Complaints
As your local Council we want to give you the best service we
can. But things sometimes go wrong, and you may feel you haven't
had the service you expect from us.
If this happens, the first thing you should do is contact the
person who deals with the Service you want to complain about.
They'll do their best to sort out the problem for you.
How do I make a formal complaint?
There are several different ways to get in touch with us:
When you make a formal complaint, please try to describe what
happened as clearly as you can, and let us know how you think we
can put things right. We deal with formal complaints in two
stages:
Stage 1
We'll pass your complaint to someone who works in the Service
you have complained about, but they'll normally be from a different
section and won't have any connection with your complaint - so they
can look into it independently and objectively. They'll acknowledge
your complaint within 5 working days of receiving it.
Within 15 working days of receiving it, they'll get back in touch
with a response to let you know what we're going to do about
it.
At this point, if you're still not happy you can move on to
Stage 2.
Stage 2
We'll pass your complaint to our Corporate Complaints team, who
investigate complaints on behalf of the Chief Executive. An
independent investigator will acknowledge your complaint within 5
working days of receiving it, and give you a response to your
complaint within 15 working days of receiving it.
We always do our best to give you a response to your complaint
within the 15 day deadline. Where this is not possible we will let
you know how we are progressing and when you can expect to receive
a more detailed response.
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
If you're still not happy after you've been through both stages
of our complaints procedure, you can ask the Scottish Public
Services Ombudsman to look into it for you. You should
note that generally you have to contact the Ombudsman within 1 year
of your issue arising or from the date that you discovered the
issue. You can contact the Ombudsman's office at any time for
advice, but they won't normally investigate a case until you've
been through both stages of our formal complaints procedure.
The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
4 Melville Street
Edinburgh
EH3 7NS
Tel 0800 377 7330
Fax 0800 377 7331
Email ask@spso.org.uk
Website: www.spso.org.uk
If the Ombudsman agrees to investigate, we'll be asked to provide
information about your complaint.
