Decision Report 201904161

Summary

C enrolled on a lifeguard course delivered at a leisure centre run by Glasgow Life. The course was delivered over six days, with an assessment on the final day. C sustained an injury on the final day and did not pass the assessment. C raised a number of concerns about the course and requested a refund. Glasgow Life partly upheld C’s complaint and offered C a place on another lifeguard course as a goodwill gesture. C remained dissatisfied and brought the complaint to SPSO.

C said that Glasgow Life provided insufficient information about the assessment criteria and did not obtain a completed medical questionnaire before the course started. C also felt that Glasgow Life should have assessed their condition after they reported an injury in writing.

We found that, although C had undertaken a pool test to confirm swimming ability, Glasgow Life did not obtain a completed medical questionnaire from C. We concluded that they did not take sufficient steps to verify that C met all the entry requirements for the lifeguard course. We upheld C’s complaint.

Recommendations

What we asked the organisation to do in this case:

• Apologise to C for failing to ensure that they completed a medical questionnaire before enrolling on the course. The apology should meet the standards set out in the SPSO guidelines on apology available at www.spso.org.uk/information-leaflets.

What we said should change to put things right in future:

• Steps should be taken to establish that an applicant meets all the entry requirements before they are accepted on a lifeguard course.

In relation to complaints handling, we recommended:

• Complaints should be handled in line with the Model Complaints Handling Procedure.

We have asked the organisation to provide us with evidence that they have implemented the recommendations we have made on this case by the deadline we set.