The Office of the Ombudsman.
Maintaining objectivity in casework
and avoiding case hardening.
David Ryan
12 May, 2011
Maintaining objectivity
• The whole truth and nothing but..
• Personal contact with the customer
and the public body
• Filtering subjective views
• Maintaining our independence but
trained and “experienced”
• Experts in our own areas ?
The way we were
•
•
•
•
•
Review by peers
Review by superiors
An appeal system
Client surveys
How fair and efficient was the “old”
process ?
The way we are
A new process for dealing with
complaints
• Assessment of complaints
• Examination of complaints
• Investigation of complaints
Case hardening and how to
avoid it
•
•
•
•
Group discussion
Appeal process
Customer surveys
Spot checks and individual discussion
Cultural evolution ?
• Why we changed our process.
• Leaving our Silos
• Dangers inherent in changing our
process.
• Advantages of changing our process
• Can we maintain our objectivity and
avoid case hardening?