Complaint Report 2024 to 2025

Introduction

North Ayrshire Council always seeks to deliver the best services possible to its tenants, residents and customers but it is recognised that dissatisfaction will sometimes occur. When it does, we want to know what went wrong, why it went wrong and what we can do to make things right.

The Council recognises that valuable lessons can be learned from complaints which are defined as being expressions of dissatisfaction from members of the public about actions, or lack of actions, or about the standard of service provided by or on behalf of the Council.

The Council’s complaint handling procedure (CHP) has two stages for handling complaints from the public.

Stage One complaints (also known as Frontline Resolution) are straightforward, non-complex complaints the Council can resolve at the initial point of contact or as close to the point of service delivery as possible. The Council has up to 5 working days to resolve these.

Stage Two complaints (also known as Investigations) are complaints the Council is typically unable to resolve at Stage One and needs more time to carry out further investigation. This may be because the nature of the complaint is complex, serious or high risk. The Council has up to 20 working days to resolve these.

This report details the Council’s complaint handling performance covering financial year 2024 to 2025 (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025). Performance is measured via several Scottish Public Services Ombudsman indicators (some of which have national targets) and complaint data relating to previous years has been included in certain sections to allow comparisons to be made.

Reporting complaints is a statutory requirement and is monitored by Audit Scotland.

This report has been reviewed for accessibility prior to publication.

Volume of complaints closed

The Council received 2,039 complaints during the year and closed 2,022.

The table below provides a breakdown of the closed complaints per Directorate:

The following tables highlight complaint volumes per Directorate under each Stage:

Corporate Services

Communities & Housing

Education

Health & Social Care

Place

Multi-Service

Although there is no target for the volume of complaints handled under each Stage, the Council seeks to maximise closure at Stage One wherever possible and 90% were handled at this Stage during the period.

Some Services handled all their complaints at Stage One.

Some Services that received high complaint volumes handled few of them at Stage Two, notably Building Services, Property Management & Investments, Streetscene and Waste Services due to the straightforward nature of the complaints received.

Whilst most of Waste Services complaints related to missed bin collections and assisted pull outs, the number of complaints received for the service in 2024/25 showed a reduction of 27% compared to 2023/24. Despite ongoing challenges regarding absence levels, the service remains focused on service delivery. 102,000 household waste bins are emptied each week, which equates to 5.3 million collections over the year. The number of complaints therefore received in 2024/25 is equivalent to 0.013% of all bins collected.

Year on Year comparison

The table below shows a comparison of the volume of complaints received over the last three years:

Whilst there has been a slight increase in complaints received when comparing 2024 with 2023, it is still a 21% drop when comparing 2024 with 2022. The sustained lower volume could be partly attributable to the complaint page on the Council’s website being enhanced in 2023, which now includes more information on what the Council does not consider a complaint and offers appropriate routes to raise such matters.

Volume of complaints closed on time at both Stages

The volume closed on time includes complaints that had their timescales extended and met the new due dates.

Volume of complaints not closed on time per Directorate

This section provides details of complaints not closed on time under each Stage and includes extended complaints that did not meet their new timescales.

Stage One

141 complaints did not meet timescale during the year and the volumes are noted below.

Corporate Services

Communities & Housing

Education

Health & Social Care

Place

Multiple reasons were noted as to why the above complaints did not meet timescale, including administrative errors, complaint handlers awaiting information to progress complaints, employee availability, resourcing issues and operational pressures.

Of the 141 Stage One complaints that did not meet timescale, 38 had their timescales extended the additional 5 working days but none met their new due dates.

In relation to the 103 complains that did not have their timescales extended, many could have been extended given 77% were closed within the additional 5 working day timescale allowance.

Stage Two

14 complaints did not meet timescale during the year and the volumes are noted below.

Corporate Services

Communities & Housing

Education

Health & Social Care

Place

Multi-Service

Reasons noted as to why the above complaints did not meet timescale are similar to those that did not meet timescale at Stage One.

Of the 14 Stage Two complaints that did not meet timescale, 2 had their timescales extended but neither met their new due dates.

Key complaint topics

Key topics for upheld and partially upheld complaints for Services are listed below. Services will not be listed where there were low complaint volumes that did not allow meaningful analysis.

Corporate Services

Communities & Housing

Education

Health & Social Care

Place

‘Employee Actions (alleged or perceived)’ appears as a key topic for some Services but the definition is broad and has been used where complainants alleged or perceived employee actions or behaviour to be unacceptable. Whilst investigations may determine this is not always the case, where unacceptable behaviour is identified Services will take the appropriate action to address.

Average time in working days for a full response

The average time in working days to close complaints under both Stages during the year is noted below. Values for previous years have been included to allow comparisons to be made. Any complaints that had their timescales extended have been excluded from the calculations.

The average time to close complaints under both Stages has consistently exceeded target.

The tables below detail Services that did not meet the average time in working days for a response under either Stage. Services that met the target are not listed and any complaints that had their timescales extended have been excluded from the calculations.

Corporate Services

Two Legal Services complaints were closed on working days 24 and 61. Clarification was sought from one complainant which took a significant number of days for them to respond and a delay was encountered with the other due to several factors, including an oversight on the part of the complaint handler.

Communities & Housing

One Community Facilities complaint was closed on working day 15 and this resulted in the average days target being breached. No reason was given as to what caused the delay.

Education

One HQ complaint was closed on working day 34 and this resulted in the average days target being breached. The delay was due to employee availability.

Health & Social Care

One Mental Health complaint was closed on working day 11 and this resulted in the average days target being breached. No reason was given as to what caused the delay.

Extended complaints

202 complaints had their timescales extended during the year (167 at Stage One and 35 at Stage Two). The complaints related to various Services across all Directorates.

There were various reasons for extending, including complainants, third parties and employees being unavailable to assist or support with investigations and/or letter approvals, obtaining additional information to support investigations and resourcing/operational issues. Of the 202 complaints that had their timescales extended, 80% were closed within their new target due dates.

Complaint Outcomes

The Council has four categories of complaint outcomes.

Resolved complaints are complaints where the Council has taken action to address a problem/issue without needing to decide if there were any failings.

Upheld complaints are complaints where something has gone wrong/not happened and the Council needs to take steps to address.

Partially Upheld complaints are complaints that have multiple complaint elements, some of which are upheld, the rest not.

Not Upheld complaints are complaints that have not been upheld for the following reasons:

• they related to internal or external policies
• they related to external regulations
• upon investigation they were proven to be unfounded/unsubstantiated

The tables below detail the number of complaints upheld, partially upheld, not upheld or resolved under both Stages.

Stage One

Of the 591 complaints that were upheld and partially upheld at Stage One, three services had the highest volume, with Property Management & Investment at 15%, Building Services at 19% and Waste Services at 28%.

53% of all Resolved complaints related to Waste Services (mainly missed bin collections), indicating those complainants simply wanted their bins collected without any need for investigation.

Complaints that were not upheld related to internal or external policies and regulations or were complaints that were found to be unsubstantiated.

Stage Two

Stage Two complaints that were upheld or partially upheld were divided across multiple Services across all Directorates.

The reasons for Stage Two complaints being closed as not upheld are the same as those for Stage One.

The tables below detail the outcomes at each stage covering the last three years:

Stage One complaints

Stage Two complaints

Improvements as a result of complaints

Council Services continually seek to identify improvements in service delivery and complaint information is analysed regularly to inform service improvements. Some improvements were implemented as a result of complaints received during the year and a selection is noted below.

Compliments

Over 340 compliments were recorded cross-Council during the year, which is a 48% increase on the previous year. Whilst they cannot all be highlighted in this report, a selection is noted below.

• “This is a compliment to thank the Roads Service on the quick response to a streetlight service request. The streetlight was out and the repair done within 2 days. Great work. My mum was well chuffed”
• “Just returned from a 10-day holiday in Largs and wanted to compliment the Council on how beautifully clean and tidy the streets were. Did not notice any litter anywhere and all the public toilets were spotlessly clean. Hope you pass on well-deserved praise for all the hard work involved. Will definitely holiday here again. Thank you so much.”
• Thank You card received from a service user’s daughter to allocated HSCP Social Worker: “When you became involved in this case, matters proceeded quickly and effectively. This is a short note to express our gratitude to you for the care, attention and consideration you gave to my mum's care, which was appreciated by all the family."
• “To the Waste Services men who regularly empty my bins - no matter whether it’s rain, snow or sun, they always have time to wave and smile to my 3-year-old son. Makes my son’s morning every time. Driver is the same - when my son sees him always makes effort to give him a wave. Small thing maybe but a huge hit in our house. Much appreciated.”
• A customer wanted to compliment a Customer Services Adviser for the outstanding service provided on a call. The issue was resolved and the caller was very happy with the service provided.
• “Thanks so much to Community Facilities for helping book the astro for my son's birthday. They had a great time. We have had a lot going on this last year so to see him and friends just having fun running around together was so good”
• “This is a compliment for Streetscene for cleaning the street in New Street, Stevenston. This was only reported today and the street has already been cleaned – the team also went into the garden and removed the litter as well - well done”
• “I recently camped at Eglinton Park for a show. We were all made very welcome by everyone, the venue was beautiful, the toilets were always clean and well stocked and we were extremely well catered for throughout the show. Everyone camping or attending the show on a daily basis were full of praise and I therefore thought it was only right to thank you for all their hard work”

SPSO complaint referrals

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) is the final stage for complaints about Local Authorities in Scotland. The SPSO has published its 2024/25 referral statistics and the table below details the volume of complaints (relating to North Ayrshire Council) that were referred to the SPSO during the year:

The SPSO received 1,561 complaints about Scottish Local Authorities during 2024/25 and 2.4% related to North Ayrshire Council. This referral rate is consistent with previous years (typically between 2% to 3%).

The highest number of referrals made to the SPSO about the Council related to Housing but this was expected given many of the Local Authority referrals made to the SPSO during the year related to Housing or housing services.

The outcomes of the North Ayrshire Council complaints referred to the SPSO are noted below.

All referrals made by North Ayrshire complainants were resolved by the SPSO at the Advice or Early Resolution stages. No complaints were taken to investigation.

Most complaint referrals handled at Early Resolution were discretionary in nature, meaning the Council had discretion in terms of how to consider them. It is pleasing to note many were considered ‘good complaint handling’ complaints, meaning the SPSO was satisfied with the way the Council handled them.

More details regarding complaint referrals for North Ayrshire Council can be found on the SPSO website.

Glossary

Any terms used will be explained below.

Stage One

Stage One (also known as Frontline Resolution) aims to resolve straightforward customer complaints that require little or no investigation. Any employee may deal with complaints at this stage and they can be resolved via any channel. The main principle is to seek resolution at the earliest opportunity and as close to the point of service delivery as possible.

Stage One complaints must be responded to within 5 working days unless an extension (a maximum of 5 additional working days) is requested and approved by a senior manager or above. The Council should, however, always aim to resolve these types of complaints within 5 working days.

Stage Two

Not all complaints are suitable for Stage One and not all complaints will be satisfactorily resolved at that stage. Complaints therefore handled at Stage Two (also known as Investigations) typically require a detailed examination before the Council can state its position. These complaints may already have been considered at Stage One, or they may have been identified from the outset as being complex, serious or high risk and needing immediate investigation.

Stage Two complaints must be responded to within 20 working days unless an extension is approved by senior manager in conjunction with the customer. Stage Two complaints require a written response, signed by a senior manager.

Complaint criteria

When an expression of dissatisfaction is received the Council determines if the issue falls into one (or more) six complaint categories:

• a service the Council should be providing is not being provided or is not available
• a request for a service was provided but not to an appropriate standard
• a request for service has not been answered or actioned within the agreed timescale
• a Council employee was rude, unhelpful or unprofessional
• a Council employee did not attend an appointment or call-out on a date/time agreed
• the complaint relates to a policy (internal or external)

If the issue being raised relates to one or more of the above, the matter is considered a complaint and will be recorded and handled as such. If not, the matter will be handled as a request for a service, observation or enquiry and actioned accordingly.