7. Written evidence from Citizens
Advice Cymru
INTRODUCTION
Citizens Advice Cymru welcomes the opportunity
to comment on the Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Bill 2004.
The Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) Service in Wales is the largest
integrated network of independent advice agencies in Wales with
service delivered from 54 main offices and 210 secondary advice
outlets, with telephone access in every CAB, which is available
467 hours per week. In the year 2003-04, Wales CABx dealt with
299,078 enquiries including welfare benefits, debt, consumer,
employment, housing and legal issues.
As the request from the Joint Committee is to
look at the proposals within the context of the Bill, we will
make comments with references to particular clauses and some general
comments at the end.
PART 1 THE
PUBLIC SERVICES
OMBUDSMAN FOR
WALES
Clause 1 The Public Services Ombudsman for
Wales
Citizens Advice Cymru strongly supports a single
Ombudsman Service in respect of the functions to be adopted, which
were previously exercised by the Commission for Local Administration
in Wales, the Welsh Administration Ombudsman, the Health Service
Commissioner for Wales and the Social Housing Ombudsman for Wales.
The new framework should lead to more effective
handling of complaints, which cross lines of jurisdiction and
give a single point of entry form complainants and CAB advisers
acting on behalf of clients.
It would also help in the creation of a higher
national profile of Ombudsman Services in Wales.
It should also afford all affected groups and
individuals equality of redress. Many CAB clients are particularly
dependent on public services. They may also be disadvantaged by
low incomes, sickness and disability, language and isolation.
A research study conducted by MORI on behalf of citizens Advice
(2003-04) shows that CAB users overall are more likely to be in
social grades C2DE, have a long-term limiting illness or disability
and live in social housing than people who approached other organisations
for help and advice. The true test of any redress mechanism is
whether it is accessible to and meets the needs of the most disadvantaged.
That is what matters for CAB clients. It is important that any
reform does not lose sight of those requirements.
PART 2: INVESTIGATION
OF COMPLAINTS
Clause 3 Alternative resolution of complaints
We welcome the provision that allows for the
Ombudsman to take steps to resolve complaints without proceeding
to a formal investigation. The primary concerns of a Bureau adviser,
is to find the most effective solution to a clients problem. At
the point of entry, the client is at a stage when ombudsmen are
a distant prospect. When clients come to a Bureau nursing a grievance
and asking how to progress it, with some few exceptions we start
mostly with a problem to be resolved preferably quickly. A system
of alternative resolution is therefore an important avenue of
redress when a solution is easily obtainable and will provide
Bureaux with an efficient resource in terms of progressing client
casework. For example,
A client in Mid Wales, who had a central heating
system installed through a full Home Energy Efficiency Scheme
grant, had been without hot water for 18 months due to incomplete
installation. Despite numerous contacts with the Scheme manager
and the installer, nothing had been done. The client had been
powerless, as she had no contractual relationship with the installation
company. However, contact with the Welsh Administration Ombudsman
resulted in an immediate visit from the contractor, who promised
to complete the work the following week.
Clause 6 Requirements: Complaints referred
to the Ombudsman
Subsection (1) (d) states that a complaint "must
be referred to the Ombudsman before the end of the period of one
year starting on the day on which the complaint was made to the
listed authority". In order for one-year times-limit to be
met, it is vital that internal checks of a listed authority are
time-limited to ensure sufficient time for complainant to consider
taking forward to the Ombudsman within one year. We welcome the
inclusion of subsection (2), which allows for the Ombudsman to
determine any question of whether the requirements of subsection
(1) are met in terms of a complaint as an avenue for judgments
over the complainant's rights to complain to the Ombudsman in
terms of time limits.
Furthermore, there is a confusing range of internal
mechanisms in terms of complaints to listed authorities and CABx
experience shows that complainants can find it difficult to know
what stage their complaint has reached. A clear signal that the
option of going to the Ombudsman could be taken up, after a given
time has elapsed, would be a significant advance and provide authorities
and departments with incentives to respond quickly. For example,
A client at a North Wales CAB had appealed against
a decision by his Local Authority to refuse Council Tax Benefit
on grounds of too much capital, due to the judgement the client
had and amount of notional capital that took him above the capital
level. The money related to a savings bond that the client's partner
had and which she cashed and gave to her son, for her grandchildren,
18 months before she moved in with client. An appeal letter had
been written two months previously, to which in response the LA
said they would be reviewing the decision. Despite numerous telephone
calls from the client and Bureaux, there still had been no decision.
The CAB wrote to the Benefits Section referring to a recent Ombudsman
report on delays in referring Housing Benefit appeals to Appeals
Service and stating that they would be initiating a social policy
action in relation to Council Tax Benefit appeals. They promptly
received a reply to say that the cases would be passed to Appeals
Service within 14 days.
We therefore seek clarity over whether periods
for internal consideration by all listed authorities is to be
time limited and that sufficient mechanism for notices on the
option to go to the Ombudsman will be put in place. This would
add further incentives for listed authorities to respond quickly
and avoid confusion as to the client's rights in terms of referrals.
Clause 8 Exclusions: matters not relating
to Wales
Where services are provided in England under
contract for a listed authority under Schedule 3, there should
be sufficient clarity for clients and Bureaux advisers and the
general public, as to the appropriate Ombudsman for referral eg
for services provided from and NHS Trust in England, which is
contracted as a regional centre by a Welsh authority, or whether
the investigation is subject to Consultation and Co-operation
as referred to in Clause 24. CAB advisers base their work on the
sharing of sufficient and appropriate information for clients
in order for them to find the most effective solution in relation
to their enquiry. It is therefore vital that any information material
published by the Ombudsman makes it clear the extent of his/her
remit.
GENERAL
Profile of the Ombudsman
The Bill provides a framework for the structure
of the Ombudsman service and his/her office and the powers of
investigation of the new body. We suggest that the new body should
also have a high profile and be given an enabling, rather than
prescriptive, framework. This needs to be coupled with adequate
financial foundations to this end.
In this respect, we would expect the Ombudsman
to reflect the principles of the CAB Service. A well as helping,
we have an equal commitment to ensuring that their experience
has an influence on policymaking and service delivery. In Ombudsman
language, we alert to systematic problems and much effort is expended
at a UK, national and local level to secure improvement.
Furthermore, we see the value of redress for
the relatively few individuals, which only an Ombudsman can secure
as an essential ultimate right and also ultimate sanction on the
organisation responsible for the injustice. But we attach as much,
if not more importance to the influence which ombudsmen exercise,
in their judgements on individual cases, in defining standards
and influencing practice ie serving the wider public good.
Quality of internal complaints handling
We attach particular importance to the new body
being free to develop its operations in the best interest of complainants.
We suggest that it should be an integral part of the new body's
function to comment upon, and engage in continuing dialogue about
the quality of internal complaints handling. Public sector ombudsmen
have the potential to exert a major influence since they are,
in effect, auditing internal complaints handling in every complaint
they investigate. The relationship between access to internal
complaints mechanisms and the ombudsmen will be crucial. It will
affect how accessible ombudsmen genuinely are.
Independence of the Ombudsman Service
In view of the relationship with the Assembly
(with regards to the directions over the production of annual
reports, salary, estate etc and the powers of investigation into
maladministration or service failure by the Assembly), the independence
of the Ombudsman, as an adjudicator of the standards of services
delivered to the public must be guarded.
12 January 2005
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