What to expect when you make a complaint

When you report a complaint to us, we go through the following procedure: 

Is it a matter for us?

 
The first thing we do is to assess whether we can look at your complaint under our terms of reference. This is known as an eligibility check.

For example you must first have been through the prison, probation or immigration internal complaints procedure. There are also key time limits within which you must make the complaint.

If your complaint is not eligible, we will explain why and suggest what you should do instead.

If it is eligible, we will let you know and then pass your complaint to one of our Investigation Teams to begin the Ombudsman's investigation.

Investigating the complaint

 
Your complaint will be allocated to an investigator who will contact you to introduce him or herself.

The investigator will first consider if there is a way of resolving the complaint without a full investigation.  If so, the investigator will contact you, and the organisation you are complaining about, to try to negotiate a settlement.  If a settlement is not possible, we will then start a full investigation.

The investigator will gather evidence about the events raised in the complaint. This may include:

• telephoning or visiting the complainant
• interviewing, by telephone or in person, the staff involved, or any other relevant witnesses for further information
• a site visit to see the situation for themselves
• researching relevant laws, policies, procedures and guidelines.
  

Making a decision

When the investigator has gathered all the information, they will recommend to an Assistant Ombudsman whether or not your complaint should be upheld.

A final decision is made by either an Assistant or Deputy Ombudsman.

If your complaint is not upheld, you’ll receive a letter with a detailed explanation of the findings of the investigation and the specific reasons why we have not upheld your complaint.

If your complaint is upheld, the investigator will write to you, setting out the details, the findings and the conclusions. We may also make certain recommendations to the organisation you are complaining about to help them ensure the problem does not occur again. 

If the complaint warrants it, we will write a full report. We will send a draft copy of this report to you, and to the organisation you are complaining about, to check that we have accurately described the details of the complaint.  We’ll then send you a final copy of the report. 

Making recommendations to prevent the problem happening again

The recommendations we make in reports are directed at the organisation you are complaining about and any other body we feel is relevant.

The prison, probation and immigration services must tell us whether they accept our recommendations and let us know when they will implement them.

We then require written evidence from the organisations to show how they have implemented the recommendations.