Complaint report 2025 to 2026

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 five 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 2025 to 2026 (1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026). 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 will meet accessibility requirements when published.

Volume of complaints closed

The council received 2,066 complaints during the year and closed 2,067.

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 and Housing

Education

Health and 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 86% 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 Customer Services, Building Services, Property Management and Investments, Roads, Streetscene, and Waste Services. This will be due to the straightforward nature of the complaints received.

Regarding Waste Services complaints, the Waste Operations team has an improvement plan in place and monitors and reviews all complaints received to identify issues and take appropriate action with them. In the last three years, complaints in respect of Waste Operations have reduced from 1,371 in 2022 to 2023, to 680 in 2025 to 2026. This equates to a 50% reduction in complaints over the three-year period.

Year on year comparison

The table below shows a comparison of the volume of complaints received over the last four years.

Whilst there has been a slight increase in complaints received when comparing 2025 with 2024, it is still a 20% 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.

To allow comparisons to be made, the table below shows the percentage of complaints closed on time at both stages over the last three years.

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

123 complaints did not meet timescales during the year and the volumes are noted below.

Corporate Services

Communities and Housing

Education

Health and Social Care

Place

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

Of the 123 Stage One complaints that did not meet timescale, 18 had their timescales extended the five working days however none met the new due dates so these complaints could have been escalated and handled as Stage Twos.

In relation to the 105 complaints that did not have their timescales extended, 73% would have been closed within the five additional working days had extensions been applied.

Stage Two

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

Communities and Housing

Education

Health and Social Care

Place

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

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 and Housing

Education

Health and 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 allege or believe employee actions and/or behaviour to be unacceptable. Whilst investigations may determine this is not always the case, if unacceptable behaviour is identified, appropriate action will have been taken by services 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 number of days to close Stage One and Stage Two complaints is better than the national targets.

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.

Communities and Housing

One Community and Learning Development complaint was closed on working day 13 which resulted in the average days target being breached. No reason was given as to what caused the delay.

One Protective Services complaint was closed on working day 43 because the complaint was inadvertently overlooked and the complainant was not engaging with the service regarding the complaint.

Three Protective Services complaints were closed at 30, 33 and 50 working days, resulting in the average days target being breached. Various reasons were noted as to why the due dates were not met and at least one of the complaints could have had its due date extended.

Place

One Sustainability complaint was closed on working day 20, resulting in the average days target being breached. The delay was due to a processing issue and the complaint being sent to an incorrect service initially.

Two Transport complaints were closed on working days 16 and 17, resulting in the average target days not being met. Given the circumstances, both complaints could have been escalated and handled at Stage Two.

Health and Social Care

Three Mental Health complaints were closed at 31, 51, and 59 working days, resulting in the average days target being breached. Various reasons were noted as to why the due dates were not met and all of them could have had their due dates extended given the circumstances.

Extended complaints

159 complaints has their timescales extended during the year (112 at Stage One and 47 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 response letter approvals, obtaining additional information to support investigations and resourcing/operational issues. Of the 159 complaints that had their timescales extended, 89% 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 807 complaints that were upheld and partially upheld at Stage One, the three services that had the highest volume were Waste Services with 45%, Building Services with 13% and Education (HQ and Schools) with 9%.

33% 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. The other complaints closed as resolved related to various services across all Directorates.

Complaints that were not upheld related to internal/external policies, regulations and complaints that were found to be unfounded.

Stage Two

Stage Two complaints that were upheld or partially upheld related to various services across all Directorates.

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

Stage One complaints

Stage Two complaints

Improvements made from 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 300 compliments were recorded cross-council during the year. Whilst they cannot all be highlighted in this report, a selection is noted below (any employee names that were provided have been redacted):

• "I would like to thank the plumber that attended my property today. He provided a fantastic service. My husband is restricted in his movement and he even came into the room to speak to him. Such a lovely young man."
• "I would like to thank an employee from the Council Tax department. She was excellent at her job, very helpful and very kind. She dealt with my query immediately and went above and beyond for me. You have a great employee there."
• "Big thank you to the two employees at Largs Library today who made me feel so welcome and went over and above to provide excellent customer service. Both show that they care about people that visit the library and give a great service to the community."
• Caller wanted to thank the team that dealt with an abandoned car. It was handled very quickly and a fantastic service was given. Praise was also given to the employee in the Contact Centre that took the original call.
• "My dad has recently been admitted to long term care. Before he was admitted we were really pleased with the fantastic services we received from Care at Home, Dementia Support, Stevenson Day Care and Anam Cara respite unit. These services all helped us to look after dad and keep him at home for as long as possible. Support from the Social Worker to transition to long term care was also exceptional. We are very grateful to everyone."
• "A huge thank you to North Ayrshire Council for the improvements made outside Beith Primary School. The pavement is kept very clean and there's a new bin and a sign to remind people to pick up after their dog. It had been a problem for a while but is now so much better. Thank you."
• "Would just like to say how amazing it was going to Bartonholm Recycle Centre today via the booking system. So easy to do, no waiting to enter, straight in to be greeted by two lovely gentlemen who directed me to skips. Once I moved round, I was met by a young guy who was also friendly and helpful."
• "Can you please pass on my thanks to the Roads department colleague for assisting in carrying out pavement repairs near home. I am delighted. Thanks."
• "This is for the Refugee Housing Team in North Ayrshire Council. They are doing the best job for all of us who are looking for homes here in Scotland. Really thankful for the help and support. The best people and the best team ever. Thank you so much."
• "To Streetscene - really happy with the grass cutting at the High Road in Saltcoats - the place looks so nice and so tidy. Look superb."

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 2025 to 2026 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 2,143 complaints about Scottish Local Authorities during 2025 to 2026, and 2.3% related to North Ayrshire Council. This referral rate is consistent with previous years (typically between 2% and 3%).

The highest number of referrals made to the SPSO about the council related to Housing but this was not unexpected given 31% of all 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 their advice, early resolution or preliminary investigation stages. No complaints were taken to investigation.

Most complaint referrals handled at early resolution and preliminary investigation were discretionary and 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

Terms and explanations

Stage One

Stage One (also known as Frontline Resolution) complaints are complaints that are straightforward to address and require little or no investigation. Any employee may deal with complaints at this stage and they can be concluded 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 five working days unless an extension (a maximum of five additional working days) is requested and approved by a senior manager or above. The council should, however, always aim to conclude these types of complaints within five working days.

Stage Two

Not all complaints are suitable for Stage One and not all complaints will be satisfactorily concluded 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 or above.

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 an internal or external policy (but only where the complaint relates specifically to the way the matter was administered)

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, it is deemed to be something else and will be actioned under the relevant process.