monitoring activities 71 Morten Engberg Senior Head of Department, Monitoring Department For many years, the Ombudsman’s monitoring activities were conducted within a clearly defined framework, but at the end of 2012, our monitoring activities were modified in a number of ways. Basically, the Ombudsman decided to give a higher priority to essential and serious issues during monitoring visits, with special focus on general issues. In this connection, we also decided to use the term ‘monitoring visits’ instead of ‘inspections’. At the same time, a new Children’s Division was established at the Ombudsman’s office. Since monitoring visits to institutions for children and young people are considered one of the main tasks of the Children’s Division, the establishment of the Division greatly affected the Ombudsman’s monitoring activities. But what topics does the Ombudsman concentrate on during monitoring visits following the new monitoring concept? At the beginning of 2013, the Ombudsman decided that monitoring visits were to focus on the following topics: 1. Forcible measures and other restrictions (including isolation), disciplinary measures and informal initiatives 2. Interpersonal relations, including relations between staff and inmates and other users of services and facilities as well as relations among users 3. Work and leisure time 4. Health issues 5. User safety 6. Education 7. Transfers between different sectors, for instance between the Prison and Probation Service and the psychiatric treatment system