External Reviewer

Job summary

A unique opportunity to help shape public sector accountability

Are you an experienced public sector professional with a passion for fair, high-quality services? Do you have the expertise to make an independent, informed judgement - and the time to put it to good use?

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) is looking for an External Reviewer to play a key independent assurance role in how we handle complaints about our own service. This is a rare opportunity to use your experience at a strategic level, working with a small time commitment but genuine influence.

Job description

Twice a year, usually in February and August, you will review a sample of around 10 complaints made about our service. Working from documentation provided securely by our Professional Practice Lead, you will assess how we dealt with each complaint against four straightforward standards:

• Timeliness: did we respond within our published 20-working-day timeframe?
• Scope: did we address all the substantive issues raised?
• Reasonableness: was our handling and conclusion fair and in line with our procedures?
• Clarity: did we communicate the outcome clearly, taking individual needs into account?

You won't be reconsidering our decisions on the original complaints, your focus is on whether we handled complaints about our service properly and what we can learn from them.

Where you identify shortcomings, you'll make recommendations for improvement. You'll also share broader observations about customer experience trends you spot across the cases you review.

Once a year, you'll present your findings directly to our Commission (our governance board) and contribute a short section to our Annual Report. You'll also attend at least one Executive Team meeting via MS Teams to share your perspective.

Your reports will be published on our website, so your work will be visible and genuinely impactful. You will not be expected to deal directly with complainants.

Person specification

You'll bring senior-level experience from the public sector, including any gained through research. This is likely to be focused on complaints handling, regulation, inspection, performance improvement or a related field. Specifically, we're looking for someone who:

• Has a strong track record of driving improvements in customer service in the public sector
• Can make sound, evidence-based judgements and express them clearly
• Is genuinely impartial, objective, and committed to fairness
• Can handle sensitive information with appropriate confidentiality
• Is willing to undertake brief induction training to understand our processes
• Can commit to six focused days of work, twice a year

You don't need to have worked in an ombudsman organisation before - what matters most is your professional judgement and your commitment to public sector accountability and improvement.

Benefits

Are you an experienced public sector professional with a passion for fair, high-quality services? Do you have the expertise to make an independent, informed judgement - and the time to put it to good use?

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) is looking for an External Reviewer to play a key independent assurance role in how we handle complaints about our own service. This is a rare opportunity to use your experience at a strategic level, working with a small time commitment but genuine influence.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Interviews will be held on Monday 29 June.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : recruitment@lgo.org.uk
• Email : recruitment@lgo.org.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@lgo.org.uk

Further information

If you are dissatisfied with any part of our recruitment process, you can raise a complaint on our website https://www.lgo.org.uk/information-centre/about-us/our-performance/comp….

https://www.lgo.org.uk/