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. 

Our Support and Intervention Policy sets out how we will use our statutory powers in a structured way to promote improvement by encouraging good practice or addressing poor performance by an organisation under our jurisdiction. It offers clarity to public bodies regarding what to expect from us, how and when. 

In short:

Since 2012 the SPSO's Complaints Standards Unit has worked closely with a range of partners and stakeholders to develop and implement Model Complaints Handling Procedures (MCHPs) for each public service sector.

One of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman's responsibilities is to set and monitor complaints handling standards for the public sector in Scotland. These standards are published as the Model Complaints Handling Procedures (MCHP) and define how we expect each public service sector to handle complaints quickly and simply, with local and early resolution by empowered and well trained staff. 

We put an emphasis on valuing complaints – recording all complaints, reporting key information and using the lessons learned to improve service delivery.