The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman today published his new Business Plan, setting out what his office plans to achieve over the coming year. You can read the Plan here, and the following is a summary of the key operational and strategic objectives for 2015-16:
PPO’s Strategic Objectives for 2015-16 and some key deliverables:
Objective 1: Maintain and reinforce our reputation for absolute independence
- We will continue to seek fuller independence for the Ombudsman’s role by way of a statutory footing and through the re-drafting of our Terms of Reference.
Objective 2: Improve the quality and timeliness of our investigations and resulting reports ensuring a robust and proportionate approach.
- We will continue to address the much reduced backlog in complaint investigations and further improve timeliness in the face of rising demand (there was a 14% increase in eligible complaints 2014-15).
- We will seek to sustain last year’s excellent performance in fatal incident investigations (97% of draft reports were on time and stakeholder and bereaved family surveys indicated improved quality). This was despite a 5% increase in fatal incidents to investigate
Objective 3: Improve our influence through the identification and sharing of lessons learned from our investigations.
- We will continue to extend the learning lessons agenda and conduct a joint thematic with HMIP on redress.
- We will contribute to NOMS’ review of the implementation of ACCT and significant policy consultations, for example on the Harris Review.
- We will repeat the successful Learning Lessons seminars for operational staff to encourage learning.
Objective 4: Use our resources as efficiently and effectively as possible.
- Separate communication, equality and diversity, and learning and development plans are annexed in the Business Plan itself.