Festive closure

We will close at 5pm on Tuesday 24 December 2024 and reopen at 9am Friday 3 January 2025. You can still submit complaints through our online form, but we won't respond until we reopen.

Making Complaints Work for Everyone report

SPSO 2016-17 Annual Report Front Cover ThumbnailWe are pleased to publish our second thematic report today, Making Complaints Work for Everyone.

The report focuses on the impact of complaints on staff who have been complained about. Whilst organisations are increasingly more likely to describe themselves as 'learning organisations', research suggests that being subject to a complaint can have an adverse impact on the individual involved and can limit, rather than promote, learning. 

The overriding message that has emerged from this report is that organisations need to actively support their staff through complaints processes and engage staff in positive and purposeful activities to manage and learn from complaints. Getting this right will encourage staff, help drive improvement in services and promote learning.

Input and advice was provided to this report by the staff of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in Scotland, and by Dr Gordon Skilling, who is a specialist psychiatric adviser to SPSO. 

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Updated: February 2, 2023