61 Case No. 13/01558 Case No. 13/05369 When employees of the Ombudsman’s Children’s Division visited a residential institution in Western Jutland, a 12-year-old girl asked whether she could have more time with her mother. A short time previously, her time with her mother had been reduced because the girl had told of worrying episodes during her last visit to her mother. The girl also wanted more time with her father, and preferably without supervision. A divorced father thought that his son’s municipal caseworker had taken the mother’s side in an e-mail correspondence. He therefore complained to the Ombudsman. In a letter the Ombudsman asked the municipality to consider the girl’s wishes. The municipality therefore made a new assessment of the girl’s access arrangements with her parents, based, among other things, on talks with the girl. However, the municipality reached the conclusion that there was no reason to change the present access arrangements. When the Ombudsman’s staff pay a monitoring visit to a residential institution, time has been set aside in the programme for residents to have a talk with them. The talks may be about the institution but they may also concern the case processing by a public authority. The e-mails mentioned in the complaint concerned the fact that the son had told his school that his mother beat him. The mother had therefore written to the municipality that she would like assurance that the case notes included the son’s later retraction of his statement. The caseworker had confirmed this but also informed the mother that a notification cannot be retracted. The Ombudsman wrote to the father that he would not investigate the case in more detail as the caseworker’s information in the relevant e-mails ‘was solely in the nature of information and guidance’. In addition, the case presented no information which gave the Ombudsman occasion for starting an investigation of the caseworker’s impartiality or alleged breach of her duty of confidentiality. In 2013, the Ombudsman processed 34 cases concerning impartiality. Only one of them gave occasion for a more detailed investigation. Case No. 13/04560 When a foreign inmate, due to be released on parole in May, was still in prison in October, he conferred written authority on a prison spokesperson to complain to the Ombudsman on his behalf. The Ombudsman forwarded the complaint to the Department of Prisons and Probation and asked to receive a copy of the Department’s reply to the inmate. The Department decided that the inmate could apply for compensation because he had not been released on parole at the correct time. The decision was sent to the prison spokesperson who had complained on behalf of the inmate. The inmate himself had now been expelled from Denmark, and the Department did not know whether he was in contact with the spokesperson. At the request of the Ombudsman, the Department translated the decision and sent it to the former inmate so that he would be able to cancel the authority and apply for compensation himself. A number of citizens confer written authority on another person to complain to the Ombudsman on their behalf. The authority is usually valid until the Ombudsman has concluded the case, unless the authority is cancelled before then. Case No. 13/00052 On a Friday in January, one of the Ombudsman’s legal case officers was called down to the reception, where a man was waiting with a handwritten complaint and a big bag with various binders and papers. The man explained that he wished to move away from the institution where he lived but that the municipality did not want to help him do so. Based on the man’s information, the case officer concluded that the man wished to complain about the municipality’s treatment of him. During the conversation and in a subsequent letter, the man was informed, among other things, that he had to complain to the municipality before the Ombudsman could consider his case. Citizens can appear in person at the Ombudsman office and have a face-to-face talk with a legal case officer. The office is open for enqui­ ries in person all workdays between 10:00 and 14:00.