Complaints policy

Com­plaints hand­ling procedure

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity is com­mit­ted to provid­ing high-qual­ity cus­tom­er services.

We value com­plaints and use inform­a­tion from them to help us improve.

If some­thing goes wrong or you are dis­sat­is­fied with our ser­vices, please tell us. This guide describes our com­plaints pro­ced­ure and how to make a com­plaint. It also tells you how we will handle your com­plaint and what you can expect from us.

What is a complaint?

We regard a com­plaint as any expres­sion of dis­sat­is­fac­tion about our action or lack of action, or about the stand­ard of ser­vice provided by us or on our behalf.

What can I com­plain about?

You can com­plain about things like: • Fail­ure or refus­al to provide a ser­vice. • Inad­equate qual­ity or stand­ard of ser­vice or an unreas­on­able delay in provid­ing a ser­vice. • Dis­sat­is­fac­tion with one of our policies or its impact on the indi­vidu­al. • Fail­ure to prop­erly apply law, pro­ced­ure or guid­ance when deliv­er­ing a ser­vice. • Fail­ure to fol­low the appro­pri­ate admin­is­trat­ive pro­cess. • Con­duct, treat­ment by or atti­tude of a mem­ber of staff or con­tract­or (except where there are arrange­ments in place for the con­tract­or to handle the com­plaint them­selves). • Dis­agree­ment with a decision (except where there is a stat­utory pro­ced­ure for chal­len­ging that decision, or an estab­lished appeals pro­cess followed).

Your com­plaint may involve more than one ser­vice or be about someone work­ing on our behalf.

What can’t I com­plain about?

There are some things we can’t deal with through our com­plaints hand­ling pro­ced­ure. These include: • A routine first-time request for a ser­vice. • Requests for com­pens­a­tion. • Issues that are already in court or have been heard by a court or tribunal. If you decide to take leg­al action you should let us know as the com­plaint can­not then be con­sidered under this pro­cess. • Dis­agree­ment with a decision where there is a stat­utory pro­ced­ure for chal­len­ging that decision, such as plan­ning decisions, free­dom of inform­a­tion and sub­ject access requests or an estab­lished appeal pro­cess. • Request for inform­a­tion under the Data Pro­tec­tion or Free­dom of Inform­a­tion (Scot­land) Acts. • An attempt to reopen a pre­vi­ously con­cluded com­plaint or to have a com­plaint recon­sidered where we have already giv­en our final decision. • Abuse or unsub­stan­ti­ated alleg­a­tions about our organ­isa­tion or staff where such actions would be covered by our unreas­on­able demand­ing cor­res­pond­ence policy. • A con­cern about the actions or ser­vice of a dif­fer­ent organ­isa­tion, where we have no involve­ment in the issue, except where the oth­er organ­isa­tion is deliv­er­ing ser­vices on our behalf.

If oth­er pro­ced­ures or rights of appeal can help you resolve your con­cerns, we will give inform­a­tion and advice to help you.

Who can complain?

Any­one who receives, requests or is dir­ectly affected by our ser­vices can make a com­plaint to us. This includes the rep­res­ent­at­ive of someone who is dis­sat­is­fied with our ser­vice, for example, a rel­at­ive, friend, advoc­ate or adviser. If you are mak­ing a com­plaint on someone else’s behalf, you will nor­mally need their writ­ten con­sent. Please also read the sec­tion below on get­ting help to make your complaint.

How do I complain?

You can com­plain in per­son at our office, by phone, in writ­ing, or by e‑mail to:

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 The Square Grant­own-on-Spey Scot­land PH26 3HG

Tel: 01479 873 535 E‑mail: information@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

It is easi­er for us to address com­plaints if you make them quickly and indic­ate which area of our busi­ness is con­cerned. Your com­plaint can then be passed to a mem­ber of staff with­in the rel­ev­ant team who will work with us to resolve the issue.

When com­plain­ing, please tell us: • Your full name and con­tact details • As much as you can about the com­plaint • What has gone wrong • What out­come you are seeking

How long do I have to make a complaint?

Nor­mally you must make your com­plaint with­in six months of: • The event you want to com­plain about. • Find­ing out that you have a reas­on to complain.

In excep­tion­al cir­cum­stances, we may be able to accept a com­plaint after the time lim­it. If you feel that the time lim­it should not apply to your com­plaint, please tell us why.

What hap­pens when I have complained?

We will always tell you who is deal­ing with your com­plaint. Our com­plaints pro­ced­ure has two stages.

Stage one — front­line resolution

Where pos­sible, we aim to resolve com­plaints quickly when you first tell us about the issue. This could mean an on-the-spot apo­logy and explan­a­tion if some­thing has clearly gone wrong, and imme­di­ate action to resolve the problem.

We will give you our decision at stage one as quickly as pos­sible, unless there are excep­tion­al circumstances.

If you are not sat­is­fied with the response we give at this stage, we will tell you what you can do next. If you choose to, you can take your com­plaint to stage two. You must nor­mally ask us to con­sider your com­plaint at stage two either: • With­in six months of the event you want to com­plain about or find­ing out that you have a reas­on to com­plain. • With­in two months of receiv­ing your stage one response, if this is later.

In excep­tion­al cir­cum­stances, we may be able to accept a stage two com­plaint after the time lim­it. If you feel that the time lim­it should not apply to your com­plaint, please tell us why.

Stage two — investigation

Stage two deals with three types of com­plaint: • Those that have not been resolved at stage one. • Those that are com­plex in nature and are imme­di­ately appar­ent that detailed invest­ig­a­tion is required. • Those that involve mem­bers of seni­or management.

If you do not wish your com­plaint to be handled at stage one, you can ask us to handle it at stage two instead.

When using stage two we will: • Acknow­ledge receipt of your com­plaint with­in three work­ing days. • Where appro­pri­ate, dis­cuss your com­plaint with you to under­stand why you remain dis­sat­is­fied and what out­come you are look­ing for. • To resolve your com­plaint, where we can, in some cases we may sug­gest using an altern­at­ive com­plaint res­ol­u­tion approach, such as medi­ation. • Where we can­not resolve your com­plaint, we will give you a full response as soon as pos­sible, nor­mally with­in 20 work­ing days.

If the invest­ig­a­tion is par­tic­u­larly com­plex and we need longer than 20 work­ing days to resolve the prob­lem we will agree a revised time lim­it and keep you updated on progress.

What if I’m still dissatisfied?

If, hav­ing gone through our com­plaints pro­ced­ure and giv­en you our final decision, you are still dis­sat­is­fied with our decision or the way we dealt with your com­plaint, you can ask the Scot­tish Pub­lic Ser­vices Ombuds­man (SPSO) to look at it.

The SPSO are an inde­pend­ent organ­isa­tion that invest­ig­ates com­plaints. They are not an advocacy or sup­port ser­vice (but there are oth­er organ­isa­tions who can help you with advocacy or support).

You can ask the SPSO to look at your com­plaint if: • You have gone all the way through our com­plaints hand­ling pro­ced­ure. • It is less than 12 months after you became aware of the mat­ter you want to com­plain about.

• The mat­ter has not been and is not being con­sidered in court.

The SPSO will ask you to com­plete a com­plaint form and provide a copy of our final response to your com­plaint. You can do this by tele­phone or online at www​.spso​.org​.uk/​c​o​m​p​l​a​i​n​/form.

If you prefer to vis­it the SPSO in per­son you must make an appoint­ment. Their con­tact details are:

Scot­tish Pub­lic Ser­vices Ombuds­man Bridgeside House 99 McDon­ald Road Edin­burgh EH7 4NS

Free­post address: FREE­POST SPSO Web­site: www​.spso​.org​.uk Free­p­hone: 0800 377 7330 Online con­tact: www​.spso​.org​.uk/​c​o​n​t​a​ct-us

Get­ting help to make your complaint

We under­stand that you may be unable or reluct­ant to make a com­plaint your­self, so we can accept com­plaints from the rep­res­ent­at­ive of a per­son who is dis­sat­is­fied with our ser­vice. We can take com­plaints from a friend, rel­at­ive, or advoc­ate if you have giv­en them your con­sent to com­plain on your behalf.

You can find out about advoc­ates in your area by con­tact­ing the Scot­tish Inde­pend­ent Advocacy Alli­ance. Their con­tact details are:

Web­site: www​.siaa​.org​.uk Tel: 0131 510 9410

You can also find your loc­al Cit­izens Advice Bur­eau and advisers through Cit­izens Advice Scotland:

Web­site: www​.cas​.org​.uk

We are com­mit­ted to mak­ing our ser­vice easy to use for all mem­bers of the com­munity. In line with our stat­utory equal­it­ies duties, we will always ensure that reas­on­able adjust­ments are made to help cus­tom­ers access and use our services.

If you have trouble put­ting your com­plaint in writ­ing, or want this guide in Gael­ic, anoth­er lan­guage or format such as large print, audio or Braille please con­tact us on 01479 873 535, or e‑mail information@​cairngorms.​co.​uk.