Dumfries and Galloway Council must do more to resolve complaints from the public satisfactorily, a councillor insisted this week.
Stranraer and the Rhins Councillor Willie Scobie spoke up after it was revealed that the number of complaints made to the local authority have hit a five-year high.
While the independent councillor raised his eyebrows at the 631 grievances lodged last year, he was more concerned about what action the council had taken afterwards.
Speaking at the council’s audit, risk and scrutiny committee on Tuesday, Councillor Scobie said: “In the report the SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) stated that ‘an effective complaints handling procedure aims to resolve the complaints to the service user’s satisfaction wherever possible and appropriate’.
“Do we actually monitor how many people are actually satisfied? I don’t think we do.
“And it’s a requirement when you read that paragraph in the report from the SPSO.
“How do we monitor to see if people are satisfied – or if they’ve just given up at stage one and are taking it no further to stage two? Or maybe they’re taking it further from there.”
The 631 complaints members of the public lodged with the council last year was an increase of 50 on the previous year, and 175 more than in 2019/20.
The number one reason for grievances related to professionalism of staff, with 61 contacts made on this issue.
Waste collection problems, along with inadequate or poor standard of service, were next as both of these issues received 40 complaints.
Bullying/behaviour in schools resulted in 33 complaints made to the council, while road condition/road maintenance led to 29 contacts from members of the public.
While the complaints figure was the highest in five years, Annandale and Eskdale Councillor Archie Dryburgh said that it needed to be taken in context.
He said: “In the main, it’s a relatively low number compared to what has been seen elsewhere in Scotland.
“In learning from complaints and the improvement work done within each council service, how do we actually get the back to the individual who has been complained about, or the department? Because this has been where there’s been a challenge.
“Who actually does that?
Nick Evans, the council’s democratic services manager, replied: “In terms of the learning as an organisation, what we try to take from complaints is providing feedback to the services, and where necessary as Councillor Dryburgh already mentioned, it would be team leaders and/or heads of service in certain circumstances.”