Welcome to the eighth edition of the AJC Newsletter. As well as updating you on the work of the Administrative Justice Council and its members, we offer contributions from across the UK jurisdictions, from those representing the judiciary, the advice sector, ombudsman schemes and academics. We welcome your feedback; contact us at ajc@justice.org.uk
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FAREWELL
We have a number of members stepping down through retirement: Lord Woolman (Scottish President of Tribunals), Sir Wyn Williams (Welsh President of Tribunals) and Mick King (Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman). We would like to express our utmost thanks to Stephen, Wyn and Mick who have made valuable contributions to the AJC and we wish them the very best for their retirements.
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NEW MEMBERS
We are delighted to welcome Sir Gary Hickinbottom (President, Welsh Tribunals) Lady Morag Wise (President, Scottish Tribunals) and Margaret Kelly, the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman as Council members.
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An Update from Scotland
Greetings from Scotland!
There is news from the Scottish Courts Service. Our current President of the Scottish Tribunals, Lord Woolman, steps down on 30 April 2023, before his retirement in May. Lady Wise, Senator of the College of Justice, will be the next President of the Scottish Tribunals from 1 May 2023. We wish them both all the very best. If you want to read more news from the SCTS, check out their news page here.
On a more reflective note, fundamental to administrative justice are access and accessibility. It is not simply a matter of providing access routes for people to engage with administrative justice, but also important to ensure that those access routes are accessible to a range of service users, with a range of needs. High on the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman’s agenda, is vulnerability in the context of engaging public services. Why? Because those experiencing vulnerability face a number of challenges to engaging with administrative justice systems such as making complaints and seeking redress.
Vulnerability is more than being part of a particular demographic group, it can be the result of being in a challenging situation, or the effects of trauma. Equally, being in a particular demographic group does not automatically mean someone is vulnerable. Vulnerability is complex and reflects someone’s situation at a particular point in time, or which has developed over time. It can change quickly, and without warning.
While public services look to support people experiencing vulnerability, its complexity can make identifying someone experiencing vulnerability challenging, especially as someone may not recognise themselves as vulnerable.
SPSO are delighted to be working with Dr Chris Gill and Prof Naomi Creutzfeldt. As part of their research, two workshops are being held, one hosted by the SPSO in June, the other by the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman. The workshops bring together colleagues including public service providers, advice and advocacy bodies, and charities and NGOs supporting particularly vulnerable individuals and groups.
The workshops aim to engage with and learn their first-hand experience to better understand lived experiences of vulnerability, and to identify effective strategies to help public service providers to identify and support those who are vulnerable. It will result in practical outputs such as guidance, resources, links to toolkits and training materials that can be cascaded to public service providers to build skills and awareness among their staff regarding how to identify and support vulnerable service users.
This is just part of the work that collectively the AJC and our members are doing to promote access to justice.
Rosemary Agnew
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman &
Deputy Chair to the AJC
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AJC February Council Meeting
The first full Council meeting of 2023 was held on 13 February.
All four Chairs of the recently established working groups offered updates on their projects. Those attending were also offered the following presentations:
- Council member, Chris James (Welsh Government), presented information on the Tribunal Reform Programme in Wales.
- Richard Blakeway (Housing Ombudsman) offered an update on the Scheme's 2021 damp and mould report in the light of the recent landmark decision made by a Rochdale coroner concerning the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak.
- Helen Timpson (Ministry of Justice) updated members on the new Online Procedure Rules Committee whose remit includes the creation of rules for online courts, pre-action online dispute resolution and the setting of data and behavioural standards for online dispute resolution providers.
The Minutes can be accessed here.
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Ombudsman Association Conference
19 - 21 June 2023
The Ombudsman Association's conference,
'Being effective in a time of change', will take place on 19-21 June at the Hyatt Regency in Birmingham.
You can find further information on the conference programme and how to register here:
www.ombudsmanassociation.org/being-effective-time-change
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Request for Members
The AJC’s Public Education working group was established to create ways to increase awareness of young people’s rights in administrative justice. From its inception, the group has been sourcing suitable collaborations to feed into. The aim is to find an audience with young people to improve their understanding of access to justice.
The group, chaired by Donal Galligan (Chief Executive, Ombudsman Association) is looking for new members. If you have relevant expertise or ideas about suitable collaborations, please contact ajc@justice.org.uk
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DWP, telephone offers
and disability appellants
DWP still making ‘decide now’ offers to put pressure on appellants
by Mary Marvel (Deputy CEO, Law for Life)
In July 2021 the Department for Work and Pensions settled a judicial review case (led by Public Law Project and supported by Law for Life, Z2K, and RNIB) and promised to stop phoning claimants offering them a higher award in return for dropping their appeal. Despite this, claimants are telling Law for Life that these ‘decide now’ calls are still happening.
Law for Life, who runs Advicenow, is concerned that the most worrying elements of the practice appear to be continuing. It has heard from 51 claimants and their family members who have received these calls since the guidance was amended, during which the caller from the DWP did not explain that the claimant could accept the award and still appeal the decision.
Moreover, the vast majority of those who have contacted Law for Life have expressed that they were put under pressure by the DWP to accept the new offer, even though they thought they were entitled to a higher award and hoped or expected to get that if the appeal went to a tribunal hearing. Many claimants were told they had to make the decision that day, or even within the hour, which prevented them from getting advice. One woman told us “[They] said I had till the end of day to accept [the] offer, all very unexpected, quick and rushed, I did not have time to think”, and many spoke of the caller emphasising ‘how lengthy the wait for a tribunal was’ and ‘if I went to the tribunal, I might get nothing at all’. One claimant told Law for Life he was pressured into accepting the new award out of fear of losing another benefit because the caller “said I wouldn’t get any more points [at the appeal], and he said because I receive Carer’s Allowance the tribunal may look at fraud”.
Law for Life are keen to hear from claimants, their supporters, and advisers who receive these offers so that we can build a well-evidenced case to again challenge this practice. If you have any experience of these ‘decide now’ offers from the DWP please tell us about it.”
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Delivering Administrative Justice
After The Pandemic:
SEND and Housing Report Launch
On Monday 20th March, a report launch was held at Friends House on How has the pandemic changed the way people access justice? Digitisation and reform in the areas of Housing and SEND.
The Nuffield funded research examined the effect of rapid digitalisation on the delivery of justice, identified the effects on access for marginalised groups and explored how trust could be built and sustained in parts of the justice system affected by the pandemic.
The report focusses on housing and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) looking at the pathways that help-seekers can take to an Ombudsman or a Tribunal in England. For housing, the report focussed on the Housing Ombudsman and the Property Chamber. For SEND, it focussed on the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO), the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), and the SEND Tribunal.
At the launch event, attendees were presented with the findings of the report and recommendations by the research team: Professor Naomi Creutzfeldt, University of Kent; Dr. Arabella Kyprianides, UCL; Professor Jon Jackson, LSE and Heidi Bancroft, JUSTICE. The audience also heard presentations from Sir Ernest Ryder, Master of Pembroke College, University of Oxford; Judge Siobhan McGrath, President of the Property Chamber; Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman; and Judge Meleri Tudur, Deputy Chamber President of the Health, Education and Social Care Chamber. The panellists welcomed the research report and its recommendations. The Report can be found here and the Executive Summary here.
The research will help to inform the work of the AJC and some of the recommendations will be explored further in its working groups.
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An Update on the work of the Public Services Ombudsman, Wales
As Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, we do three things:
- We investigate complaints about public services.
- We consider complaints about councillors breaching the Code of Conduct.
- We drive systemic improvement of public services and standards of conduct in local government in Wales.
Our previous Corporate Plan covered the period from 2019 to 2022. As our new Ombudsman, Michelle Morris, took the post in April last year, she launched the work of defining the new set of priorities for her time in office.
We looked at a wide range of evidence – our casework trends, equality monitoring, service user, bodies in jurisdiction and staff surveys, and our national awareness research. We also consulted internally with our staff and externally with wider stakeholders.
This evidence gathering led us to identify many opportunities but also challenges facing our office.
Perhaps the key among them is that our caseload continues to increase year on year. We know that more complaints means also more opportunities to put things right for people. However, this increasing workload could make it difficult for us to continue to deliver excellent service that people have the right to expect.
We were also conscious of the need to address other challenges: that our service users want us to listen more and be easier to reach; that some communities do not know about us as well as they should and rarely complain to us; or that we can do even more to help to proactively improve public services in Wales.
It is clear to us that if we are to have a meaningful and lasting impact business as usual is not an option. Like all public sector organisations in Wales, we must adjust how we operate – adopt new ways of working and try new solutions. We will also need to do more to demonstrate how we are making a difference.
Reflecting this, our new Strategic Plan 2023-2026 sets out four Strategic Aims:
- Delivering justice with a positive impact for people and public services
- Increasing accessibility and inclusion
- Expanding our proactive improvement work
- Ensuring that we are a healthy, efficient and accountable organisation
These Aims will help us deliver our ambition:
- People of Wales feel that public services treat them fairly and respond when things go wrong.
- Welsh public services listen to individuals and use their complaints to learn and improve.
- Welsh local government is trusted to deliver the highest standards of conduct.
- The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales continues to be an influential and respected voice in public service improvement.
For each Aim, we signal the main steps that we intend to take. We also explain how we will know that our work has had positive impact on people and public services in Wales, and what evidence we will look at to measure success.
Our Strategic Plan can be found here: www.ombudsman.wales/strategic-plans/
We are grateful to all who have contributed to developing this Plan and look with hope and excitement to the future, as we embark on this new chapter in our service to the people of Wales.
For further information about the Plan and the next steps, you can contact communications@ombudsman.wales or Michelle at michelle.morris@ombudsman.wales.
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Advice Organisations,
Wellbeing and Safeguarding
by Dal Warburton (National Network Lead, AdviceUK)
More and more people seeking social welfare advice have the same problem: a household income that does not cover the essentials.
AdviceUK members are seeing greater use of foodbanks, and reliance on them for longer and longer periods. Figures released in March 2023 indicate that 9.7 million people now live in deep or very deep poverty.
Like other civil society networks, AdviceUK has highlighted the impacts of reduced public spending on people’s wellbeing. Cuts over many years, across a range of services such as social care, mental health, and tenancy support have meant that the most basic needs of children and vulnerable adults on low incomes are not being met.
AdviceUK members are part of the communities they serve. Advisers and advice teams are increasingly encountering situations where they cannot be sure that the people they advise:
- Will have enough to eat.
- Will be able to warm their homes.
- Will have a home that is safe to live and free from disrepair.
- Will have access to health services to at least stabilise their mental or physical health.
- Will be protected from harm and abuse.
This is the case even after legal advice and practical support in areas such as income maximisation and access to emergency food. Advisers working on the frontline tell us how challenging this is for their own wellbeing and motivation.
These long-term trends predate the pandemic, and have been exacerbated further by cost-of-living pressures since late 2021. In July 2022, 22% of households advised by our members on problem debt had deficit budgets. In February 2023 that figure stood at 39%.
AdviceUK members are reporting increasing numbers of cases where they need to raise formal safeguarding concerns with local authorities, both in relation to adults with vulnerabilities, and in relation to children. Common scenarios include: ‘the children in this family have had nothing to eat, we cannot be sure that their parent will access foodbank support’; or ‘this older person is living alone, has no food in the house and is unable to go to a foodbank.’ Such work is both stressful and time-consuming.
Social welfare advice services should not be complicit in the demoralising reapplication of ‘sticking plaster’ solutions. One of the basics of safeguarding is working in ways that reduce the risk of abuse or neglect happening in the first place.
AdviceUK’s Whole Person, Whole Community Approach has a vision for social welfare advice that improves people’s lives in the long-term. This is the right time for advice services to play their part in tackling the causes of social welfare problems, and not just the symptoms.
AdviceUK invites feedback on the above piece, via influencing@adviceuk.org.uk
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An Update on
JUSTICE's Afghan Settlement Scheme Working Group
by Şefki Bayram
JUSTICE has set up a working group to look at the Afghan Resettlement Schemes. This work is part of a bigger project looking at the comparative operational and procedural issues with the Windrush Compensation Scheme, Afghan Settlement Scheme and EU Settlement schemes, following the publication of JUSTICE's report Reforming the Windrush Compensation Scheme in November 2021. Chaired by Sonali Naik KC, the Afghan Resettlement Scheme working group seeks to make recommendations to government, by identifying potential improvements to the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (“ACRS”) and the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (“ARAP”).
The Working Group is populated by legal practitioners, academics, institutional directors, and interpreters, all of whom have represented, worked, campaigned, or otherwise engaged extensively with the schemes. Many of the members have worked on the schemes since Operation Pitting in August 2021, when UK and US forces unilaterally withdrew from Afghanistan.
A number of issues have been identified with the schemes, broadly distilled into three key themes: 1) Eligibility and decision-making, 2) Communication, and 3) Reviews. Under these themes, the Working Group has identified failures which include:
- application processing including decision-making, exclusions and delays;
- transparency of information and data;
- accessibility of evidence submission and evidential requirements; and
- numbers of successful applicants.
Due to the identification of Afghans that remain in Afghanistan or in third-party states, in life-threatening situations because of their roles in assisting the British, the Working Group plans to publish its report, earlier that originally planned, in July 2023.
For more information on this work or to share your experience in this area, please contact Şefki Bayram at sbayram@justice.org.uk
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Ombudsman considers everyday human rights in new report
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman released a report in December 2022 that shares how people's basic human rights have been infringed when receiving public services in England.
The report also includes case studies where the Ombudsman has investigated complaints against other rights-based laws and guidance. These include considering the rights of service personnel in the Armed Forces Covenant and Act, the rights of people with protected characteristics as set out in the Equality Act, and the requirements on public bodies in meeting the public sector equality duty.
It Highlights common mistakes councils should look out for, which include overseeing contractors, complaints handling, day-to-day decision making, avoiding a box-ticking approach and designing services from the ground up that protect people's rights. It also offers good practice guidance, and sample questions local councillors can ask of their authority to ensure residents' rights are upheld.
The full report can be found here.
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