Our Complaints Handling Procedure complies with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) guidance on a Model Complaints Handling Procedure (CHP) and reflects Edinburgh College’s commitment to valuing complaints. It seeks to resolve customer dissatisfaction as close to the point of service delivery as possible and to conduct thorough, impartial, and fair investigations of customer complaints. This allows us to make evidence-based decisions on the facts of the case, as presented.

Often, we can resolve your complaint at Stage 1 (within five working days). If you are not satisfied with our response, you can request that we reconsider your complaint at Stage 2, and we'll investigate it in more detail. At stage two, we aim to provide you with a final decision within 20 working days, unless there is a compelling reason to require additional time. If we require additional time, we will contact you to explain the cause.

Once you have received our final decision, if you are still not satisfied, you can then submit your complaint to SPSO for independent external review.

You can visit the SPSO website for more information

Guidance on how to complain

You can complain in person, by phone, in writing, via email, or by completing an Edinburgh College Complaints Form.

By phone: 0131 297 8662

By post: 24 Milton Road East, Edinburgh, EH15 2PP

By email: complaints@edinburghcollege.ac.uk

In-person: at any Edinburgh College campus

Complaints can also be made directly to the service concerned.  Shortly after your complaint has been closed by the relevant service, you will receive an email from the Complaints Handling Team to ensure that you are satisfied with the outcome and how your complaint was handled.

You will find helpful guidance on complaining in our Guide for Complainants.

You can also access the complete Complaints Handling Procedures parts 1-5.

Third-Party Complaints

You may wish a third party to act on your behalf in making a complaint to the College.  

We ask that you confirm your consent for them to raise the complaint on your behalf and to receive information about you during the complaint process.  You can give your consent by completing a Complaint Authorisation Form and returning this to the Complaints Handling Team – complaints@edinburghcollege.ac.uk

Please note that you will be copied into all email correspondence.

Additional support to make a complaint

We are committed to making our service easy to use for all members of the community.  In line with our statutory Equality Duty, we will always ensure that reasonable adjustments are made to help you access and use our services.  If you have trouble putting your complaint in writing or require any of our information in another language or format, such as large font or Braille, please let us know in person by contacting complaints@edinburghcollege.ac.uk or calling 0131 297 8662.

Complaint Reports

We publish quarterly information on complaint volumes, outcomes and lessons learned.  This demonstrates the improvements resulting from complaints and shows how complaints are used to help us improve our services.  It also helps ensure transparency in our complaints-handling service.

We also publish an Annual Complaints Performance report on our website in line with SPSO requirements.  This summarises and builds on the quarterly reports we have produced about our services.  

If you would like access to reports from previous years please contact complaints@edinburghcollege.ac.uk

Compliments

If you have experienced a high standard of service, please let us know by emailing compliments@edinburghcollege.ac.uk.  We will record your feedback and pass on any compliments to the relevant colleagues.