On the 14th July, PHSO released its first annual report with Paula Sussex at the helm. It has indeed been a record-breaking year for the Ombudsman.

In the Foreword (p8/9) we can see Ms Sussex in a picture reminiscent of a posed school photograph. One hand holding a pen (industrious), while the other rests on an important document. She is pondering how to deal with a “significant increase in complaints”.

Look, here’s mine from 1961. One hand placed upon a train (going places) while in the background a globe.

Sussex uses the foreword to remind us that her mission is to “increase our impact”

So, how has she done? Well, in 2025/26, PHSO decided 9.8% more complaints than in 2024/25 and accepted 31% more complaints for primary investigation. (p39) So far so good.

But only detailed investigations can lead to a decision to uphold and unfortunately, these decreased by 8.17%.

Not only were there fewer detailed investigations, but these led to fewer upholds (see Failings or injustice identified, with recommendations made), down by 15.4%.

To summarise, more people made complaints that met the remit for investigation (+ 3,655 or +9.8%), but fewer cases were given a detailed investigation (-59 or -8.17%) and fewer complaints were upheld (-84 or -15.4%). Just how this qualifies as successfully increasing the impact of the Ombudsman is anyone’s guess.

PHSO has been on a continual downward trajectory since Rob Behrens took office in 2017, and Ms Sussex appears to be following his lead. Barely 2% of all complaints receive a full investigation and in 2025/26 just 1.1% received any form of uphold (this data includes partial upholds).

I wonder if anyone in senior management ever mentions the low uphold rate as a factor in the ‘systemic’ rise in complaints? I doubt it.

As more people complain and even more people get turned away with nothing, soon everyone will know how useless this government quango really is. Oh, I nearly forgot. PHSO did manage to break another record in 2025/26. They managed to spend £51.9 million upholding 461 complaints. That’s approximately £113,000 per upheld case. But of course Ms Sussex would argue that PHSO do a lot more than just uphold complaints. They train public sector staff and write important reports such as “Improving conversations in end of life care”. Nothing usually happens as a consequence of such reports landing on the desks of government ministers, but no matter. It gives everyone something to do.

It’s not easy for Ms Sussex to carve out her niche when Behrens has already crafted a ‘successful’ process of disposing of complaints and received a knighthood for it. So how about a rebranding exercise? (p9)

As a core part of building understanding of
our role and mission, this year also marked an
important step in the evolution of our identity,
as we prepare to change our name to the
Public Service Ombudsman. Built on research
and testing with the public and our colleagues,
our new name will better reflect what we do
and help more people find and use our service.

Have no fear, the rebranded Public Service Ombudsman (PSO = please sod off) will continue to protect public services from public accountability. It will probably cost a few £M, (hence the predicted rise in expenditure for 26/27) as private consultants and graphic designers are called in and Ms Sussex will no doubt take great care over the choice of colours for the new logo. What was that saying about Rome burning?