The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) has published overarching principles and process guidance for public bodies to implement a Child Friendly (CF) Complaints process. The main feature of child friendly complaints is that the child’s views and voice should be heard in any complaint about anything that affects them. This is particularly important in services, such as education and social work, where the service is being provided directly to the child.

Work has begun on this – a summarised CF process ‘checklist’ has been produced for staff in  Clackmannanshire explaining the key features in the guidance, some training has been delivered to education staff, both online and in person to HT cluster meetings have taken place, and work has begun to produce case studies for education.

The SPSO will also provide complaints handling training in the new year, as well as leaflets for pupils and parents explaining the new features of the CF complaints process and show how children’s rights are upheld.