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Appendix 3. The Ombudsman's Guide to Standards of Best Practice for Public Servants

Appendix 3. The Ombudsman's Guide to Standards of Best Practice for Public Servants

Public Bodies and the Citizen - The Ombudsman's Guide to Standards of Best Practice

Public bodies should strive for the highest standards of administration in their dealings with the citizen. With a view to achieving this aim, they should ensure that citizens are dealt with properly, fairly and impartially. The following checklist, although not exhaustive, is the Ombudsman's guide to standards of best practice by public officials.

Dealing "properly" with people means dealing with them -

• promptly, and without undue delay;
• correctly, in accordance with the law or other rules governing their entitlements;
• sensitively, by having regard to their age, to their capacity to understand often complex rules, to any disability they may have and to their feelings, privacy and convenience;
• helpfully, by simplifying procedures, forms and information on entitlements and services, maintaining proper records, and providing clear and precise details on time limits or conditions which might result in disqualification;
• responsibly, by not adopting an adversarial approach as a matter of course where there may be a fear of litigation.

Dealing "fairly" with people means -

• treating people in similar circumstances in like manner;
• accepting that rules and regulations, while important in ensuring fairness, should not be applied so rigidly or inflexibly as to create inequity;
• avoiding penalties which are out of proportion to what is necessary to ensure compliance with the rules;
• being prepared to review rules and procedures and change them if necessary;
• giving adequate notice before changing rules in a way which adversely affects a person's entitlements;
• having an internal review system so that adverse decisions can be looked at again and reviewed by someone not involved in the first decision;
• informing people how they can appeal, co-operating fully in any such appeal and being open to proposals for redress.

Finally, dealing "impartially" with people means -

• making decisions based on what is relevant in the rules and law and ignoring what is irrelevant;
• avoiding bias because of a person's colour, sex, marital status, ethnic origin, culture, language, religion, sexual orientation, attitude, reputation or because of who they are or who they know;
• ensuring, where a service is based on a scheme of priorities, that the scheme is open and transparent;
• being careful that one's prejudices are not factors in a decision.

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