Appointed back in April 2025, we have not seen much action from the new Ombudsman, Paula Sussex. Here she is posing at her desk for Civil Service World. Somewhat reminiscent of a school photograph, when you were asked to sit at a desk and put your hand on a small train for texture. She appears to be using her computer whilst clutching a pen upside down. But at least she has finally raised her head above the parapet, 6 months into the job. So what does she have to say for herself?

CSW inform us that Sussex finds working in the public sector to be ‘more pointful’.

CSW last interviewed Paula Sussex nine years ago. Back then, she was chief executive at the Charity Commission, her first public sector role after 26 years in the private sector – a move she says she made because she wanted to do something more ”pointful”. Next, she ran the Student Loans Company, before leaving in 2023 to become the chief exec of financial technology startup OneID.

On being selected to be the next Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Sussex said;

“… the role was another opportunity to “contribute to making things better, which is simply irresistible”.

On the subject of ‘making things better’, Sussex does not have the best track record from a serving the public perspective.

We can see from her LinkedIn profile that she was the CEO of the Charity Commission between 2014 and 2017. In March 2024, PHSO issued two damning reports into the Charity Commission regarding serious safeguarding issues of sexual exploitation and child sex abuse at two separate charities. The Commission refused to comply, then issued legal proceedings to prevent the reports from being laid before parliament. Although both complaints, that of Mr U and that of Miss A, were submitted after Sussex left the organisation (in 2018 and 2019, respectively), they were ‘handled badly’ under the framework and culture left by her leadership. Quite a legacy of making things better.

She fared no better whilst at the helm of the Student Loans Company from 2018 to 2022. In March 2025, just one month before her appointment as Ombudsman, PHSO issued a damning report into the work of the Student Loans Company. The case of Jennie coinciding with Sussex in command.

Jennie Bradbury, 38, from Stoke on Trent, received a loan for tuition fees worth £2,395 in July 2013 to fund a one-year access to higher education diploma in health at Stoke on Trent College. Jennie went on to study a midwifery degree at Keele University. Her loan should have been cancelled in September 2019 when she completed her degree, but it took the SLC four years to cancel it.

Jennie contacted the SLC towards the end of 2019 to ask when her loan would be written off. She was told it would happen automatically and she would be notified. The SLC then contacted Jennie in June 2020 and again in May 2021 to tell her the loan had still not been written off. After repeatedly contacting the SLC, Jennie received an apology and a £25 payment.

But it wasn’t just Jennie affected; the system overseen by Sussex failed around 4,000 students.

The Ombudsman has called on the SLC to make improvements to its Advanced Learner Loans (ALL) processes after a systemic issue affected around 4,000 students.

Sussex is undeterred by these apparent failures and appears to be in denial, saying;

It is a privilege to be doing these jobs and the Student Loans Company, Charity Commission, these organisations are really important to the fabric of our country. You’d better do it well then, I always think.

And like previous Ombuds, she will no doubt believe she is ‘doing it well’ when her organisation dismisses 95% of complaints through willful blindness and fraudulent distortion of the facts. In many ways, she is the perfect candidate for the role. She puts the organisations ahead of the people, then denies any wrongdoing.

Anyone who has used the Ombudsman service will no doubt cringe at her following remark.

‘Complaints’ is not always seen as a positive word, but it’s the voice of the user, which is so important to have in your ear.”

Not that any of us plebs will get anywhere near her ear, as the gatekeepers and the ‘unacceptable behaviour process’ will keep everyone at arm’s length. She does, however, meet with her ‘public engagement and advisory group’ a handpicked set of eunuchs who have signed up to the ‘PHSO only fans club’. Described in the following way by Sussex.

She says several of the group’s members had made complaints that the ombudsman had not upheld, but that they were nevertheless “so positive about the experience that they had and also that their voice was heard”, and keen to talk about their experiences. “Getting that window onto the world of the customers that you serve… is incredibly valuable,” she says.

If she really wants to get a window onto the world of the customers that she ‘serves’, then she needs to step out of that bubble and get into the real world. Perhaps when she puts that pen down, she could take a look at the PHSO TrustPilot reviews. This one sums it up nicely.

There is only so much word salad anyone can consume and it is difficult to read this particular puff piece without wincing. It has all the usual buzzwords and positive hype, but is anyone convinced? Even the author of the piece, Tevye Markson, who works in the same building (cosy), was so bored that they failed to spot several errors, including a number of PSHO typos. Well, if they can’t even be bothered to read it properly, why should we?

So, having just got her feet under the table and still deciding whether to type or write, is our new Ombudsman going to be grilled by the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) in the near future? Or, just as last year, is the Ombudsman going to be given a free pass? Even PACAC are bored by it all and can you blame them?