Scotland’s public service watchdog: I want stronger powers and more scrutiny

Scotland’s public sector watchdog has called for additional legal powers to ensure oversight does not fall behind the rest of Britain.

Rosemary Agnew believes they are needed to allow investigations to be launched more quickly and without the need to wait for complaints.

She is preparing to investigate the plight of female prisoners and access to GP services, we can reveal, but fears Scotland lags behind other parts of the UK in the powers available to independently investigate problems in the public sector.

Agnew has already identified a number of areas of potential concern but said she lacks the power to launch a full probe without receiving a complaint.

She said: “There is something to look at in terms of access to GP services. That has come to a head during Covid but it’s quite a complex situation because GPs have been following government guidance. It’s an area that would benefit hugely from investigation.”

Agnew said she now needed new powers to carry out her role and would be making her case before the Scottish Parliament.

She said: “Fundamentally Scotland is now lagging behind particularly the Welsh and Northern Ireland ombudsmen. There has not been a review of our legislative powers and other ombudsmen have something called own-initiative powers which means they can instigate an investigation without having to have a complaint.

“The Welsh ombudsman recently published a report into homelessness during the pandemic. We are at a disadvantage in the sense that we see things but can’t necessarily investigate them and have to wait for a complaint before we can do that.

“There is much greater value in where we do recognise that there may be issues, that we can just go in and have a look at them. That is something I will be putting before parliament hopefully before the end of the current business year.”

Public access to GP services has been a growing issue across Scotland with many struggling to get an appointment. In May, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf insisted he was confident a target for increasing the number of GPs in Scotland by 800 would be met.

He spoke after research revealed just two-thirds of Scots had a positive experience at their GP practice last year. The Health and Care Experience Survey saw 67% of respondents give a positive rating, a drop of 12% from the last survey.

GP services were hugely disrupted by the pandemic with many patients being seen by phone or virtually to avoid spreading the virus.

Agnew added: “The downside of public service complaints is that, by definition, they are often about something that has already happened. Whereas if you have seen something that’s already happened in one place, you can gather the intelligence and research that it might be happening somewhere else. It means you can start looking at issues in real time.”

Agnew took up the post of Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) in May 2017 following five years as Scottish Information Commissioner.

Since 2001, she has held various roles related to public sector complaints, including with the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission and the Local Government Ombudsman in the UK. She said: “I don’t know where my commitment to public services comes from. It’s probably a culmination of life experience.

“I have been very lucky in my life that I have been able to have the courage and confidence to speak up when I think somebody’s rights are not being met. That is part of my personal value system that has driven my commitment to try to improve public services.

“Being an ombudsman is something that there is not a career path for. I worked many, many years ago in the civil service in the UK. I am not an academic, although I respect and admire anyone who can be very academic about how they approach things, but I have tended to be attracted by individual jobs.

“I have done some lecturing and teaching but the majority of my working life has been in ombudsman public service improvement.”

She was also interested in looking at the conditions of female prisoners across Scotland. She said: “Prisoners make two different sorts of complaints – about the service from the prison service and about access to health services and how their health is treated.

“We don’t get much inquiry, let alone complaint, about or from women prisoners. I would be very interested in learning in greater depth about that.

“It’s about trying to help people that engage with public services to engage in a more constructive way that gets the best for everyone.

“My message to people would be to try and actually have a conversation with the public organisation you have been dealing with.

“Try to do it in a constructive way, be clear about what it is you’re unhappy about and what the impact has been on you, and what it is you would like to seek as a resolution because we encourage public bodies to try and resolve complaints.”

She was proud of her office’s work in a number of cases including a review of hearing services after a health board scandal.

An audit of NHS Lothian audiology found significant failures in 155 of 1,113 patients between 2009 and 2018, which led to children only being identified as deaf years later.

She said: “It is very rewarding to try to make a difference. Sometimes, however, there are no winners.

“The most rewarding thing for me has been the way that we continually strive to improve how we handle complaints. We’re taking a much more resolution-based approach and we have managed to get some very good outcomes for people.”

Nature provides a break from the stresses and strains of the job. Agnew said: “I love walking and gardening. I just like being outdoors, engaging with nature. It is great for your wellbeing and it grounds you. Standing on top of a tall mountain in Scotland really puts the world in perspective.”

The Scottish Government said: “We have previously engaged with the Scottish Public Sector Ombudsman on these issues and the Cabinet Secretary for Health is willing to discuss these matters further with the SPSO.

“There are now a record number of GPs working in Scotland, with more per head than in the rest of UK, and we are making good progress on our commitment of 800 additional GPs. Trainee recruitment this year has been hugely successful with all GP training posts filled so far.”