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Make a complaint: Scotland

We know that sometimes things can go wrong and that you may become dissatisfied with our services.

Our aim is to ensure we handle your complaint in a prompt, polite and fair way, by working with you to find a resolution as soon as possible. Once we know something has gone wrong, we’ll work with you to put it right. 

We have fully adopted the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman’s model complaint handling procedure.

How to make a complaint

It is easy to make a complaint about our service. We have a dedicated team of Customer Resolution Coordinators, who handle complaints. They can work closely with your local team, to find out what happened and try to reach a resolution for you. 

To make a complaint you can:

Complaints Team
Places for People
PO Box 2070
Preston
PR5 9BY

When you contact us, please tell us:

  • your full name, address and contact number(s)
  • what happened, when it happened and how it affected you
  • what you think we should do to put things right

Supporting you to make a complaint

We are committed to equality and accessibility and are happy to assist you in submitting a complaint. You can nominate a Places for People Scotland Colleague to make a complaint on your behalf or represent you during the complaints process. 

You may wish to have an external advocate to support you with a complaint. This would be someone who does not work for Places for People who contacts us on your behalf regarding making a complaint or discussing the progress of it. 

If you are looking to have someone support you during the complaints process, please speak to your Community Housing Manager who will be able to support you with this request.  

We can provide you with details of advocacy services. We can also make any reasonable adjustments you may need, for example, by communicating with you in a certain way.

You can also ask a friend or relative to help you make a complaint.  

What happens next

In line with the Scottish Public Services Model Complaint Handling Procedures, we support the earliest resolution of complaints. A member of our complaint handling team will triage your complaint to make sure we understand what went wrong, and the resolution you are looking for. They will try to resolve it within 5 working days or less at Stage 1. If the issue is more complex, or you remain dissatisfied, it’s easy to make a complaint at Stage 2. 

View our full complaints procedure.

Is your complaint about noise nuisance or anti-social behaviour?

To log a report of nuisance or anti-social behaviour, please sign into your online account and complete the relevant form. Alternatively, you can contact our Customer Service Centre.

If your complaint is about our service and how we handled any reports of nuisance or anti-social behaviour you reported, you can make a complaint in the usual way.

Contact details for the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

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

Freephone: 0800 377 7330.
Webform: https://www.spso.org.uk/contact-form

Complaints performance

We value complaints and use the information from them to learn lessons and make changes to improve our services.

We actively monitor our complaints and report to our Board Members on a quarterly basis and to the Scottish Housing Regulator.

Sharing your details

We may share your name and contact details with In House Research, an external company who we have appointed to carry out surveys so that we can obtain feedback from you on our complaints service. The appointed company will work on our behalf and will never use your information for any other purposes.

Service improvements

In addition to developing this new way of working, we have logged and tracked the following service improvements:

Complaints
  • A centralised complaint handling service to upgrade the Customer experience. 
  • Structured process improvements such as the Customer contact cycle. 
  • A full review of our policy and procedures. 
  • Better repairs tracking through a new Service Watch Team. 
  • Clearer communication about how we support Customers with vulnerabilities. 
  • An enhanced Customer Relationship Management system to improve reporting capabilities. 
Anti-social Behaviour (ASB) 
  • Over 100 Colleagues have received ASB ‘best practice’ training, and 23 Community Safety Managers have enrolled on the Level 3 BTEC in Community Safety. 
  • Introducing a vulnerability assessment for all victims or witnesses of ASB. 
  • Customers now receive an ASB action plan template.
  • Reduced the number of homes Community Housing Managers look after to better support our Customers. 
  • Membership of ‘Resolve ASB’ provides a range of resources for Colleagues. 
Repairs and Maintenance
  • Capturing Customers’ additional needs/ information during repair requests so operatives can then tailor their service(s) appropriately.
  • Improving the visibility of warning and service alerts to operatives.
  • Customers now receive automatic SMS/email notifications for Priority 1 (emergency) jobs.
  • A new contractor portal is underway to provide better control and governance.
  • A new Customer portal will allow Customers to conveniently raise repairs and complaints. 
  • VAR technology is now used to inspect Customers’ homes, especially reports of damp and mould. 
  • Up to three attempts are now made to auto reschedule ‘no access’ repairs.
  • A new repairs system for Field Service Operatives to drive operative efficiency and performance. 
  • Repairs policy review provides transparency around who is responsible for repairs. 
  • Alternative Dispute Resolution facilitates a swift resolution to any ‘Homes Fit for Human Habitation Act’ claims. 
  • Better triaging and fulfilment of urgent repairs, including a new Priority 2 category with a 5 working day repair target. 
Customer Vulnerability
  • We developed a new Group Customer Vulnerability Policy. 
  • Launched a new digital Customer vulnerability training for Colleagues, ‘Customer Vulnerability: Improving Compassionate & Inclusive Support.’