HEALTH &WELLBEING
Reflecting
on the first half of 2017
in 2016, over 1,400 contacts have been recorded in an 18 month period.
Contacting the Ombudsman is the first step in the process. This can be done by anyone, including family members of Service personnel, but only aService person can make aformal application asking her to use her powers.
When making an application aService person can ask the Ombudsman to do one of three things:
1. Refer their intention to make aService complaint to their chain of command.
The Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces (the Ombudsman) provides independent and impartial oversight of the Service complaints
system.Nowin its second year of operation, this article takes alook at what the Ombudsman’s office has been doing in the first six months of 2017.
The beginning of the year saw the publication of the Ombudsman’s first Annual Report. Detailing the work of her office and the Service complaints process in 2016, the report, which is laid in Parliament, made 12 recommendations for improvement to the complaints process. While work on the implementation of these is ongoing, the core business of the OSCO continues.
As of 30 June 2017, the OSCO’s Referrals and Enquiries Team has logged over 550 contacts from people seeking information about the role of the Ombudsman or requesting her to use her powers. Combined with the contacts received
34 Envoy Autumn 2017
2. Review adecision by the chain of command to not accept their Service complaint for investigation or appeal for further decision.
3. Investigate undue delay in their ongoing Service complaint or Service matter or, where acomplaint has completed the internal system, to investigate alleged maladministration in the handling of their complaint and/or conduct an independent investigation into the substance (merits) of their complaint.
While not all of the applications received by the OSCO fall within her remit roughly 90% do. This year,515 of the applications made so far were “in scope” and around 40% of these were for review or investigation; keeping the Ombudsman’s Investigations Team running at full steam. 61% of applications have been accepted for investigation and 59% upheld, to some degree, in favour of the complainant.
RAF Personnel So far in 2017, RAF personnel have accounted for 16% of all applications
for investigation made. Since the OSCO commenced operation in 2016, 70% of applications made by RAF personnel that were accepted for investigation were upheld, to some degree, in favour of the complainant.
In all matters the decisions made by the Ombudsman are binding on the Service and the complainant. Although not binding, she can also make recommendations for action or redress in each case and these cannot be rejected by the Service without explanation.
The independent and impartial services of the Ombudsman are open to all Service personnel, whether Regular or Reserve. More information about the Ombudsman’s processes, including application forms and timeframes, can be found at
servicecomplaintsombudsman.org.uk.
Contacting the OSCO Youcan telephone the OSCO on 020 7877 3450 or by email contact@
servicecomplaintsombudsman.gsi.gov. uk and can follow the Ombudsman on Twitter-@SCOAF UK.
raf-ff.org.uk
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