Make FOI requests before the Ombudsman staff destroy their records
I made an FOI request for information about an unsuccessful complaint regarding a care home in their decision notices. I had had to complain about the same care home chain and I saw similarities in the two complaints. My complaint had had to go to the dreadful PHSO not the LG and SCO, but I knew from another unrelated complaint that the LG and SCO staff were perfectly capable of cherry-picking bits of a complaint and failing to say they had ignored part of the complaint in the decision notice. The response to my FOI request was that after a year they destroyed all paperwork so I was out of time with my request. So; if you see a decision that looks similar to your own complaint or you think something is missing; make an FOI request fast. Also; if you wish to make a Subject Access Request for your own information handled by the Ombudsman staff, do that within a year too.