Providing a Modern Service

Tangible takeaways from Outreach activities: Office of the Ombudsman on ‘Champions in the community’ / ‘Public participation networks’; and the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) on engagement with the advocacy sector.

Lessons to be learned: Impact of Social Media incident on the operations and reputation of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.

Session led by Professor Joe Tomlinson, University of York, on public perceptions of fair process and how seemingly small changes can significantly increase perceptions of procedural fairness and deliver wider benefits.

Session on how to measure long term impacts of ombudsman reports, including recent research by the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, into the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman.

Reflections from Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland on shifting from focus on individual cases to wider systemic recommendations – how their process has evolved and what has been learnt.

Roundtable on approaches to financial remedy and lessons learned: how should members set ‘tariffs’ and benchmark, and what should be the approach in today's financial climate if it’s a mass redress event? 

Lessons to be shared from complaints standards work and ‘training’ service providers to improve how they deal with complaints at the outset, with presentation from the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman, the Housing Ombudsman, and the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman.

Presentation from HGS, the conference sponsors, on how automation and their AI technology can improve efficiency and the customer journey.

Session on how members train their caseworkers, with presentations from the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman on their academy approach and the Furniture & Home Improvement Ombudsman, on ‘Ombudsman Skills’ based on the OA’s Caseworker Competency Framework.