Decision Review Process

We aim to deliver a high-quality complaints handling service, which considers complaints thoroughly but proportionately, and explains decisions clearly.  We recognise that sometimes people making a complaint may be unhappy about the decision we have made. They may feel we have not properly considered their complaint or have made a mistake.

We have a process in place where, under certain circumstances, you can ask for a decision we have made on a complaint to be reviewed.  This factsheet tells you about that.

You should be aware that the Ombudsman is allowed by law to decide which complaints to take forward to consider or investigate further, and when to close cases.

The review process can look at how we reached our decision on your complaint. It will not re-assess your complaint against the public body.

The decisions that can be reviewed are:

• A decision not to investigate your complaint
• A decision to exclude part of your complaint from an investigation

Some decisions are not covered by the review process. These are:

• The outcome or conduct of a full investigation
• A decision to end or discontinue an investigation
• Recommendations made at the end of an investigation or as part of a settlement with the body complained against.
• Complaints closed because they have not yet been made to the public body complained about
• Complaints closed because they are against a body that is outside the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction
• Complaints closed with a decision notice that the matter is minor and not of a sufficient level of severity for the Ombudsman to consider it further.

Any concerns about those decisions should be raised with the case owner.  There may be other legal options available to you on investigation decisions, and you may wish to take legal advice.

There is no automatic right to a review. The review process is not an appeal process. We will not accept your request just because you disagree with our decision.

For us to consider your review request you must:

• Submit it to us within 4 weeks of the date of the decision concerned, and
• Explain why we have not properly considered the information you sent us, and
• Tell us how this affected our decision.

We do not accept requests for a review after 4 weeks, unless we agree that there were exceptional circumstances which meant you could not meet the deadline.

You can send a review request to us by completing the form available on our website here ‘How to request a decision review or complain about our service’ .

Or you can print and send the form to us by post to:

Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
1 Ffordd yr Hen Gae
Pencoed
CF35 5LJ

If you need help to access the process and complete the form, please contact us on 0300 790 0203.

When you make your complaint to the Ombudsman, you should provide us with relevant information.  If you believe you have new and additional information that was not available to us when we made our decision, you should send this to the case officer for them to consider.  You may be asked why you did not submit this at the time of making your complaint.

We will acknowledge your request within one week.

If we cannot accept your request we will tell you why.

If we can accept it, we will arrange for a Review Officer who has not been involved before to consider your request.

We will normally aim to write to you with the outcome within 6 weeks but complex requests may take longer.

People sometimes use AI to help in making a review request. Our experience shows that AI generated content can sometimes include inaccurate or unsupported material.  We therefore ask that you check any AI generated material before including it in correspondence. Incorrect AI generated material will not be considered.