‘Staggering’ rise in Ombudsman complaints

Martin Shipton

There has been a “staggering” 43% increase in the number of new complaints made to the Ombudsman for Wales since the year before the Covid-19 pandemic, the body’s annual report for 2024-25 has revealed.

Over the period, , the Ombudsman received 949 complaints about health boards, a 26% increase since 2019-20; 1,337 complaints about councils, a 54% increase since 2019-20; and 411 complaints about housing associations, a 103% increase since 2019-20.

At 34%, health remains the most common subject of new complaints. However, the proportion of complaints about housing has increased, to 19%. Positively, the proportion of complaints about complaint handling has continued to decrease and now stands at 12% – the lowest since 2019-20.

Public services

The Ombudsman found that something had gone wrong and intervened in 18% of complaints about public services closed during the year, compared to 20% the year before. Almost 9 out of 10 times, the Ombudsman intervened by proposing Early Resolution, to deliver justice quickly, without the need for a full investigation.

Organisations complied with 94% of the Ombudsman’s recommendations due during the year, but a lower proportion of recommendations were complied within time, with the target date agreed.

The Ombudsman is also responsible for investigating complaints about local councillors breaching the code of conduct.

During 2024-25, the Ombudsman received 315 code of conduct complaints that the office could consider; 4% less than last year, but 36% more than in 2019-20. Some 60% of the new complaints were made against councillors at town and community councils and 56% were about how councillors promoted equality and respect.

Standards committee

The report states: “The office does not make final findings about breaches of the code of conduct. Instead, where investigations find the most serious concerns, these are referred to the standards committee of the relevant local authority, or the Adjudication Panel for Wales. In 2024-25, the Ombudsman made 15 such referrals – standards committees and the Adjudication Panel upheld and found breaches in 85% of the Ombudsman’s referrals they considered.

“2024-25 marks another year of increasing caseloads, with more people than ever approaching the Ombudsman with complaints about public services. The office has intervened early in more cases and reduced the time taken to complete investigations. The Ombudsman has also made strides in promoting improvements in public services through complaints standards work, own initiative investigations and thematic reports. Despite challenges, public confidence in the office is the highest on record.”

Scandal

The report went on to refer to a scandal exposed by Nation.Cymru in early 2024 in which the Ombudsman’s head of investigations Sinead Cook lost her job after making a series of prejudicial social media posts, including one that said “Fuck the Tories”.

The report states:” In order to rebuild public trust and confidence in our service, the Ombudsman appointed Dr Melissa McCullough to undertake an independent review of our handling of code of conduct complaints. The report on this review found that the Ombudsman’s code of conduct processes and delegations are “appropriate, fair and impartial and free from political bias”.

Following this, the Senedd’s finance committee published its report on the review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales. The report stated that “the Senedd can have confidence that the office is able to undertake future investigations with impartiality and fairness”. However, some non-Labour councillors continued to maintain that they had been treated unfairly.”

Fair

The report contains detailed information on how the office responded to the recommendations and lessons learned from the review. It states: “The Ombudsman is determined to ensure that people across Wales know about the Office and that it offers a fair and equal service to all.

“In 2024-25, 48% of people asked said that they knew about the Ombudsman– only a slightly lower proportion than last year. At 79%, confidence in the Office was the highest on record.

“86% of complainants surveyed said that it was easy to contact the Ombudsman – compared to 83% last year.

“The office accepted 162 complaints other than in writing – compared to 103 last year. This is an important way in which the Ombudsman can remove some barriers that may stop people from complaining.

“The Ombudsman also works to drive public services improvement. Some 54 public bodies across Wales now comply with the complaints standards set out by the Ombudsman. Since 2020, the office has provided 550 training sessions, reaching about 10,000 staff at public bodies in Wales. Evidence suggests that, since the Ombudsman was granted the power to promote good complaints standards in Wales in 2019, there has been some improvement in the experience of people complaining to public service providers.

“The Ombudsman can also investigate on her own initiative (without having received a complaint). During 2024-25, the office concluded its second wider own initiative investigation, which looked into carers’ needs assessments in Wales. The investigation found that very few carers receive a needs assessment they are entitled to, or a proper support plan, following their assessment.

“In addition, this year the Ombudsman issued eight public interest reports on some of the most serious complaints, all related to healthcare. The office also published two thematic reports, highlighting recurring themes in its casework. These included Living in Disrepair – a thematic report about housing disrepair and damp and mould complaints; and Equality Matters – a thematic report on issues around inclusion and accessibility in public services in Wales.

‘Challenge’

Michelle Morris, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales said: “We have now completed the second year of our Strategic Plan 2023-26, A New Chapter, and it has been another busy year.

“We continue to see an increase in new complaints reaching the office. I am proud to say that, despite this, our staff have continued to deliver exceptional services. However, managing this increasing workload remains a serious challenge for our office.

“This year, we gathered views from public service providers, the third sector and the general public, about our organisation and the services we deliver. We were pleased to see evidence of general appreciation of our work and acknowledgement that we have a positive impact on improving public services.”

“We will continue to work towards our ambitious goals during 2025-26, exploring new ways to overcome longstanding challenges and delivering justice and positive change for the people of Wales.”