Trusting the middle-man: Impact and Legitimacy of Ombudsmen in Europe

Abstract

The office of ombudsman has become increasingly popular over recent decades to the point where it is now a highly significant and permanent feature of the legal systems in many parts of the world. As a method to solve disputes outside of the courts, ombudsman systems deal with many cases per year in both public and private sectors. Although originally established in the public sector, as a link between citizens and government institutions, the ombudsman model has, in many countries, now been adopted by the private sector too.

The ombudsman landscape throughout EU member states presents a variety of institutional and jurisdictional arrangements, operational styles and decision-making processes. Although this poses some challenges in being able to conceptualise a unified ombudsman institution, it offers distinct advantages for the study of the relationship between decision-making practices on the part of ombudsmen and perceptions of procedural justice and levels of trust on the part of users across different jurisdictions and cultures.

Despite the significance of ombudsmen to our constitutional and civil justice landscapes, very little is known about users' perceptions of the fairness of their procedures and practices and the significance of these perceptions for levels of trust in particular ombudsman offices.
This project will fill this gap, providing important data and knowledge which will be directly relevant to the development of national policies and EU level multiple networks of policy-making.

Planned Impact

Because the research addresses public attitudes to and use of ombudsmen, it will impact on and be pertinent to the public, to consumer groups, to ombudsmen, and to policy makers at national and EU level. Academic debate will be encouraged to engage in collaboration with practitioners and representatives of the public. This is very important for countries such as Germany and Greece where private sector ombudsmen are not noticeably established yet.

Academic impact

This project will contribute to further understanding of and advance the academic debate about the importance of the role of the Ombudsman and users' perceptions of the complaints process. It will create new datasets that the applicant will make available for further research in this area.
This project will progress the applicants' career by providing an opportunity to share and disseminate the findings to a broad audience, enhancing the chance to become a future leader in this field of expertise.


Policy makers

EU level requirements for member states to have alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in place to ensure consumer protection (ADR directive and ODR regulation, proposed 2011, will be passed late 2012) are a high priority. Therefore, this proposed study will feed directly into the needed knowledge base about different ombudsman systems and their users.

Business

This research is of benefit to business as it could help reduce costs associated with litigation, reduce potential reputational damage due to litigation, and provide a possible route through for their disputes with government and EU regulation. The applicant will elaborate on how these stakeholders will learn about this research in the impact plan.

Public

The public dissemination of the research will continue to inform public debate and awareness of how best to use an ombudsman. This will contribute to and improve conceptual impact as well as instrumental impact.
 
Description Some of the key findings of my research are that people who use ombudsman services are more satisfied and trust the institution more, if some key criteria are met:
- Clear communication at initial contact to set expectations;
- Giving people the chance to voice their story;
- Keeping people informed along the complaint journey;
- Resolving matters efficient, fast and reliably;
- Feeding back information to help improve the system.

The first contact with the staff is of uttermost importance and therefore the recommendation is to train staff accordingly so consumer confidence and trust is enforced.
Exploitation Route Most of the ombudsmen in my study are implementing my consumer satisfaction survey and have taken on board my findings to improve their services.
They also mentioned my study in their annual reports (2015) and commented on how they implemented the findings in their work.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy,Energy,Environment,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Healthcare,Retail,Transport
URL https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/trusting-middle-man-impact-and-legitimacy-ombudsmen-europe
 
Description My work changed the way that ombudsmen understand consumers and as a result have changed their approach to improve their services. My ESRC FRL project on impact and legitimacy of ombudsmen in Europe (https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/trusting-middle-man-impact-and-legitimacy-ombudsmen-europe) allowed me to collect a unique and rich dataset of experiences of recent users of ombudsmen. I designed a consumer satisfaction survey to measure public trust in ombudsmen and received just under 3,000 responses. It is the first study that brought together 14 different ombudsman schemes consumers' complaints data. I engaged in continual knowledge exchange (focus groups, facilitated sessions) with ombudsmen and the public throughout the research process with the objective of sharing ideas, research evidence and skills that could be transferred into practical outputs. A real strength of my project has been the networks and collaboration between ombudsmen schemes, and across countries, that I built. I involved the ombudsmen in my study from the outset; this gave me exceptional access to gather data and improved not only my research and findings but also ensured future collaboration. Through meetings, workshops and conferences I extended networks of German ombudsmen: Prof Hirsch (insurance), Herr Kipp (energy), and engaged them in collaboration and exchange of best practice with their UK counterparts: Lewis Shand Smith (energy), Carolyn Wayman (finance), for the first time. As a result of ongoing collaboration, my research has had instrumental and capacity building impact with a range of organisations. Utilising networks I have built, and the current strong appetite for evidence, my work has started to influence the development of policy and is altering behaviour. Through my research ombudsmen were able to better understand their consumers' needs and make changes to their service charters and procedures. My findings helped to address the misconception that most people complain because they want compensation; this supported the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) in encouraging local authorities to take a less defensive and adversarial approach to complaints. New European legislation requires ombudsmen to report their annual statistics; some ombudsmen did not have these measures in place and were keen to participate in my study. German ombudsmen decided to adopt my survey for their reporting requirements. I have also worked with them to develop resources and tools for use in practice and to improve the existing ones. Building capacity amongst staff in the Ombudsmen organisations has been crucial for progress to be made on improving customer service. The LGO and Ombudsman Services have applied my findings and used them to train their complaint-handling and management staff, with the aim of improving the consumer experience. I ran into unexpected challenges when collecting my data. Some of the ombudsmen tried to monitor and control the sample. My method relied upon keeping the anonymity of the subjects by asking ombudsmen (staff) to send out surveys to a random, representative sample. I managed to overcome this by communicating that their actions would bias my findings and I could not use them, if not collected properly. My findings are published as open access reports on my project website and have had 951 downloads & visits. My work has influenced the discourse on complaint handling with practitioners through presentations at the Ombudsman Association (OA) and National Energy Ombudsman Network. Reaching out to this wide and diverse audience, my research on consumer perceptions has provided a benchmark that will be built upon in the future, in order to provide a more effective service. ESRC FRL funding enabled my original research and building on that, the ESRC IAA Award helped extend the impact to highlight a special phenomenon, that of online activists, so-called 'ombudsmen watchers', who, based on negative experiences with ombudsmen have set up online protest groups to campaign for change. Such activism has the potential to damage the reputation of ombudsmen. Supported by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) we facilitated two knowledge exchange workshops that first brought ombudsman watchers together to voice their problems; in a second workshop the ombudsmen got a chance to respond to this. The resulting report was picked up by the UK Administrative Justice Institute website, OA, and was posted on ombudsman watcher sites (https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-and-subject-groups/online-critics-ombudsmen). The ombudsmen usually don't engage with their critics - we provided a unique platform. In the longer term, we aim to benefit citizens of the UK by suggesting how ombudsmen schemes can better respond to users and improve the consumer experience. Building on success to date and appetite for my insights, there is more to come. Networks will be kept alive after the project is completed to continue collaboration and exchange. I have been invited by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education to deliver a seminar for their complaint-handling staff on the outcomes of my research. I have been asked by the LGO to deliver a follow-on project, looking at their vulnerable customers. Dame Julie Mellor DBE (PHSO) asked to discuss my project and lessons learned for their complaint handling. The OA has asked me to lead a seminar for their members to strengthen the links between the ombudsman community and the academic community, hosted by the Financial Ombudsman Services. This will shape and lead the future research agenda.
Sector Energy,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice,Retail,Transport
Impact Types Societal
 
Description Conference on Access to Justice and Legal Services, London 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact my talk stimulated a lively debate and I got very interesting feedback from international scholars - I was given a good slot by the conference organises and was luck enough to address the whole conference, rather than small parallel sessions.

I had a lot of interested colleagues approaching me after my talk for follow up and sharing experiences.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity Pre-2006,2014
URL http://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/socio-legal/index.shtml?events
 
Description LSA conference Minneapolis 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact this annual international conference on Law and Society was very helpful to get my research known in the international academic world and I had a lot of interest.

The most notable impact was to get my project known to the most distinguished American academics in my field - I had the opportunity to discuss my work with them and have continued interest from them. I have invited them (Tom Tyler, Rebecca Hollander-Blumhoff, Susan Silbey and Sally Merry) to Oxford next year for a conference. This has led to more interest from academics they have referred me to.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://www.lawandsociety.org/minneapolis2014/Minneapolis2014.html
 
Description Ombudsman Association Conference Manchester 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact I am an individual member of the Ombudsman Association and was invited to comment and contribute to the season on consumer ADR directive. It was a great opportunity to engage with the Ombudsman community and to keep on their radar as well as inviting them to our conference.

the main impact was networking, maintaining relationships and meeting other ombudspeople from the UK and internationally.

I was asked to contribute at the next conference and tell the ombudsman community about my research.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description SLSA conference Aberdeen 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact my paper produced an interesting discussion as to where the place of ADR is in the administrative justice landscape.

The main impact was to make people aware of my project.

I also got voted onto the executive committee of the SLSA.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://www.slsa.ac.uk/images/slsadownloads/events/SLSA2014RGU.pdf
 
Description annual ADR conference in Oxford 
Form Of Engagement Activity Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Type Of Presentation paper presentation
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact together with Prof Chris Hodges I have been organising an annual consumer ADR conference in Oxford. The audience is mainly practitioners, policy makers, government officials and academics from many European Union member states.

Our conference has become a very popular event and the ADR community in Europe comes to exchange information, update on their count ire's status quo on consumer ADR. it is a lively event where all learn a lot from each other.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013,2014
URL http://www.csls.ox.ac.uk/past_confs.php
 
Description conference Maastricht 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact my presentation made people aware of my project and the topic area which they had not head much about before that.

I was asked to provide a chapter to contribute to a conference publication. I have had some follow-up questions and invitations to other academic conferences.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
URL http://www.csls.ox.ac.uk/documents/ERPL_22-3_DamlaCavusogluLotteMeurkens.pdf
 
Description conferenence image(s) of the consumer Oxford 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact I attended an academic conference that colleagues invited me to attend - I made some excellent contacts relating to my research on ombudsmen.

The main impact was that I met a colleague of the retired Polish Ombudsperson and a few months later had her on the phone, discussion my project and opening the doors for interviews in Poland.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/event=12668
 
Description ombudsman workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact I held a workshop / conference in April 2014 at which ombudsmen, representatives of business and consumer groups, and academics met to consider how the legislation will affect ombudsman and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) schemes, how to evaluate the effectiveness of such schemes, and how best to adapt to the evolving policy environment and more demanding consumer expectations.
It created a platform for exchange that was highly welcomed by the participants - it allowed engagement between academics and practitioners.

The policy brief we provided after the event was widely distributed and acknowledged as helpful, we created a network for people to connect and engage with each other.
A lot of feedback from practitioners especially, on how informative and important this exchange was for future work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://www.fljs.org/events/ombudsmen-workshop
 
Description workshop Madrid 'International Symposium The Role of Consumer ADR in the Administration of Justice' 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact this funded expert workshop was intended to get a better understanding of the state of consumer ADR in the administration of justice - an expert panel of various EU member states was present and exchanged views on access to justice.

the main impact was information exchange and making people aware of my work - there were subsequent invitations to speak at other events.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013