Procedure For Contacting South Ayrshire Council
What Do We Do With Comments, Suggestions, Compliments And Complaints?
Comments
We welcome comments about our services and staff. We will pass them to the relevant
manager for information and action. Unless you ask for a reply, we will not normally
contact you about comments.
Suggestions
We will let you know we have received your suggestion within five working days.
If we can, we will act on your suggestion immediately. If we need more time to consider
your suggestion, or it is not possible to act on it, you will receive an explanation
within 20 working days.
Compliments
We will pass compliments to the staff who have given you good service for their
information.
Complaints
We have a three-stage complaints process.
Stage one - informal complaint
The easiest and quickest way to complain is to contact the relevant department directly
and speak to someone about the problem that is troubling you.
If you do not know which department to contact, simply phone our Customer Services
Team on 0845 601 2020. They will put you in contact with someone who can help.
Our aim at this informal stage is to sort your problem out to your satisfaction
as quickly as possible. Although your complaint may be informal we will record the
details to help us improve our services in the future.
Stage two - formal complaint
If we cannot sort your problem out at stage one, or you want to formally complain
about something, you can contact us in one of the ways described under Contacting South Ayrshire
Council.
We will let you know within five working days that we have received your formal
complaint. We aim to give you a full response in 20 working days. If, for any reason,
we cannot give you a full response within the 20 days, we will contact you to update
you with progress and tell you when we will be in touch again.
If your complaint is about a social work service, we have to deal with it slightly
differently. However, if you register your complaint as described above under Contacting
South Ayrshire Council, we will contact you and explain how it affects you.
Stage three - review of departmental response
If you are unhappy with the way your complaint has been handled or the response
you have received, you can contact the Chief Executive. The Chief Executive will
review your complaint and the action of the department that dealt with it. The response
from the Chief Executive is the last stage in our feedback system.
What if I am still not satisfied?
On completion of the last stage, you can contact the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
(SPSO) if you feel we have not dealt properly with your complaint.
The SPSO is the final stage for complaints about most organisations that provide
public services in Scotland, including South Ayrshire Council, and provides an independent,
free and confidential service.
The SPSO will normally only consider a complaint after you have completed our own
complaints procedure.
The SPSO cannot normally look at complaints:
- more than 12 months after you became aware of the matter you want to complain about;
or
- that have been or are being considered in court.
If you want to raise a matter with the SPSO after you have completed South Ayrshire
Council's complaints procedure, you can contact the Ombudsman in writing at 4 Melville
Street, Edinburgh EH3 7NS; by calling 0800 377 7330; or by emailing ask@spso.org.uk.
Please remember that at any stage in your dealings with us you can ask for support
and help from your
local councillor, Member of Parliament, Member of Scottish Parliament or
Member of European Parliament.
This information is also available from the Customer Services Team in Urdu and Chinese.
If you know someone who might need this information translated into a language other
than Urdu or Chinese, please contact our Customer Services Team.
If you know anyone who is registered blind or partially sighted, please contact
the Customer Services Team for a large-print version or a copy on tape on 0845 601
2020 / 0845 601 2020