Public services across the UK are treating the disabled poorly, and in some cases ignore their rights.

A scathing report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman highlights some recent investigations and lays out how public bodies should handle complaints.

Public bodies that are marked badly for dealing with individuals are the NHS, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, and the UK Border Agency.

The cases investigated included:

• The UK Border Agency paid £5,000 compensation for the distress, humiliation, intimidation and anxiety arising from stopping and strip searching a lone traveller with learning difficulties and a mental health condition when he passed through customs.

• An NHS Trust acknowledged the failings in care and treatment of a profoundly deaf mother suffering from epileptic seizures who later died in hospital.  The trust paid her mother £1,000 compensation.

• A woman in her 40s, who has learning disabilities and epilepsy. She is cared for at home by her parents and needs significant support with her personal care and everyday tasks. She was admitted to hospital and her parents complained about the standard of care in the hospital. The Trust apologised and paid £2,500 compensation.

“The cases in the report highlight the difficulties faced by disabled people in accessing public services and the lack of awareness in some public bodies of their statutory obligations, which can lead to poor service and unfair treatment,” said ombudsman Ann Abraham.

“The cases also show the role that the ombudsman can play in both righting individual wrongs and driving improvements in public services.”

“I hope that this report will be helpful to people, and their representatives, who may be considering whether to refer such cases to the ombudsman; and will also help bodies in jurisdiction understand how we will consider complaints made about them.”

The ombudsman offers a free complaints service for anyone in dispute with a government department, a range of other public bodies in the UK, and the NHS in England.

A free copy of the report,  Report on complaints about disability issues  including details of the five investigations, is available