We sometimes receive multiple complaints about a council's decision to close a school or public facilities, or where members of a local community strongly oppose a planning application. If we decide to investigate how such a decision was made, we're very likely to take one generally representative complaint, investigate that and let the other complainants know the outcome.
No - we treat each complaint on its own merits. And our Act does not allow us to accept petitions or other broad based community representations.
We take the view that a single complaint made by an individual carries just as much weight as a group of people making a complaint. So when we get a large number of complaints about a particular issue, such as building a school or the closure of public facilities, we don’t treat the subject matter any differently from when someone brings us a complaint that only affects them.
You can ask the Ombudsman to review the decision. How to do this, and what the review process covers are set out under our decision review page; the Ombudsman’s review is the final, independent stage of the public service complaints and whistleblowing processes, and once she has made a final decision there are no further stages.
We will look at your complaint to see whether it can and should be investigated. See 'How we handle complaints' for more detailed information.
We use independent professional advisers when looking at some of our complaints.
Our professional advisers provide us with independent advice on health matters, including specialist advisers in: medicine, midwifery, mental health, obstetrics and gynaecology, dentistry, nursing, psychiatry and GP services. There are also advisers who specialise in social work, planning, equalities, environmental health and water services.
We aim to close 95% of our cases within 12 months of receiving the complaint, however, we are currently experiencing delays to our service and this may affect the time taken to investigate your complaint.