Contacting South Ayrshire Council
Feedback - Help us to get it right
Feedback can take the form of comments, suggestions, compliments or complaints. We take all feedback seriously
and will deal with it fairly, honestly, in good time and in confidence. We need your feedback so that we can continue
to improve the services we provide to you. If we are getting it right, it is useful to know. If we are getting it wrong, please
tell us so we can put things right and give you an explanation.
How can I give feedback?
You can give us your feedback:
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 ‘
How can I give feedback?’.
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 ‘
How can I give feedback’, 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?
If you feel that we have not properly dealt with your complaint, you can take it to
the
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman is independent from us and can investigate the response we have given. However, the
Ombudsman will not normally deal with a complaint unless you have been through our full complaints procedure first.
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
