Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Reviews 107

Complained to spso about data breach by NHS Test and protect spso refused to investigate told me to contact ICO, i asked for my complaint to be looked at again months later get email saying they stand by first answer and they will not change their mind, i do not think anything ws even done to look into this data breach and never will be investigated they are just covering up for each other and they are as bad as each other, never ever use this company as they do not take your complaint seriously and will not investigate it. Shambles of a company.

Total waste of time, I wouldn't waste my time again with this service in the future. I am unsure why public money is being wasted on this body as they are not fit for purpose. Evidence of malpractice and quite frankly corruption and they still back up the local authority. How are we ever going to get change in our broken systems when the bodies set up to take on these cases just pretends like nothing happened.

Ms Agnew was presented with the fact that a Multinational fast food restaurant moved into our building erecting massive equipment on the back of the building with zero planning permission. This goes against the City Development Plan that was set up on the back of legislation so is law and must be followed by a local authority.

Myself and neighbours reported to GCC at the time and they completed an "enforcement investigation" which said everything was above board. By the time I got the council to ADMIT there wasn't planning permission they then hid behind the 4 year planning law & the equipment would automatically get planning permission, even although there had been complaint after complaint involving councillors, MPs and MSPs. Ms Agnew never took any of this into consideration and ruled in favour of GCC. She is clearly not capable of doing her job and the SPSO needs to be investigated by the Scottish government to understand if they are truly fit for purpose.

I have been left with a flat in Glasgow's West End that at the height of the recent boom in house sales I could not even sell. Everyone loved the flat but were concerned about having to live above a chicken shop (which is an at risk business and has increased our insurance liabilities as such) & about the noise created by the equipment.

I would also note that like many govt. agency's SPSO like to play the 20 working days rule for FOI requests. This is a trick used by GCC and SPSO where they send you the reply at 4pm on the 20th day no matter how trivial the answer & even when it's them saying they can't answer the request. This is a little game they all play so that things take so long they can then turn around & say "oh we're really sorry to much time has passed".

I wish theses agencies would understand there set up for the people.

Used this organisation quite a few times now. Not fit for purpose. They negotiate with the very people you are complaining about. They reluctantly investigate and it's not in your favour. The investigators are hit and miss and I would strongly urge you to take your complaint somewhere else. The papers, a magazine, a solicitor. Anywhere but this organisation. It will be a total waste of your time and energy. This is why nothing in this country improves. They have the power and do very little with it.

Two Appeals were made to the SPSO surrounding serious environmental issues, that were harmful to health and property, but the SPSO amalgamated the appeals and got totally lost as to just what was happening. There was no-one within the SPSO who could get to grips with the case files, showing a complete disregard for the Appellant and their family, but favouring the Public authority causing the problem of sewage discharging into everyones property including a graveyard. Only one reference number was provided which demonstrates that the SPSO amalgamated these Appeals, but deny doing so. A huge error on their part. Not any part of the Two Appeals have been addressed even though Rosemary Agnew was meant to have personally Reviewed the Appeals. The Public Authority who was being investigated by the SPSO told me that the SPSO told them not to talk to me anymore. Is this true - I have asked for copies of all correspondence and despite being told this would be couried to me by the SPSO, nothing has been received to-date. The SPSO are nothing less than a quango organisation where complete and utter bias is shown to the public authorities they are meant to investigate. DO NOT GO TO THE SPSO UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, but find an outlet where you can get heard fairly and equitably. Clearly from the Bad Reviews posted I am not alone in my experience. The SPSO needs a shake-up where a new insightful Ombudsman would be a great asset to shedding the old hard-bitten and complacent habits of the current regime. This happened with the Scottish Information Commissioner and what a great organisation they have now turned out to be.

Totally agree with all reviews. You wait over 12 months just for your case to be read. Certainly not good experience taking up complaints regarding NHS Tayside. NHS certainly good at covering themselves big time over errors in care and treatment. Having worked previously within NHS as health professional for many years until early ill health retirement, It has been an eye opener on receiving end of poor care and treatment. Apologies from NHS board on few matters doesn't make situation right. Should have been thoroughly investigated by Ombudsman as errors had been made and clinicians disagreeing with each other over a diagnosis was shocking resulting in my life turned upside down. No confidence in Public Ombudsman and as previous reviews highlighted also I did not feel they were independent and Scottish Government needs to overall this service as it isn't fit for purpose and basically response letter was a cut and pasted version from NHS Tayside complaints response. After months waiting on my case to be looked at it was a waste of time and stress trying to have NHS Tayside take accountability for their incompetence and failures. Have no trust in NHS Tayside due to their cover ups and public Ombudsman who aren't impartial exploring clinical failures.

Unprofessional, insensitive and highly incompetent. Strung along for months in relation to a complaint about Forth Health Board only for the final, flawed, inaccurate and biased Decision Notice to be published without prior notification and a number serious allegations and questions outstanding. Don’t waste your time with them!

Just got off the phone speaking to someone at the SPSO. They should all resign like their prime minister. They are useless.

I haven't used the SPSO but was recommended to use it by the local MP and Citizens Advice Bureau following my mistreatment by NHS Borders resulting in my formal complaint to NHS Borders which was later mishandled by the Trust. So glad I didn't use it in the end after reading all the disturbing reviews. Not everyone who has written these reviews can be wrong can they as much as NHS Scotland would like to blame them. Yet another shambolic waste of tax- payers' money.

Purely set up to avoid compensation payments and protect public bodies. DO NOT use SPSO. Take legal, court action.

A complete and utter waste of time. The complaints investigator did not understand the complaint nor did she attempt to.

Puppets of the nhs.

Pointless having this organisation exist. They do nothing re: complaints, so what is the point of them taking up tax payers money?

A total waste of time.
The SPSO carried out no investigation as the Council blatantly broke policy, rules and regulations. To make matters worse, part of the complaint was a public safety concern which was supported by irrefutable evidence which was totally ignored in both the original complaint and the complaint review.

Just as incompetent and corrupt as the organisations for which they act as gatekeeper’s. Not to be trusted and quite frankly they appear to exist simply to tick the box of “Independent Arbitrators”. Which they clearly are not. Don’t expect any impartial, fair and transparent investigation, that is not their function. In a way it stands to reason that an organisation funded by the very organisations that they are expected to Police is unlikely to be fit for purpose. An utter disgrace. They are the reason why so many organisations have to be reported in the first place. The very fact that 95% of contributors on Trustpilot have given “Poor” ratings as opposed to 5% “Excellent” ratings should make the Scottish Government sit up and take notice. This organisation is FAILING the very people it was set up to PROTECT and on whose behalf they should be arbitrating. It is clear they need replacing or cleaning out.

The SPSO only seem to exist to protect public authorities from genuine scrutiny when things go wrong.
They are all part of the problem and that is why the public will never get a fair level of service whilst these expensive and corrupt organisations are there to sweep the dirt under the carpet for the incompetence and malpractice of the large public service bodies.
They themselves should be investigated for misleading the public and being dishonest about their true operational nature.

SPSO are not independent they always favour in the organisation being complained about. What is also disturbing is during a complaint, when an upheld provisional decision is all uphelded, then the organisation being complained about write to the SPSO complaining about the first original advisor used and criticises their professional judgement and demands another advisor! Since when did an independent Ombudsman take orders from the NHS telling them what to do? The SPSO are not being fully independent and I think another independent Ombudsman that is not related to the Scottish Government needs to be created for fair and accurate investigations. The SPSO are adding to the trauma and stress that the organisations created. They are obvious working together to ensure that no NHS trust or Local Authority is held accountable for neglect, failure and abuse to the public.

The biggest corrupt organisation I have had to deal with , I asked for a transcript of the call I had with a member of the staff was told on the phone all calls are recorded I asked her is this call being recorded she said yes !!!!! Now I no the advisor has given me false information and also said things that she should not had said that is why I wanted the proof but low and behold this conversation was lost not recorded or you mean this is a stitch up and we need to get rid of the evidence for years people have been going to this corrupt organisation and thousands have been rejected or been lied to by this organisation we need to get this corrupt organisation closed get a independent organisation in the people that get paid don't have a clue this is shocking I have asked for a public investigation into this case let's see if I get it cause I have evidence of my own that will rock this organisation and hopefully close it bet I don't even get a response 🤬🤬🤬

Probably just as big a waste of time as complaining to your local Authority to start with. Clearly not independent or impartial and their integrity has to be questionable.

The SPSO is partial constantly acting in favour of the council housing and the housing associations, incompetent they cannot distinguish a genuine complaint where there is a breach of the law, discriminatory they discriminate tenants in favour of the council and the housing associations for which they work for….dealing with them is a waste of time…

I agree with most of the comments on here. The SPSO is an absolute disgrace.
The evidence of malpractice and malfeasance by local authority is plain as day yet the SPSO just spew gibberish which does not make sense.
Disgusting organisation.