Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Reviews 

The SPSO does not investigate complaints that have been denied, when the most scandalous of social service and police conduct is solidly evidenced. As such, they regulate neither. Disgust doesn't cover it given the Scottish Social Services Council uses the exact same loophole. Shame on both.

I agree with all the other comments.
It is a disgrace to have long drawn out decisions leaving it too late for court action. They accepted reports which some answers were untrue. I had made a complaint regarding a 4 day wait for a c.t scan at University Hospital Monklands. It was too late and my husband passed away on 5th day. I later found out he was given a blood thinner which could have caused a bad reaction. He had previously had reactions to certain medication. I feel they accepted covered and contradicting answers from the hospital. I received apologies but that does not help. The truth would have been a better outcome and the medicine should have had another warning for future.

I agree with most of the reviewers on this site. The SPSO is not fit for purpose and colludes with the public bodies it is meant to be investigating, instead of helping the complainant. Public and regulatory bodies close ranks leaving the individual powerless.
 
During a difficult and protracted complaints process I have discovered that:
The SPSO frequently ignores or is selective about evidence, and it can make unsubstantiated statements as it sees fit.
The SPSO hides behind process - it investigates whether an organisation has followed its own processes and does not make a  judgement on the outcome of those processes - in my case the death of a very close family member. 
If the SPSO cannot look at outcomes, even something as serious as a death, why does it exist at all?The SPSO will not consider negligence as it is 'a legal term' and states that the complainant needs to go to court for that. In which case why would a complainant bother to complain about poor care to either the Care Inspectorate or the SPSO?

Rosemary Agnew points out that the next stage after a failed complaint review request is for the complainant to go to a lawyer, knowing full well that most people do not qualify for legal aid and cannot afford legal action. I have found that a number of no win-no fee lawyers are not prepared to challenge the judgement of regulatory bodies, and I am wondering if going to those bodies makes things worse.

I've been waiting since last year for a reply from a member of their staff, she didn't answer emails and blatantly ignored me

independant organisation funded by the corrupt scottish government

Nothing but email replies saying we have your complaint followed by over 12 emails..Click continue complaint and complaint does not exist.Useless site with no human contact at all followed by minimum 4 month time too even get anything addressed email.Finally got a email stating nothing we can do and that's the end of the complaint.pretty useless organisation if you can call them a organisation.More a useless rabble with no interest in settling complaints.Joke outfit

they have been dealing with my complaint for over a year against bield housing regarding antsocial benaviour .housing manager lying and doing nothing about problems in complex .housing officer lying even though police involved i proved bield lyied and covered things up glasgow office lied telling tenents they have no tenents right ,billd housing failing in they duties to protect tenents housing omnbus sided with them supprise would not trust them at all bield housing are ripping tenent off no repairs getting done charging tenents service charges and doing nothing for them sorry both are cup fromthe same clothe both of them should be investagated disgracefull dont waste you time on ombudsman should be closed down they are for housing and dont give dam for tenents

Extremely corrupt and unprofessional. The reason why local government is in such a mess is because they are actively colluding with the local authorities to keep their fraud and corruption from being investigated.

A public enquiry should be conducted as the SPSO are dangerously incompetent to the point of corruption themselves. Watch out for Rosemary Agnew and Chris Nobel. Agnew does not mind libelling people if it will protect the corrupt local authorities and answer questions off the wall that have no baring or logical reasoning to the complaint made.

Orkney Islands Council should be investigated for fraud and corruption. Harassment and Breach of the GDPR, twice, no less. Acknowledged the first and failed to report it to the ICO and then again when Orkney Islands Staff disclosed information to the press regarding our case.

In addition, Orkney Islands Staff withdrew funding we were granted so that they could steal our IP and our project which they then tendered out themselves as a contract. No guesses that someone had a golden handshake for doing that. Lots for Agnew to brush under the carpet there.

TL;DR SPSO refuse to take up without letter can't get letter from council as they refuse to follow their own procedure so how can I give letter that they won't give. Pure laziness, lack of compassion and helpfulness from the ombudsman avoid at all costs!

This has been on-going since 19 August with the council and started communications with the SPSO as well on the 26th of September due to council refusing to contact back.

I have an on-going issue with the council now due to the fact that I am getting nowhere with the council at stage 1, They never respond or follow through with what they are meant too in regards to their own complaints procedure. I contacted the SPSO and asked if they can take up regardless after 8 weeks like EVERY other ombudsman do. This is due to normally people facing a lot of unhelpful no response etc complaints which becomes a very big issue and you end up going round in circles pulling your hair out.

Now they refused to do this and kept sending email after email back saying you need to wait rest assured we will take up after we get the letter and I am like this has been going on since 19th of August I doubt I am ever going to get the bloody letter, I more likely to win the lottery before getting the letter. Anyway this has resulted in me giving up with the SPSO and having to go to local councillors and keep on at council for however long whilst looking into legal action through court due to not getting anywhere with a so called independent body who are unbiased.

Well they don't seem to even be unbiased due to them contacting council on numerous dates asking them to follow through their complaints procedure which they never do. They have contacted me after the SPSO have asked a few times but they promise one thing on the call but then do another after. The last time the Ombudsman ever done anything they got a response back from the council saying it wasn't being dealt with as a complaint and they referred me back to the SAME COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE i already followed!!!!!!!! and can prove I did. So how on earth do I get a complaint dealt with when the council don't believe there complaints procedure means a complaint?

The council also had someone come to my house supposedly a supervisor according to what they told SPSO and explain the reason for the issue which didn't add up nor made any sense and why didn't they tell me all this through email and the communication channels they are meant too go through with a complaint. Even the council where like why have they came out to your house and I am like I have no idea. The council are also confused as to why this person has wrote to the SPSO claiming its not a complaint when they can clearly see on the system that it is registered as a complaint. So the council themselves are admitting it is but then lying blatantly to the SPSO that it isn't. Bare in mind I can provide the evidence too all of this through doing a freedom of request to get the telephone call logs and the emails will also prove it regardless. But again the SPSO not wanting to take up just believe whatever lie the council spin them and refuse too listen too proof and reason.

I can provide evidence of actively dealing with this for 8 weeks and getting no where. This can be proved through records held at the council. The fact that every other ombudsman I have ever dealt with so 2 and other ones also have this that they have an 8 week deadline so deadlock letter or not they still take it up due to you attempting to fight it. Not SPSO as they are all for an easy life for them not the people who are trying to get issues resolved which are made worse by the failings of the ombudsman. Avoid at all costs as you will pull your hair out I could put a lot more in regards to this on here but quite frankly I am sick of going over this with numerous different people from different companies etc. It would be a different story entirely if you were in England as one their is more ombudsman services that deal with England and Wales and all of them have 8 week deadline so as long as you have evidence of actively chasing a complaint etc if they refuse to give deadlock letter or follow complaints procedure the ombudsman will take on the case.

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.