Executive Summary

Introduction

This Plan represents the fourth such review and re-setting of strategic objectives by the Office of the Ombudsman (incorporating the Offices of the Information Commissioner (OIC) and the Commissioner for Environmental Information). The period covered by the Plan, 2010-2012, has the potential to be the most challenging yet faced by the Office; it is envisaged that the workload will increase significantly while considerable constraints on our resources, both staff and non-pay, are anticipated. Nonetheless, this Plan sets out a broad range of new and demanding policy and process initiatives designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of achieving the Office’s vision of “a public service that is open, fair, accountable and effective”.

Our Strategy 2010 - 2012

Feedback

The Plan places a strong emphasis on a number of key outcomes: enhanced quality and expanded range of services to our clients, greater positive impact on the administrative practices of public bodies, more effective and efficient use of resources; all underpinned by a re-aligned internal structure and improved business processes. Much of the detailed content of the Plan is derived from formal consultations with all of our staff and feedback from stakeholders. Arising from this process a number of key issues emerged:

• Further work is required to increase public awareness about the role, functions and responsibilities of both the Office of the Ombudsman and the OIC
• The Office needs to ensure all human and financial resources are utilised appropriately to deliver greatest effect,
• The Office must explore new ways of delivering excellent services to all users The dynamic and challenging environment in which the Office will operate in the coming years will demand clear and strong leadership at all levels across the Office.

High Level Goals

The format of the Plan is broadly similar to that used before in that it establishes the Vision and Mission of the Office, makes explicit the main environmental factors influencing the development of the strategy, and identifies the specific objectives that the Office should set in order to achieve its Vision and Mission. However, in this iteration, the Plan focuses particularly on policy implementation and sets out, in some detail, the specific actions that are required to deliver on these objectives, outlines how we will measure the extent to which these objectives have been accomplished, and how they have contributed to the achievement of the overarching high-level strategic goals and outcomes.

In essence, these high-level goals and outcomes can be summarised as follows:

Improving standards of public administration across the public service

Central to the role of both the Office of the Ombudsman and the Office of the Information Commissioner is the need to ensure that standards of decision-making and engagement with service users across the public service are comparable to international standards of good practice. Through multiple approaches we will attempt to engage with all stakeholders e.g. Government, Oireachtas, service users etc., to improve significantly the standards of administration in public bodies.

An Office, fit for purpose, to deliver services, fairly, efficiently and effectively to our customers

In line with the recommendations contained within the OECD review of the Irish Public Service and the Report of the Task Force on Improving Public Services, we recognise the importance of ensuring our internal capability matches our ambition to improve standards across the public service. We therefore intend placing considerable emphasis on enhancing our internal systems, processes and capabilities to meet these needs. We also want to ensure that all who need to know about us do and can readily access our services. In particular, we aim to secure widespread public awareness of our role as mbudsman in relation to health and social care issues.

Key Objectives

Underpinning both outcomes we have identified a number of key strategic objectives for the period 2010–2012. These objectives are specific statements that clearly identify what both the Office of the Ombudsman and the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) want to achieve under each outcome:

Implementation

These key objectives are disaggregated into a number of sub-objectives, the achievement of which will be measured against set, quantifiable and time-bound key performance indicators that are variously applicable at organisational level, section level and at individual level. In this way, the Strategic Objectives identified in the Plan are routed directly into the work of individuals via the Senior Management Team, Unit Business Plans and individual performance contracts (Role Profiles). These Indicators have been the subject of discussion and consultation with all staff. The successful implementation of previous strategic plans has been largely due to the dedication of the staff of the Office to its values and goals and to the unstinting commitment of the staff to ensuring that the work of the Office has been performed to a very high level. In challenging times, this dedication and commitment is required more than ever.