be compared with other similar organisations > > Working together with PHSO to agree common definitions for our key performance indicators and a common format for reporting progress against these. We will report data in the same way in our respective Annual Reports. > > Seeking feedback from people who use our service to see if they understand the information we publish about our performance and whether we should publish more or different information. 5

8 Work with partners to improve access to our service and improve efficiency between different complaints systems > > Continuing to operate in line with our memoranda of understanding/information sharing agreements which have been set up with key partners, including PHSO, CQC, Ofsted and the Housing Ombudsman, and reviewing these agreements so they continue to be fit for purpose. > > Monitoring the number and types of cases transferred between LGSCO and these key partners, to ensure complainants receive effective and timely assistance to make their complaint to the correct organisation. > > Introducing a new streamlined arrangement for transferring complaints made using the internet between LGSCO and CQC. > > Working with PHSO, we will improve the performance of our joint working team in handling complaints which cross the boundaries of health and social care. We will monitor progress using a dedicated set of key performance indicators. Explain our process clearly, communicate in plain English and make reasonable adjustments to meet individual needs > > Ensuring all investigators undertake plain English training and use special software to check their writing style is clear, concise and readable. > > Ensuring all investigators undertake training in making reasonable adjustments. > > Monitoring, through a quality assurance framework, requests for reasonable adjustments and the way these are recorded and handled, to ensure we are meeting individual needs where appropriate. > > Checking the quality and clarity of our decision statements and responding to complaints about the quality of the service we provide. > > Seeking and acting on feedback from customers about the accessibility of our service and the standard of our communications throughout the investigation process. 6

9 Deal with all enquiries promptly and reach clear decisions without delay > > Handling 99% of written enquiries within 24 hours of receipt and ensuring that 95% of calls are answered within 60 seconds. > > Monitoring our achievement against our published targets of making at least 65% of our decisions within 13 weeks, 85% within 26 weeks and 99% within 52 weeks. > > Ensuring that in 80% of all cases we have either made a robust evidence based decision on a complaint, why we could not or should not investigate it, or allocated it to a named investigator within 20 working days of receipt. > > Monitoring customer satisfaction levels about the time it takes us to complete our investigations. 7

10 Strategic Objective 2 We remedy injustice through impartial, fair and rigorous investigations Our priorities are to: Ensure our recommendations are specific, clear, consistent and proportionate > > Bringing all our casework managers together on a regular basis to assess a sample of our final decision statements, to maintain a consistent view on quality. > > Asking people who use our service, through questionnaires and face-to-face meetings of our advisory forum, for feedback on our recommendations. > > Asking our bodies in jurisdiction whether they find our recommendations to be clear, consistent and proportionate and take any necessary action. > > Conducting robust reviews of decisions where appropriate, responding to concerns and reopening cases where the evidence indicates it is necessary to do so. Ensure our recommendations result in appropriate action, using the full extent of our powers > > Following up to obtain evidence that the bodies in jurisdiction have satisfactorily complied where we have made recommendations. > > Introducing a more robust way to measure compliance with our recommendations, and making this data publicly available to help hold local public services to account. > > Seeking feedback from regulatory bodies we share our recommendations with, such as Ofsted and CQC. 8

11 Publish our complaint decisions, anonymised to protect individuals identities > > Publishing final decisions in an anonymised format on our website, three months after the decision has been issued to the complainants and bodies in jurisdiction. > > Checking samples of decisions to ensure they are properly anonymised, so individual complainants cannot be identified and decisions where anonymity cannot be guaranteed are not published. Ensure our work adheres to high quality standards which are published and, where possible, can be compared to other similar organisations > > Publishing our quality standards in a clear, easy-to-read format. > > > Publishing a quarterly assessment of achievement against these quality standards. > Ensuring our standards are in line with the Ombudsman Association s published service standards framework. Apply the same policies irrespective of where people live or the nature of their complaints > > Regularly reviewing the quality of our decision statements to ensure a consistent approach is being taken by staff across the organisation, in line with our casework policy guidance. > > Running a regular programme of briefings for casework staff so they are kept up-to-date and to ensure we are consistent in our approach. 9

12 Strategic Objective 3 We use what we learn from complaints to help improve local services Our priorities are to: Be recognised as an authoritative body in each of the areas within our jurisdiction, which encourages improvement by highlighting learning from complaints > > Publishing individual annual letters for each Council, tailored as appropriate, to provide useful information about complaints, encourage improvements and promote learning from complaints. > > Providing training for councils and care providers which, after evaluation, is considered to be relevant and effective in improving local complaint handling. > > Maintaining effective communication networks with bodies in our jurisdiction to help their understanding of LGSCO s role and how to work with us. > > Consistently applying our published criteria for issuing public interest reports and thematic focus reports to highlight the learning from our casework. > > Actively seeking opportunities to contribute the evidence from our casework to public inquiries and consultations Work closely with others to drive improvement without compromising our independence > > Sharing information and collaborating with strategic partners such as CQC and Ofsted where this can improve the overall service to the public and does not compromise confidentiality. > > Promoting our role as Social Care Ombudsman by engaging with care providers and their representative bodies to share learning from complaints, and contributing to national discussions on adult social care. > > Further developing our working relationships with Parliament, local government bodies, the Local Government Association and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, to share information constructively while maintaining our independent position. > > Working with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to align our approaches to handling and publishing our joint casework and insights, where it is appropriate to do so. 10

13 Improve local complaint handling in bodies which are within our jurisdiction > > Building on feedback from bodies in jurisdiction to develop and grow our training programme for councils and social care providers. > > Publishing Focus Reports on topical issues which highlight how local authority councillors and others can effectively scrutinise their organisations decision-making and complaint handling, to bring about improvements. Report better information to the public about the service improvements we achieve from our investigations > > Expressing our recommendations clearly, with timescales for implementation and tracking service improvements made in response to these recommendations. > > Reporting a broader range of data about the complaints we investigate, which focuses on outcomes remedies, and in particular, service improvements achieved as a result of our investigations. > > Developing and publishing an interactive data map on our website that can be easily searched, providing specific information on remedies across all local authorities. Improve by learning from our experiences, supporting staff development and collaborating with other organisations > > Ensuring learning is embedded within the culture of the organisation, and that managers identify and promote opportunities for sharing knowledge and expertise. > > Using technology to increase, improve, and share knowledge collaboratively across our offices and teams. > > Providing all our staff with the knowledge and skills they need and testing this through our staff survey. > > Regularly engaging with our stakeholders and other Ombudsman schemes to enable benchmarking, collaboration and continual learning and improvement. > > Improving the way we listen to the views of those who use our service, and ensuring their feedback is properly considered when we make decisions about the service we provide. 11

14 Strategic Objective 4 We are accountable to the public and use our resources efficiently Our priorities are to: Use new technology and innovative solutions to continuously improve our services > > Keeping our data secure against ever-changing cyber security threats and viruses, and having clear arrangements for responding to unpredictable events which might pose a risk to our data security. > > Providing those who use our service and bodies in jurisdiction with the ability to interact with us online during the course of an investigation. > > Investing in the use of new technology where this improves the efficiency of the work we do and improves the service we provide. > > Ensuring staff are equipped and supported in understanding and using the technological changes we introduce and testing this through our staff survey. Seek out and act upon independent scrutiny of our service, and feedback from users Undertaking more focused customer satisfaction research and using the feedback we receive to improve services wherever possible. > > Using an independent reviewer to check if our handling of complaints about our service meets our published standards, and publishing the reviewer s independent report in our Annual Report. > > Seeking and acting on feedback from people who use our service through regular meetings of our advisory forum. > > Commissioning a programme of independent audits each year to look at different aspects of the LGSCO s work, responding to recommendations arising from these and publishing a summary of the outcomes. 12

15 Regularly publish clear information about our performance > > Publishing our key performance data in a clear, easy-to-understand format that can be used to assess if and by how much we are improving. > > Being transparent and publishing an extensive range of information about the way we work, in line with our publication scheme, which is reviewed annually. > > Working together with PHSO to agree common definitions for our key performance indicators and a common format for reporting progress against these, which can be published in our respective Annual Reports. Support and develop our staff to ensure their skills and knowledge are upto-date, and each individual has appropriate support to undertake their role. > > Agreeing and implementing a three-year plan for learning and development across the organisation, focused on developing the key skills needed by staff to undertake their roles effectively. > > Asking staff, through our staff survey, how well equipped they feel to undertake their roles effectively. > > Ensuring all staff attend regular one-to-one meetings and team meetings which are designed to support them in their roles, and staff have the opportunity to regularly discuss their ongoing personal development as part of their annual objective setting. > > > Asking staff for feedback following training and using this to inform the planning of future events. > Identifying the core skills needed to excel in different roles, so these can be used to develop a set of key professional standards. Measure and publish our overall cost per complaint, and ensure our backoffice costs are at or below the costs of similar, comparable, organisations > > Publishing our cost per complaint each year using the total number of decisions reached by LGSCO and our net operating expenditure as our benchmarks. > > Comparing our back-office costs with similar Ombudsman schemes. 13

16 Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman PO Box 4771 Coventry CV4 0EH Phone: Web: