BackRadio Ombudsman is the regular podcast of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman hosted by Ombudsman Rob Behrens. It features lively discussion on a range of topics including NHS investigations, good complaint handling and improving public services. The Ombudsman of Catalonia (Sindic de Greuges de Catalunya), and President of the European Board of the International Ombudsman Institute, Rafael Ribó, was the latest guest on the PHSO podcast, Radio Ombudsman.
Rafael Ribó shares his fascinating experience of growing up under the Franco dictatorship and a life committed to fighting injustices. Listen to find out about his ‘double life’ as a university professor and freedom fighter, and why he thinks an ombudsman should always have enemies. They furthermore discuss peer review, the Venice Principles and Rafael’s commitment to justice and passion for human rights.
Preivous to the Ombudsman Podcast, the PHSO and the IOI co-hosted a seminar London in September 2019, reflecting on the Peter Tyndall-led peer review of PHSO in 2018. Although international ombudsman organisations vary in their size, scope and remit, they share similar challenges. This makes national ombudsman office holders well placed to independently assess sister organisations and provide valuable feedback.
In this context, and following the London seminar, Ombudsman Rob Behrens was commissioned by the Ombudsman of Catalonia, Rafael Ribó, along with the Federal Ombudsman of Belgium, Catherine De Bruecker, to carry out a peer review of the Catalan Ombudsman service. The panel visited the Catalonian Ombudsman’s office in Barcelona in January 2020. Rafael Ribó explained how peer review would be a valuable exercise that could help improve the quality of the Sindic’s service and operations. The review had a broad scope and the panel made recommendations in the areas of mandate, citizen accessibility and redress, effectiveness and efficiency, and leadership and people management. The panel found a strong and committed leadership team, effectively delivering individual case resolutions and thematic reviews (notably in the contested area of human rights) and working clearly and unambiguously within the Sindic’s mandate.
You can read a press release about the peer review on the Catalan Ombudsman’s website.
For listening to the Ombudsman Podcast click here.
Source: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
