SPSO engages Independent Service Delivery Reviewer

With effect from 22 January 2009, the SPSO has engaged Ros Gardner to act as Independent Service Delivery Reviewer.   The Independent Service Delivery Reviewer is the final stage in the process of complaining about the service the SPSO has provided.  If people feel that we have fallen short of our Service Standards they can complain to us.  If, after complaining to us, they are still unhappy, they can contact the Independent Service Delivery Reviewer. 

Ros Gardner was contracted after a selection process following the invitation to tender which we issued in November 2008. 

Ros Gardner’s background
Graduating from Southampton University Ros joined a major retailer undertaking a variety of appointments divisionally and at Head Office.  Her work on the development and delivery of a wide range of corporate training programmes covered all areas of recruitment, management and communication.

Ros later went on to become Manager of the Customer Services Department, which included responsibility for a complaints department handling a quarter of a million customers per year.

Ros then spent two years as the Director of Field Services of the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, with responsibility for the overall operation of Citizens Advice Bureaux throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  In this role she was instrumental in co-ordinating the disparate cultural and political anomalies of this renowned public service.  Simultaneously Ros began her work in the Cabinet Office as a member of the Citizens Charter Complaints Task Force, helping to identify and implement best practice in customer care within the public sector. 

Ros now runs her own successful consultancy, specialising in Customer Care Excellence and Complaint Handling. Working with a wide range of clients she continues to help businesses exploit the opportunities that customer care provides.  She has also been employed as a Special Adviser to various Government Departments, providing help and guidance on Service Delivery.

As a professional keynote speaker on the subject of Customer Care Excellence, Ros has spoken widely at conferences in Europe.  As a writer for a number of professional and business publications, Ros continues to make her message known - ‘Investment in Customer Care Excellence will positively impact the balance sheet of any business’.

Ros is a member of the National Speakers Association (USA).  She is also a Founder Director of The Professional Speakers’ Association in the UK, and a member of the National Federation of Consumer Groups.  She is also a member of the Human Genetics Commission and the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority. She also sits on Fitness to Practise Panels of the General Teaching Council and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. She is the Independent Reviewer for IDRS (Independent Dispute Resolution Services), the Independent Complaints Mediator for the Criminal Records Bureau, and the Independent Complaint Arbitrator for the Pensions Regulator.

25 March 2009