UK | From Manchester to Athens – next steps

The Office of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman UK presents a paper, which marks and celebrates the launch of important development initiatives including a revised Peer Review process at the European IOI Congress in Athens in May 2022. This follows the publication of the Art of the Ombudsman study involving 53 members of the IOI and following consultation at the Manchester Memorandum event in 2021.

“The Art of the Ombudsman” and its embryonic Manchester Memorandum elicited vibrant and constructive papers at the November 2021 seminar. It was attended by 100 International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) colleagues, remotely and in person, and the debate informs the thrust of this paper in preparation for Athens.

In February this year, a number of IOI Board members met for a virtual roundtable to discuss proposals to be put to the IOI European Congress in Athens. There was general consensus, agreement of the priorities and a clear route mapped out for the way forward. Members agreed to pursue a series of best practice papers on the topics of the “Venice Principles and Peer Review”, “Ombudsman Self-Assessment”, and “Reaching Vulnerable and Marginalised Citizens”, and it was agreed that both an IOI women’s leadership network and a forum that focuses on wider diversity and inclusion issues should be developed. This paper sets out the proposals in greater detail. 

Source: Office of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, UK