What you can expect from us

The Office of the Public Guardian is part of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS). SCTS is committed to mainstreaming equality and diversity and is developing a culture where equality and diversity are firmly established in the way we do our business.

Our overriding aim is to ensure that the principles of the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 are adhered to.

We aim to provide our customers with an efficient and effective service delivered by highly trained members of staff. Our staff will respond to telephone or online enquiries within set timescales. Information on our standards of service can be found in our customer charter.

We want to minimise any inconvenience and reduce anxiety to our customers by setting out the quality of service that customers should receive.

We aim to treat everyone fairly, irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage, civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. We will treat all of our customers in the same professional manner. Further information is available in the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service Equality Statement, Outcomes and Guidance document.

Feedback

Customers who are not satisfied with the service we have provided can give us feedback using our feedback form. We can also accept complaints, general feedback or compliments by phone, letter or email.

If you wish to make a complaint, information about our complaints procedure is available from the Scottish Courts & Tribunals website.

What to expect if you make a complaint

• We will tell you who is looking into your complaint
• If we can’t sort your complaint right away, we will try to sort it within 5 working days, however we will let you know if this happens
• If you are unhappy with our reply you can ask us to carry out an investigation
• If your complaint is complicated or serious, then we might have to do an investigation to find out all of the facts
• If we do an investigation this may take up to 20 working days. We will tell you this within 3 working days of you putting in your complaint.
• We might want to talk to you about your complaint to understand why you are unhappy and what you think we could do to fix the matter.
• We will send you a written reply to your complaint as soon as possible but this could take up to 20 working days.

If you are still unhappy then you can contact the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

Even though we have finished dealing with your complaint, we would still be keen to hear how we handled the process.