First Contact Interest Group
Meeting Number:
Date:
Location:
Attendees:
17
27th November 2015
Pensions Ombudsman, 11 Belgrave Road, London, SW1V 1RB
Name
Aitken, Debra
Applegate, Vicky
Buckley, Jonathan (Secretary)
Caddick, Jenny
Carr, Mike
Cooper, Richard
Forest, Richard
Galligan, Donal
Irvine, Nigel
Jones, Laura
McCue, Jane
Neill, Carol (Chair)
Pardo-Zammit, Nadine
Quinn, Julie Anne
Shepherd, Rowena
Office/Scheme
The Property Ombudsman
Independent Complaints Reviewer
Local Government Ombudsman
Independent Case Examiner
Independent Case Examiner
Legal Ombudsman
Pensions Advisory Service
Ombudsman Association
Scottish Legal Complaints Commission
Independent Police Complaints Commission
Pensions Ombudsman
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
Gibraltar Ombudsman
Public Service Ombudsman Wales
Disclosure and Barring Service
Notes:
1. Welcome to members and introductions
Anthony Arter, Pensions Ombudsman welcomed everyone to the offices of the Pensions
Ombudsman Service.
Carol Neill welcomed members of the Interest Group to the Pensions Ombudsman in London
for its 17th meeting and, in particular new members of the Group and guest speakers.
2. Notes of previous meeting
Notes of the previous meeting, held on 22nd May, at the Legal Ombudsman, Birmingham,
were agreed as an accurate record. There were no matters arising.
3. Mental Health Awareness – Alex Tambourides, CEO Hammersmith and Fulham MIND
Alex gave an overview of MIND as an organisation and talked about the definitions of Mental
Health (MH)
Presentation is attached to these minutes.
Alex also encouraged the group to think about the client pathway. This is about considering
a customer’s journey through their processes so as to consider at what point MH problems
might arise.
A discussion followed with group members on practical adjustments that are made to assist
complainants who are suffering periods of poor mental health, supporting staff and training
that has been attended. It was recognised that setting boundaries was important and an
area for all to consider.
4. First contact at the Pensions Ombudsman – Jane McCue and Paul Strachan, Pensions
Ombudsman
Jane and Paul provided an overview of the Pension’s Ombudsman and first contact to the
group.
Presentation is attached.
Jane described how the Ombudsman will publish a single decision on their website to prevent
thousands of complaints on one particular issue. One example was a recent publication
regarding changes to the Police Pension Scheme that has been on the website since July
2015.
5. Ombudsman Association update & briefing on ADR matters being considered by the
OA Executive Committee – Donal Galligan, Association Secretary
Donal provided the group with an update on OA matters.
The OA newsletter has been put on hold at present whilst the contents are considered.
A caseworkers interest group is being considered. A chair and volunteers will be required and
the group were asked to take this back to their own offices. Membership will probably be
pitched at operational manager level.
The next conference will be held on 12th / 13th May in Dublin. Discussion will include a further
review of the membership criteria.
Donal also updated the group on ADR matters. Consumers are to have access to schemes
for every transaction they make. It is not compulsory for businesses but they will have to
signpost to an ADR approved body – such as Ombudsman Services.
Carol noted from the minutes of the Executive Committee, 25 September (item 8.6) that a
briefing for parliamentarians was being considered and suggested if the OA were interested in
organising something similar for parliamentarian assistants, this could perhaps be supported
by the first contact interest group, as staff members who are regularly in contact with
assistants offering advice on Ombudsman services.
To register as an Ombudsman will now require them to be an ADR body, be a member of the
association and to be able to prove an arena track record.
6. First Contact Interest Group Terms of Reference – Carol Neill, Chair
Carol shared the draft Terms of Reference with the group for discussion.
It was agreed that managing expectations needed to be added to section 4. All other contents
of the TOR were agreed.
7. Open forum
Debra Aitken raised concerns about the ICO and Data Protection issues. ICO have changed
the way that they deal with complaints / fines for breaches and this had caused anxiety for
staff at TPO.
As a result of this, TPO are now focussing on the reporting of breaches rather than the breach
itself. Debra has written a process guide for staff to standardise the annotation of case
records where details change
It was considered that this might be a topic for future discussion.
8. Possible agenda items for future discussion
Comparing translation services
Managing expectations regarding redress
Possible engagement of ICO
9. Date and location of next meeting
To be confirmed