Comments, Complaints and Compliments
Your feedback can help shape and improve the service you receive
It is important for us to understand your experience of dealing with Dumfries and Galloway Council. If there is an area where we could do better, we want to learn from your experience and improve how we deliver our services.
Comment
A comment might be views about how we have handled a situation or delivered a service. It is best to pass a comment straight to the school so that we can take any necessary action. You may be suggesting an improvement to what we do or a change to how we operate. If you have something you would like to raise, we will always ask you to discuss any concerns or issues you have initially with your:
- Nursery manager or primary class teacher if the enquiry relates to classroom practice.
- Head teacher if the enquiry relates to whole school matters or you require an unresolved classroom issue to be discussed further.
- Parent Council and/or Connect (the membership organisation to support your Parent Council) if your enquiry relates to whole school matters linked to Parental Involvement.
- In secondary, the teacher with responsibility for Personal Social and Emotional Supervision for your child, followed by the Head teacher.
If you are not happy with the response you receive or a decision that has been made, you can Ask us to Look Again. You can do this by contacting us at the email address: ParentCarer@dumgal.gov.uk. At this point an Officer will contact you and discuss the issue and direct the enquirer as appropriate.
Remember you can also access Dumfries and Galloway Have Your Say at Have your say – Dumfries and Galloway Council.
Compliment
It is also important for us to know when we are getting it right. If you have positive feedback about a service or staff member, it is useful for us to know. When we receive a compliment, it is passed on to the relevant manager and fed back to the staff involved in delivering that service.
Make a comment or compliment
If you don’t want to speak to the service directly and you want to provide feedback on how we have handled a situation or delivered a service, or you want to give us a compliment you can do this online at Complaints and compliments – Dumfries and Galloway Council.
Complaint
If you wish to make a complaint you can also use the same link as above. You can also call the main Council number 030 33 33 3000 to speak to a member of staff. Complaints can be investigated up to a period of six months of the initial event/incident that you want to complaint about.
Child Friendly Complaints
The national Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) has developed a new approach to handle complaints that involve children, to ensure the complaints procedures under their remit meet children’s rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC). More information on this can be found at: https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/.
With the help of children, young people and staff from a wide range of public bodies including Dumfries and Galloway, SPSO have co-designed seven Child Friendly Complaints Handling Principles which have been agreed by the Scottish Government. The SPSO expect all public bodies under their jurisdiction to take these into consideration when handling complaints involving children.
The process guidance can be found at: https://www.spso.org.uk/sites/spso/files/CFC/CFCProcedure.pdf.
Children and young people’s complaints
If you are under 18, you have the right to tell us if something is wrong. We will listen to you and take what you say seriously.
Find out how children and young people an make a complaint, get help and understand what happens next: Children and young people’s complaints | Dumfries and Galloway Council
The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman has guidance for adults supporting children and young people through the complaints process.
