CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee Paper 8 27/05/22

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

AUDIT & RISK COMMITTEE

FOR DIS­CUS­SION

Title: COM­PLAINTS LOG

Pre­pared by: KATE CHRISTIE, HEAD OF ORGAN­ISA­TION­AL DEVELOPMENT

Pur­pose

This paper presents inform­a­tion on the num­ber and nature of com­plaints received by the Author­ity since the last update on this sub­ject to the Com­mit­tee in Septem­ber 2021.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to:

a) Con­sider the inform­a­tion on com­plaints made to the Authority.

Exec­ut­ive Summary

1. A sum­mary of com­plaints made to the Author­ity since the last update in Septem­ber 2021 is presen­ted in the fol­low­ing table.

Nature of Com­plaint	Res­ol­u­tion Information
1. 29/09/21 – Con­fid­en­tial com­plaint about board mem­ber conduct.	Dealt with by Dav­id Camer­on and respon­ded at Invest­ig­a­tion stage with­in 9 work­ing days.
2. 16/11/21 – Con­fid­en­tial com­plaint about con­duct of board members	Dealt with by Dav­id Camer­on and respon­ded at Invest­ig­a­tion stage with­in 20 work­ing days.
3. 23/11/21 – vari­ous his­tor­ic mat­ters includ­ing — delayed forestry grant; no officer fol­low up from meetings;	Dealt with by Char­lotte Mil­burn and respon­ded at Front­line res­ol­u­tion stage with­in 7 days.
4. 30/11/21 — advert­ising of the NPPP4 consultation	Dealt with by Olly Dav­ies and respon­ded at Front­line res­ol­u­tion stage in 1 work­ing day.
5. 10÷12÷21− a staff member’s twit­ter feed	Dealt with by Mike Woolv­in and respon­ded at Front­line res­ol­u­tion with­in 1 work­ing day.
6. 16/12/21 – NPPP4 Con­sulta­tion spe­cific­ally Com­mon­place process	Dealt with by Olly Dav­ies and respon­ded at Invest­ig­a­tion Stage with­in 47 days
7. 15/04/22 – An Lochans Uaine signage	Dealt with by Mur­ray Fer­guson and respon­ded at Front­line Res­ol­u­tion stage in 4 work­ing days.
8. 31/04/22 – Con­fid­en­tial com­plaint about staff mem­ber conduct	Dealt with by Kate Christie. Respon­ded at Front­line Res­ol­u­tion stage with­in 4 work­ing days

1. There were eight com­plaints in the peri­od Septem­ber 2021 – April 2022. Five com­plaints were dealt with at Front­line Res­ol­u­tion stage, four of which were respon­ded with­in the 5 days spe­cified. One was respon­ded after 7 days. Three com­plaints were dealt with at Invest­ig­a­tion stage. Com­plaints that are handled at Invest­ig­a­tion stage should be respon­ded with­in 20 work­ing days. Two were dealt with in the times­cales, but one took 47 days. This com­plaint had been acknow­ledged imme­di­ately and par­tially dealt with to the complainant’s sat­is­fac­tion, but it still required invest­ig­a­tion which was delayed over the Christ­mas peri­od and staff holidays.

2. To date, we are not aware of any of our responses hav­ing been escal­ated to the SPSO but com­plain­ants have 12 months from the date they raised the com­plaint to escal­ate it to the SPSO.

Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Development

16 May 2022

katechristie@​cairngorms.​co.​uk