Small mistakes, big consequences - first report, session 2009-2010 (Paperback)

This digest is designed to illustrate how small mistakes by big public bodies can have a disproportionate impact on those they are attempting to serve, and on the public purse. Valuable lessons can be learnt from these eleven cases. They illustrate how things went wrong; how the original mistakes could have been avoided; and, how they could quite easily have been put right sooner. The cases come from a range of public bodies and all demonstrate how things might have been handled differently if the public body had borne the Ombudsman's 'principles of good administration', 'principles of good complaint handling' and 'principles for remedy' in mind when delivering their service. Three clear themes emerge: being careless with information; delay; and, poor complaint handling.