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Guide For Complainants

Edinburgh College is committed to providing an excellent education and high-quality services to our students from enrolment to graduation.

Edinburgh College Complaints Handling Procedure

We value complaints and use information from them to help us improve our services. If something goes wrong or you are dissatisfied with our services, please let us know.

Table of Contents

What is a complaint?

We regard a complaint as any expression of dissatisfaction about our action or lack of action, or about the standard of service provided by us or on our behalf.

What can I complain about?

You can complain about things like:

  • The admissions process
  • The disciplinary process
  • A request for a service or for information which has not been actioned or answered
  • Wrong details on academic programmes or college services
  • The quality and availability of facilities and learning resources
  • Accessibility of our buildings or services
  • Failure or refusal to provide a service
  • Inadequate quality or standard of service, or an unreasonable delay in providing a service
  • Dissatisfaction with one of our policies or its impact on the individual
  • Failure to properly apply law, procedure or guidance when delivering services
  • Failure to follow the appropriate administrative process
  • Conduct, treatment by or attitude of a member of staff or contractor (except where there are arrangements in place for the contractor to handle the complaint themselves)
  • Disagreement with a decision (except where there is a statutory procedure for challenging that decision, or an established appeals process followed throughout the sector).

Your complaint may involve more than one college service or be about someone working on our behalf.

What can't I complain about?

There are some things we cannot address through our complaints handling procedure. These include:

  • A request for information or an explanation of policy or practice
  • A disagreement with academic judgment
  • A concern about student conduct
  • A routine first-time request for a service
  • A request for compensation only
  • Issues that are in court or have already been heard by a court or a tribunal (if you decide to take legal action, you should let us know, as the complaint cannot then be considered under this process)
  • Disagreement with a decision where there is a statutory procedure for challenging that decision (such as for freedom of information and subject access requests), or an established appeals process followed throughout the sector.
  • A request for information under the Data Protection or Freedom of Information (Scotland) Acts
  • A grievance by a staff member or a grievance relating to employment or staff recruitment
  • A concern raised internally by a member of staff (which was not about a service they received, such as a whistleblowing concern)
  • A concern about a child's or an adult's safety
  • An attempt to reopen a previously concluded complaint or to have a complaint reconsidered where we have already given our final decision
  • Abuse or unsubstantiated allegations about our college or staff, where our Unacceptable Actions Procedure would cover such actions and/ or Positive Behaviour and Anti-Bullying and Harassment Guidance for Students.
  • A concern about the actions or service of a different organisation, where we have no involvement in the issue (except where the other organisation is delivering services on our behalf).

If other procedures or avenues of appeal can help you resolve your concerns, we will provide information and advice to assist you.

Who can complain?

Anyone who receives, requests or is directly affected by our services can make a complaint to us. This includes the representative of someone who is dissatisfied with our service (for example, a relative, friend, advocate or adviser). If you are making a complaint on someone else's behalf, you will generally need their written consent by asking them to complete a Complaint Authorisation Form. 

How do I complain?

Complaints may be made verbally, in writing, face-to-face, by phone, letter or email (See our contact details).

Complaints can be made directly to the Complaints Handling Team or to the service in question. If you complain directly to the service, you can expect to be contacted by the Complaints Handling Team shortly after your complaint has been closed to ensure that you are satisfied with the outcome and how your complaint was handled.

When complaining, please tell us:

  • Your full name and contact details
  • As much as you can about the complaint
  • What has gone wrong, and what outcome are you seeking?

Our contact details

Edinburgh College

24 Milton Road East, Room 2-18

Edinburgh

EH15 2PP

email: complaints@edinburghcollege.ac.uk

Telephone: 0131 297 8662

How long do I have to make a complaint?

Typically, you must make your complaint within six months of:

  • The event you want to complain about, or
  • Finding out that you have a reason to complain.

Where you have received a stage 1 response and wish to escalate to stage 2, you must request this either:

  • Within six months of when you first knew of the problem; or
  • Within two months of receiving your stage 1 response (if this is later). 1

In exceptional circumstances, we may be able to accept a complaint after the time limit has passed. If you believe that the time limit should not apply to your complaint, please explain why.

What happens when I have complained?

If your complaint relates to the actions of a staff member, a summary of the complaint will be shared with them and their line manager. In exceptional cases, it may be appropriate to respond promptly to you, for example, when it is clear that an apology is warranted.

Stage 1: Frontline response

  • We aim to respond to complaints quickly (where possible, when you first tell us about the issue). This could mean an on-the-spot apology and explanation if something has clearly gone wrong, or immediate action to resolve the problem.
  • We will provide you with our decision at Stage 1 within five working days or less, unless there are exceptional circumstances. 
  • If you are not satisfied with the response we provide at this stage, we will inform you of the next steps you can take. If you choose to, you can take your complaint to Stage 2. You must usually ask us to consider your complaint at Stage 2, either:
    • Within six months of the event you want to complain about, or finding out that you have a reason to complain, or
    • Within two months of receiving your stage 1 response (if this is later).
  • In exceptional circumstances, we may be able to accept a Stage 2 complaint after the time limit has passed. If you believe that the time limit should not apply to your complaint, please explain why.

Stage 2: Investigation

  • Stage 2 addresses two types of complaints: those where the customer remains dissatisfied after Stage 1, and those that clearly require investigation and are handled directly at this stage. If you do not wish to have your complaint dealt with at Stage 1, you can request that we handle it at Stage 2 instead.
  • When using Stage 2:
    • We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within three working days
    • We will confirm our understanding of the complaint, we will investigate and determine what outcome you are looking for
    • We will try to resolve your complaint where we can (in some cases, we may suggest using an alternative complaint resolution approach, such as mediation); and
    • Where we cannot resolve your complaint, we will provide a complete response as soon as possible, typically within twenty working days.
  • If our investigation takes longer than twenty working days, we will tell you. We will share our revised time limits with you and keep you updated on our progress.

What if I'm still dissatisfied?

After we have given you our final decision, if you are still dissatisfied with our decision or the way we handled your complaint, you can ask the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) or the Scottish Qualifications Agency (SQA) (or other relevant awarding body) to review it. For qualifications that are regulated, if you remain dissatisfied with the way the awarding body has handled your complaint, then you may complain to the qualification's regulator, SQA Accreditation. The SPSO is unable to review academic judgment and lacks the authority to revise course awards. This can only be achieved through an academic appeals process. The SPSO consider complaints about the quality of service and maladministration, which may include issues surrounding course delivery.

In all cases, the complaint must first have been considered by Edinburgh College.

The SPSO

The SPSO are an independent organisation that investigates complaints. They are not an advocacy or support service (but other organisations can help you with advocacy or support). You can ask the SPSO to look at your complaint if:

  • You have gone all the way through Edinburgh College's complaints handling procedure
  • It is less than 12 months after you became aware of the matter you want to complain about; and
  • The matter has not been (and is not being) considered in court.

The SPSO will ask you to complete a complaint form and provide a copy of our final response to your complaint. You can report a complaint on the SPSO website.

You may wish to get independent support or advocacy to help you progress your complaint.

The SPSO's contact details are:

SPSO Bridgeside House

99 McDonald Road

Edinburgh

EH7 4NS

If you would like to visit in person, you must make an appointment first.

Getting help to make your complaint

We understand that you may be unable or reluctant to make a complaint yourself. We accept complaints from the representative of a person who is dissatisfied with our service. We can accept complaints from a friend, relative, or advocate, provided you have given them your consent by completing a Complaint Authorisation Form and sending it to: complaints@edinburghcollege.ac.uk.

We are committed to making our service easy to use for all members of the community. In line with our statutory equalities duties, 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 would like this information in another language or format, such as large font or Braille, please let us know in person, by email at complaints@edinburghcollege.ac.uk, or by calling 0131 297 8662.

You may wish to get independent support or advocacy to help you progress your complaint. Organisations that may be able to assist you are:

Unacceptable actions by a complainant

People may act out of character in times of trouble or distress. There may have been upsetting circumstances leading up to a complaint. Edinburgh College does not view behaviour as unacceptable just because a complainant is forceful or determined. In fact, we accept that being persistent may sometimes be a positive advantage when pursuing a complaint. However, we do consider actions that result in unreasonable demands or unreasonable behaviour towards staff to be unacceptable. It is these actions that we aim to manage through our Unacceptable Actions Procedure.