News

The NSW Ombudsman, Mr Michael Barnes, today tabled the Annual Report 2018–19 in Parliament.

The report details the work done across the broad range of areas within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. The Ombudsman oversights NSW public sector agencies and private sector agencies that care for children or provide community services.

Over the past year, we provided assistance and advice to over 40,600 people and agencies who contacted the office for help.

The annual report highlights the many ways that the Ombudsman adds value, including case studies relating examples of how we deal with individual requests for assistance.

Read the report.

Read the media release.

The NSW Ombudsman and Convenor of the NSW Child Death Review Team (CDRT), Michael Barnes, tabled the CDRT’s annual report 2018–19 in Parliament today.

The CDRT is comprised of key government agencies and independent experts in child health, research and injury prevention, and aims to prevent and reduce the deaths of children in NSW.

The annual report describes the work of the CDRT over the last year. Most importantly, the report also details the degree to which the CDRT’s recommendations to prevent or reduce the likelihood of child deaths have been accepted by government, and the progress being made by agencies to implement them.

Read the report.

Read the media release.

The NSW Ombudsman, Mr Michael Barnes, today tabled the OCHRE Review Report in Parliament.

OCHRE – Opportunity, Choice, Healing, Responsibility, Empowerment – is the NSW Government’s plan for Aboriginal Affairs, which commenced on 5 April 2013. The intent of OCHRE is to address the challenges facing Aboriginal communities, issues to be addressed, and what else is needed to drive better cultural, social and economic outcomes for Aboriginal people in NSW.

The OCHRE Review Report provides a comprehensive assessment of the OCHRE programs over the past five years.

This report identifies how NSW government agencies can identify opportunities to do things differently in ways that will achieve long-term, sustainable and meaningful outcomes for Aboriginal people.

Read the report.

Read the media release.

My office is changing how we manage our work. This follows the changes in our jurisdiction over the last three years. My staff are not only busy handling complaints but also preparing for this change.

As a result, we may not handle your complaint within our usual timeframes; you may experience a short delay. We will assess each new complaint to make sure we identify any that need urgent attention.

I appreciate this can be frustrating and ask that you are patient while we make these changes. We are making the changes to improve our service to the community of NSW. We expect to return to our usual timeframes for handling complaints by December.

From Monday 12 August 2019, the Official Community Visitor (OCV) scheme has moved to the NSW Ageing and Disability Commission.

The OCV scheme no longer sits within the NSW Ombudsman's office.

If you would like to get in contact with an OCV or get more information about the OCV scheme please contact (02) 9407 1831 or visit the NSW Ageing and Disability Commission website.

Ombudsman Michael Barnes has tabled two reports in Parliament today, the Biennial report of the deaths of children in New South Wales: 2016 and 2017 and Review of suicide clusters and evidence-based prevention strategies for school-aged children.

The Biennial report concerns 981 children aged from birth to 17 years who died in NSW in 2016 and 2017 and the second report, Review of suicide clusters sets out what is known about suicide clusters among school-aged children, and examines current policy frameworks.

Read the Biennial report and Review of suicide clusters report.
Read the Media release