The Western Australian Ombudsman’s 2019-20 annual report, tabled in Parliament, reveals that the office is now finalising 95 per cent of complaints within three months.
The report looks back to 2007 and shows that since then the Ombudsman has decreased the age of complaints from 173 days to 47 days and reduced the cost of resolving complaints by 37 per cent.
For the 13th consecutive year every recommendation it had made had been accepted by recipients, the report says.
Last year it received 31 investigable child deaths; 15 reviewable family and domestic violence fatalities; and made 16 recommendations about ways to prevent or reduce those deaths and fatalities.
Significant work had been undertaken on a report giving effect to the recommendations arising from the Ombudsman’s earlier investigation into ways that State Government Departments and authorities could prevent or reduce suicide by young people.
“We undertook a range of work to implement our inaugural Aboriginal Action Plan; we enhanced awareness and access to the Office for children and young people, and we enhanced regional awareness and access to the Office through a visit to Kalgoorlie and Leonora in the Goldfields-Esperance Region,” the report says.
The Ombudsman’s 271-page annual report can be accessed at this PS News link.
