Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) is the final stage for complaints about councils, the National Health Service, housing associations, colleges and universities, prisons, most water providers, the Scottish Government and its agencies and departments and most Scottish authorities.
Extract from the SPSO web site: https://www.spso.org.uk/about-us
About us
Our Vision
The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman contributes actively and positively to Scotland’s development and delivery of first class public services: putting people and learning at the heart of what we do by being innovative and world-leading in our approach to complaints, reviews and standards.
Our Values
We work independently and fairly.
We are people-focused and value integrity and respect.
We value learning and improvement.
Our Role
The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman has a wide remit, covering a variety of functions and services. Her powers and duties come from the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002 which gives her three distinct areas of statutory functions:
The final stage for complaints about most devolved public services in Scotland including councils, the health service, prisons, water and sewerage providers, Scottish Government, universities and colleges.
We are not an appeal body for the decisions of organisations. We can check that a decision has been properly made, but we cannot change or overturn it. If we find that something's gone wrong, we can make recommendations to put things right.
Specific powers and responsibilities to publish complaints handling procedures, and to monitor and support best practice in complaints handling. You can read about this on our Complaints Standards Authority website www.valuingcomplaints.org.uk.
Independent Review Service for the Scottish Welfare Fund with the power to overturn and substitute decisions made by councils on Community Care and Crisis Grant applications. You can read about this on our Scottish Welfare Fund website.
All of the SPSO's services are free and independent.