The Model Complaints Handling Procedures

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.

All organisations within SPSO’s jurisdiction must ensure their complaints handling procedure (CHP) complies with the SPSO Statement of Complaints Handling Principles. This applies whether or not an organisation is required to follow one of the SPSO’s MCHPs. The Principles are an expression of how organisations and their staff should handle complaints in order to develop and maintain a positive complaints handling culture, and the MCHPs (links in the expandable boxes below) set out the process that must be followed when handling complaints.

The aim of standardising and streamlining complaints handling procedures has been at the core of this work, so all MCHPs are closely aligned. The key elements of each MCHP will be the same for all sectors, including:

  • A shared definition of what is and what is not a complaint
  • A two-stage process where complaints are resolved, with the customer's agreement, as close to the frontline as possible (though resolution can happen at any stage of the process)
  • Frontline response to complaints within five working days
  • An investigation stage of 20 working days, which provides the organisation’s final decision
  • Recording of all complaints
  • Active learning from complaints through reporting and publicising complaints information.

Sector MCHPs

You can find the MCHP documents for each sector in the drop-down menu below. 

The Local Authority MCHP has been developed by SPSO in partnership with a working group of local authority complaints experts and applies to all local authorities and all local authority services. It also applies to all services provided by a health and social care partnership on behalf of a local authority.

The MCHP for Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) has been developed by SPSO in partnership with the housing sector, guided by a steering group of key housing stakeholders and an advisory panel of housing association representatives.  It applies to all RSLs and all the services they provide, including those that they provide under contract from other agencies such as local authorities.

The Scottish Government, Scottish Parliament and Associated Public Authorities in Scotland MCHP has been developed by SPSO in partnership with relevant stakeholders.  It applies to all Scottish Government, Scottish Parliament and associated public authorities under the SPSO’s jurisdiction in terms of schedule 2 of the SPSO Act 2002.

The NHS was the last public sector to adopt the MCHP on 1 April 2017. Therefore, the NHS MCHP has not yet been revised since it was first published. 

There is no longer a standalone Social Work MCHP. In line with feedback received during our public consultation on the revision of the MCHPs, in 2020 we have combined the MCHPs for the local authority and social work sectors into a single document (the Local Authority MCHP, see above).

The revised Local Authority MCHP includes a core text, which is consistent across all public services in Scotland, with some additional text and examples specific to local authorities and health and social care partnerships (HSCPs) handling social work complaints.  This includes the social work specific content from the previous Social Work MCHP, which has been incorporated (and updated where appropriate).  The core text was drafted based on the Social Work MCHP, so much of the content remains unchanged.

The revised Local Authority MCHP, published 2020, applies to social work complaints, whether they are handled by local authority or health and social care partnership (HSCP) staff.

For complaints relating to the actions and processes of the Integration joint boards (IJB) itself, IJBs should adopt the MCHP for the Scottish Government, Scottish Parliament and Associated Public Authorities.  The Ombudsman has written to all IJBs with the revised version of this MCHP.

Child Friendly Complaints

For more information on Child Friendly Complaints, including our Child Friendly Complaints Handling Principles and Process Guidance, please visit our dedicated Child Friendly Complaints webpage.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Part 4 of the MCHPs on Governance includes a section on recording, reporting, learning from and publicising complaints, which refers to the complaints performance indicators published by the SPSO.

The documents in this section outline the KPIs for:

  • Local Authorities (this includes Health and Social Work Partnerships, in relation to social work functions delegated from local authorities as well as the Arm’s Length External Organisations commissioned by Local Authorities to deliver services on their behalf)
  • Registered Social Landlords
  • Colleges
  • Universities and
  • Scottish Government, Scottish Parliament and associated public authorities.

Note: For NHS organisations, the applicable MCHP is the NHS Scotland MCHP and the Key Performance Indicators to be reported against are set out in Appendix 6 of that document.

Downloads

Complaints Key Performance Indicators for the Model Complaints Handling Procedures guidance (PDF, 536KB)

SPSO cover letter to organisations about the KPI MCHP guidance (PDF, 151KB) - March 2022

Related reading

Please direct any queries regarding the MCHPs to the Complaints Standards unit at [email protected]. 

Updated: August 19, 2025