An interview with Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association

Background

Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association (CREHA) owns or manages 6,000 homes and works with over 8,000 customers. It is based in Craigmillar, one of Edinburgh’s main urban regeneration areas.

The Association is a member of Places for People, and is one of the UK’s largest property development and management organisations.

Castle Rock describes itself as ‘a modern, progressive organisation committed to the long term success of our neighbourhoods.’

Further Education

The Further Education Model Complaints Handling Procedure (MCHP) was developed in consultation with key stakeholders, including Scotland’s Colleges and complaints experts from the sector and was published on 19 December 2012, with full implementation required by 30 August 2013.

In addition to the requirement to adopt the MCHP under the SPSO Act 2002 (as amended), adoption of the MCHP was a requirement of the SFC’s Financial Memorandum.

Local authorities are required to report on their complaint handling performance on an annual basis. Their reports must include performance statistics showing the volume and type of complaints and details such as the time taken to investigate a complaint and the stage at which complaints are resolved.

Below you will find a list of each local authority area in Scotland and a link to their annual complaints reports.

Complaint investigators need multiple skills to carry out their role effectively. They need to be good listeners, project planners, critical thinkers, reasoned decision makers, effective communicators and change managers. Investigators within an organisation also act as critical friend to their own organisation similar to the work of internal auditors. This can be a difficult balance to achieve and even harder to demonstrate.

This tool has been designed to help guide investigators through this challenging process.

The Complaints improvement framework has been developed to help organisations assess and demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of their overall complaints handling arrangements. This includes how well the organisation handles and responds to complaints, how accessible the complaints procedure is and the effectiveness of its governance and monitoring arrangements.

Developing the Model Complaints Handing Procedures

The Complaints Standards Authority interviewed a number of organisations about their experiences of developing complaints handling processes using our Model Complaints Handling Procedures (MCHPs).

Thank you to everybody who participated in the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) conference on 15 March 2017. Please find below the resources and materials from the event. 

Apologising when things have gone wrong is an important part of handling complaints effectively. It is often the first step to repairing a damaged relationship and, while apologising cannot change what has happened, it can help to restore dignity and trust. 

A number of networks of complaints handlers have been formed to help support the development and sharing of best practice. 

The remit of these groups include identifying, developing and evaluating best practice, supporting complaints handling practitioners and providing a forum for benchmarking complaints performance. The networks are used to help take forward the ongoing work of the Complaints Standards Authority (CSA) in areas such as developing standardised complaints recording categories and performance indicators. 

Spotlight on the impact of the Scottish Welfare Fund High Most Compelling priority rating

This report focuses on the application of the High Most Compelling (HMC) priority rating by some local authorities, which limits funding to individuals in severe crisis.