News

We have begun an own initiative investigation into how Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care Trusts communicate with patients on healthcare waiting lists.

We want to make a positive difference to people and public services in Northern Ireland.  We do this by resolving complaints and making recommendations so that mistakes are not repeated. Our new Strategic Plan sets out how we intend to carry out this work.  We will be independent, people-focused and fair.  We will also aim to deliver excellence, with a focus on continuous learning and improvement.

A plan to transform how public bodies handle complaints has been launched today by the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman (NIPSO).

The Northern Ireland Assembly today (19 January 2022) approved our complaints handling Statement of Principles. 

Our Own Initiative report into how the Department for Communities (the Department) administer Personal Independence Payment placed a requirement on the Department to provide us with an Action Plan, outlining how it intends to address and implement our 33 recommendations.

Our latest Quarterly Bulletin gives an update on our work to simplify and standardise complaints handling in the public sector, as well as links to some of our most recent investigation reports.

We received a total of 927 complaints during 2020-21.  The Ombudsman’s Report provides further details of these complaints, and includes summaries of some of our casework from the year.

This paper sets out the Ombudsman’s views on the Department of Health’s policy proposals to enact a statutory Duty of Candour in Northern Ireland.

Our recent investigation made 33 recommendations to improve how the Department for Communities (the Department) administer Personal Independence Payment. 

Since 1969 my Office has been dealing with complaints about public services.  Over that time we have dealt with around 40,000 complaints and we have worked with public bodies to support them to handle complaints well.