Issue - meetings

To submit the report of the Monitoring Officer

To note the information.

Submitted - the report of the Monitoring Officer on the findings of an independent investigation into the Ombudsman's processes.

It was noted that stories had appeared in the press in April of this year claiming that a staff member in the Ombudsman's office had been involved with very political statements on social media. It was noted that this had created concern within the Ombudsman team. It was emphasised that the Ombudsman's system was integral to the ethical and standards system in Wales. It was noted that there was no similar system in England and there were substantial features in terms of maintaining the system to have an independent body and responsibility for the investigation process.

Attention was drawn to part 4.1 of the report where three recommendations were highlighted from the independent report that would be of interest to the members.

Observations / questions were invited from the members.

It was noted, as many of the Ombudsman's complaints did not go further than the first step, it would be better if the case was restricted to the complainant and the person under investigation to prevent the concern that publishing it would cause.

In response, the Monitoring Officer noted that the existence of an Ombudsman complaint was confidential to the parties in question until there was a decision on the investigation. However, it was acknowledged that the complainant could inform the person subject to the complaint of the complaint against them. It was explained that experience suggested that the current system created less concern and enquiries regarding complaints.

It was noted that a member could wait six to nine months before a decision was made and it was believed that the lack of resources from the Ombudsman and the fact that a substantial proportion of its time was focused on complaints against health boards was responsible for that.