Scottish Public Services Ombudsman - Edinburgh

Mike P.

Left my review on TrustPilot under ‘ Lamentable’
How is such a poor service allowed to continue .
Politicians/Auditors/ Inspectorate .
The checks and balances are fractured .
We are in trouble in Scotland .
Public services think they are the Masters now and a ‘pals act’ covers up for each other.
Dire .

pat K.

Update 13/2/25 went to them again more stress anxiety frustration .they state they cant request or force any local authority to apologise especially individuals i was seeking anthology from ,also highlights and about this quango mob . funded by us the tax .you wont get any satisfaction from this mob be assured .unless you try and successfully claim the local councils own insurance company for compensation which i managed to acheive after jumping a few hurdels . .
please dont waste your life tryin spso
even the data stats they produce are not verified by any independant body i know of.plus ive read other cases on the net ,stating things like they did this ,they did do that and this and that .ok then show us the reall evidence of what they did do !?. another waste of public monies .
Telling them their complaints procedure or process is an pure utter conn and a farce .i wrote to my lovley local housing propertys dept with a complaint .front line "resolution" !!!makes me laugh ,next stage is their "investigation "oh my side are hurting now .then they advise you to take it here, for more torture and corruption pure farce from top area management full of excuses and lies and cant or wont produce any real evidence so makes them unaccountable and a law unto themselves policy
'customer services /care ..,they only pass the buck every single time you contact them.they pass you onto the relevent dept and again are not fit for purpose dept either, they are badly trained in telephone eticit. Bad reflection on managers.update the on ombusdaman 20,/7/22 still due to covid ,any complaints ,will take at least 8 months before a member of their box ticking spso investigating officers/ staff can look at your complaint .please ring them and listen to their answer message its laughable .what makes me laugh even more is all staff are on furlough, sitting at home with their feet up counting their earnings fom the public purse for doing,sfa. .just an gov qango agency ,its been said before on other reveiws .paul mitchell spot on comments summed up first class comment .this quango needs shut down quicker the better totally waste of monies £millions this is cost tax payers .

R L.

I would strongly advise people against this organisation. They harm the public and public services. They present themselves to the public as if their aim is to help us when a school, hospital or other public service has made mistakes and harmed us. Instead they seem to operate to cover up faults with public services and gaslight the victim. Despite us presenting an array of evidence to the SPSO, including statutory violations of policy by one of Scotland's largest schools, which resulted in life-changing trauma to children, the SPSO repeated evidence-free false stories of the council, ignored actual evidence of negligence and discrimination and ruled in the council's favour. This resulted in a weakening of council policy and a worsening rather than improvement of public services. These smiling bureaucrats are drawing salaries to kick people when they are down. The SPSO is cruel and unjust. I agree with others who suggest they are corrupt - they can't be so consistently incapable at investigating or blind to facts. This is not just the current SPSO - all SPSOs have been the same and there is no reason to believe that a new one will be any different, as the law gives them free reign to say black is white, if they wish. All their challenged decisions need re-investigating by a new body and they should be held to account for the damage they have done, in the same way as is beginning to happen with the Post Office. It is deeply harmful offering people a life-ring when they need one and then dragging it under water once they grab hold.

David W.

Contacted the ombudsman when the banks were charging me £25 a letter sent, which at one stage worked out at £625 per month and they did "fizz all" about it, that was ten yrs ago and I'm still struggling to get over the banks and thier inactions 😡😡😡

J T.

Every complaint not upheld .they stated its landlords discrection what actions they take if any.they cant force or advise any landlord to take appropriate action .what a waste of time and monies .more anxiety bringing you horrific stories to the spso.dont bring the custom .

Dushyant K.

I had submitted a complaint for a University, and after a long of wait, they essentially reiterated what was said on the University's outcome letter. It was a copy-and-paste job. Won't recommend wasting your time - ChatGPT is more intelligent than this complaints service.

John R.

I've been dealing with this lot away back 5/07/23 and what a big disappointment does this lot ever agree with anyone's complaints...I personally wouldn't recommend anyone too contact this lot because it's one waste of time...for the length of time this has taken for them to decide against everything I've asked them to look at is shocking...I would never ever use this service ever again and personally don't know what it's supposed to be doing in helping people because as far as I'm concerned everything you need help with seems not to be important too them...so my verdict is one big disappointment and if asked I wouldn't recommend using this service....pure waste of time....if I could give no stars I would... no backbone comes to mind.
John Reid
14/05/24

Anne B.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THIS AGENCY
I referred to the SPSO after an unsatisfactory response from my initial NHS complaint.
I noted afterwards the negative reviews.

Seems this bureaucracy was set up to repeat the NHS’s initial response. Clearly a large bureaucratic organisation which employs significant members of staff so at least it provides employment (at a cost to the public purse).

I remember reading that recent events ie. Covid will expose jobs which are a waste of time and money. This is clearly an example.

Their investigation was of a very poor standard. Forget about their statement that it was people centred.
I asked for copies of what their report was based on to find that it appeared that the only piece of evidence used was from the Consultant whom I had seen for a few minutes after having asked to meet with a Doctor over what are real issues with my treatment. His information was inaccurate. He advised that he could not comment on my contact with another Doctor as he was not present at the time (which was inaccurate) then he proceeded to comment anyway.

The agency went on to initially try and limit my access to the medical evidence I asked for. They seemed not to know that medical records are openly accessible to patients.

Overall this was a disappointing, eye opening experience.
I worked in local government for 34 years before retiring, including doing investigations after complaints,so I know how to conduct such processes. This standard of report would never have been accepted.

Do not waste your time with this agency. Seek legal advice from agencies who offer no win, no fee contracts.

My problem was not serious enough to follow such a path and I had to find a way forward myself. I am aware that people will take much more serious issues to this agency and expect a fair outcome.