Consultation on our draft Strategic Plan 2026-2029

Our previous Strategic Plan covered the period from 2023 to 2026. We are now reviewing our strategic aims and objectives with a view to develop the Plan for 2026 to 2029.

The ambitions of our office have not changed:

• 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.

However, we are proposing to adjust our Strategic Aims to strengthen our service, enabling us to deliver better impact for the people of Wales, for Welsh public services and for local democracy in Wales. In this, we considered the Senedd recommendations following the post-legislative review of our Act.

Our proposed Strategic Aims are:

Strategic Aim 1: Deliver justice with positive impact for people of Wales 

We deliver an empathetic, proportionate and efficient service that leaves people feeling heard and understood. Our recommendations are reasonable, consistent and effective.

Strategic Aim 2: Influence positive change in public services and high standards of conduct in local government 

We systematically improve public services through our Complaints Standards work, own initiative investigations and public interest and thematic reports. We identify good practice and lessons learnt, communicating these effectively to contribute to improvement of public services. We support high standards of conduct amongst councillors.

Strategic Aim 3: Strengthen access and impact for those who need our service the most   

We continue to improve access to our service. We promote our service to those who may need it the most, including through key gatekeeper organisations. We ensure that we focus our efforts on issues affecting most vulnerable groups.

Strategic Aim 4: Ensure that we are a resilient, agile and accountable organisation 

We maintain and improve efficient and effective use of our staff, financial, and IT resources, and ensure good governance, accountability and transparency.

To inform this consultation, we have conducted an assessment of the proposals on the Welsh language.

At PSOW, we wholeheartedly support the Welsh language and are committed to supporting Welsh speakers and promoting the use of the Welsh language. Download our Welsh Language Policy.

Our national awareness research shows that Welsh speakers are more likely than average member of the Welsh public to know about us, as well as to have confidence in our office.

Our service is fully bilingual and we always emphasise that contacting us in Welsh will not lead to any delay in how quickly we consider a complaint.

Over the recent years we saw an increase in the proportion of our staff with fairly well or fluent Welsh language skills.

Despite this, we still see that very few people use our service in Welsh. During 2024-25, 157 callers to our office chose the option to speak in Welsh. However, in terms of recorded language preferences, service users expressed the preference to communicate with us in Welsh in less than 1% of our complaints in 2024-25.

Our proposed Plan recognises these challenges and includes specific commitment to strengthen the use of our service and resources in Welsh.

We warmly welcome all views on our proposed Strategic Plan. We especially welcome views from:

• those who used or considered using our service in the past or whose complaints we are currently considering
• those leading or working for service providers in our jurisdiction
• advocates
• third sector organisations
• elected representatives
• those with an interest in our work or work of the ombudsman sector.

Please answer the following questions and provide an explanation to your answer.

Our ambition and areas of focus

1. Is our ambition as set out in the Plan clear and appropriate?

2. Does our Plan accurately identify the areas of our work that we need to strengthen? If not, what other area or areas would you suggest?

3. We will develop more detailed annual plans of action but have included our intended impact and proposed objectives in our Strategic Plan. Please share with us your view on our intended impact and proposed objectives under:

• Strategic Aim 1
• Strategic Aim 2
• Strategic Aim 3
• Strategic Aim 4

Impact

4. Can you suggest ways of measuring how we make a difference, particularly in terms of systemic improvement of public services and standards of conduct in local government in Wales?

Welsh language

We will continue to work in accordance with the Welsh Language Standards and our service will always be accessible in in Welsh and English.

5. What are the effects (whether positive or adverse) the proposed Plan would have on

(a) opportunities for persons to use the Welsh language, and

(b) treating the Welsh language no less favourably than the English language?

6. How could the scope of the proposed Plan be formulated or revised so that it would have positive effects, or increased positive effects, on

(a) opportunities for persons to use the Welsh language, and

(b) treating the Welsh language no less favourably than the English language?

7. How could the scope of the proposed Plan be formulated or revised so that it would not have adverse effects, or so that it would have decreased adverse effects, on

(a) opportunities for persons to use the Welsh language, and

(b) treating the Welsh language no less favourably than the English language?

Any other comments

8. Do you have any other comments you would like to share on our proposed Plan?

Please share your views with us by 12:00 PM (midday) on 31 March 2026 in any of the following ways:

• Complete our online form: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/D8F5DST
• Email your response to communications@ombudsman.wales
• Call us on 0300 790 0203 and ask to speak to Communications Team (option 3)
• Post your response to:

Public Services Ombudsman for Wales

1 Ffordd yr Hen Gae

Pencoed

CF35 5LJ

Under the data protection legislation, you have the right:

• to be informed of the personal data held about you and to access it
• to require us to rectify inaccuracies in that data
• to (in certain circumstances) object to or restrict processing
• for (in certain circumstances) your data to be ‘erased’
• to (in certain circumstances) data portability
• to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who is our independent regulator for data protection.

Responses to consultations maybe be made public, on the internet or in a report. If you would prefer your response to remain anonymous, please tell us.

Please click here to see our General Privacy Notice for further details about the information the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales holds and its use, or if you want to exercise your rights under the GDPR.

Click here to see our Consultations Privacy Notice, which has more information about how we use your data for consultations.