8.1.  Overall aim 

The orderly, prompt and intelligent allocation of cases gives us the best opportunity to achieve the goals set out in our Three Year Plan and our Business Plan. 

Our strategic aim is to allocate each case to a named Investigator within 20 working days of receipt and to ensure the number of unallocated cases remains at a sustainable level proportionate to our available respurces. 

Where this is not possible, we will put in place measures to ensure all complainants are treated fairly and kept up to date. 

8.2.  General allocation principles  

• ECHO automatically allocates each case to an Investigation team based on geography. The exception is LGSCO-PHSO joint working complaints, which will be sent to the Joint Working Team. 
• For potential Housing Ombudsman joint working complaints, Assessment will take advice from the Housing Forum lead, clearly indicating possible joint working in Notes & Analysis. (See Joint working with the HOS.) 
• Assistant Ombudsmen are responsible for allocations within their teams. The Team Coordinator administers the process.  
• We will use intelligent allocation to play to people’s strengths and preferences, as long as this meets the needs of and demands on the organisation.  
• It is the expectation that any Investigator can take any type of complaint and that the composition of an individual’s caseload may vary depending on the types of complaints we receive. 
• By exception and on rare occasions, there may be cases that cannot be investigated by a specific Investigator or group of Investigators. This could be because of the office they are based in or because of a conflict of interest. The final decision about who to allocate a case to will be taken by the relevant Assistant Ombudsman. 
• Assistant Ombudsmen will agree each Investigator’s optimum caseload, taking into account their experience, capacity and preference. The focus in agreeing the optimum caseload is the level that enables that Investigator to maximise their decision-making.
• Assessment will have set a task for action with a date set eight weeks in the future. If the case has been identified as urgent, an alternative target may have been set. 
  • A Team Coordinator will write to the complainant 
    • Six weeks after the case is forwarded from Assessment, to provide an update if the case cannot be allocated at that point. 
    • Every six weeks after that until the complaint is allocated. 
    • At the point of allocation with a letter in the Director of Investigation’s name. This will say that the case has been allocated and will give the period within which the complainant should expect to hear further (up to four weeks)) The ‘Fact Sheet G2: How the Ombudsman will investigate your complaint’ will also be sent.  
• A Team Coordinator will also write to the BinJ eight weeks after the case is forwarded from Assessment, to provide an update if the case cannot be allocated at that point. The next contact will then be made when the case is allocated to an Investigator. 
• In their own Team Coordinator’s absence, the Assistant Ombudsman must ensure alternative arrangements for allocating complaints and notifying complainants without undue delay. 

8.3.   Allocations Process 

Allocations are done in each team at least once a week, using the ‘Unallocated at IU live’ report with all teams selected. The process is directly managed by the Assistant Ombudsman, who should have weekly discussions with Investigators about allocations. The associated administrative work is done by Team Coordinators. 

The ‘Unallocated at IU live’ report lists cases in order of the time they have been with the organisation as a whole. It also shows the number of days since each case was forwarded from Assessment. 

By exception, we may choose to allocate cases where it appears there is an element of urgency as a result of either the circumstances of the person affected, or where someone has already experienced significant delay which may later compromise our ability to either investigate the complaint or – where appropriate to do so – provide a suitable remedy. 

Some examples might include:

• Street homelessness where a local authority has refused to assist or accept an application for support.
• An imminent threat of eviction from a care home.
• Credible and serious ongoing concerns of threat to health or safety (note, it is open to staff to make safeguarding referrals to relevant authorities at any time).
• Where there is evidence of ongoing domestic abuse.
• The PA having a terminal illness 
• Where it would be more efficient for us to consider a new complaint alongside an existing investigation.

Urgent cases from any date are displayed at the top of the unallocated list where they are flagged as such on ECHO. Such cases should be noted by the Team Coordinator of the investigation team already assigned on ECHO. They will make other Team Coordinators and their Assistant Ombudsman aware to ensure prompt allocation, even though it means doing so ‘out of turn’. Such cases should be allocated to whichever team is taking new allocations that working day or the next. If no team intends to take new allocations within that timeframe the Assistant Ombudsman of the team assigned in ECHO will oversee prompt allocation within their own team.        

The Assistant Ombudsman will decide the subject mix of each Investigator’s caseload, based on the need to deal with the cases we receive, ensuring a mix of complexity and taking account of the preferences of the Investigator. The subject mix of allocations and decisions in each team must reflect the overall subject mix of cases. This is currently 30% Education & Children’s, 23% ASC and 14% Housing.

Allocations should be made from the first page of the report, starting with the oldest first, unless there is good reason to do otherwise. This can include ensuring an Investigator has a more balanced caseload by subject or to address an identified training or development need.  

There may be may be occasions where a specific Investigator has already been identified to take a case or a conflict of interest or LGO alert means a specific team or Investigator should/should not take it. We may also identify a group of cases because of their common subject matter to be allocated within a specific group of investigators. This approach particularly applies where we are piloting a new approach to investigating such cases.

Allocations for new Investigators without delegation will have greater involvement from the Assistant Ombudsman to ensure they receive cases of a suitable level of complexity and subject matter to match the training they have done.