Seòmar agus comataidhean

I call Meghan Gallacher.

Have you done any work on the trauma that might come along with a complaints process? In Scotland, we do not generally have a culture of people feeling like they can complain about things. It is quite a big step to make a complaint and in some situations there might be some form of trauma.

As I understand it, Scotland is trying to move in the direction of becoming a trauma-informed country. We are even trying to do that more among members of the Parliament—there is a nice diagram of what the process is here. Parallel to that very linear process of “if this, then that”, there is also the feeling or experience that somebody is going through. Have you done any work on that or is anyone looking into it?

I will just move along the panel and then come back to you, Peter. Fiona Collie and Jan Savage had indicated that they want to come in.

Take your time. Would you like to bring in Paul Blaker to support you?

Adam Stachura, what is Age Scotland’s perspective?

I wonder also whether a health board that is already stretched might feel that they do not have the capacity to take on learning or look at something in a broader way.

Thank you very much.

Your submission states that the ombudsman has an important role in helping public services improve their service provision. Given the near record level of public service complaints received by the SPSO last year, I am interested to hear from you what evidence there is that the ombudsman is helping to improve public services.

Thank you very much.

We do have quite a number of questions to get through, but it is helpful to have an indication or example of another place where you feel that there is a good model that we can look at. I will now bring in Willie Coffey, who joins us online.

The next item on our agenda is consideration of a Scottish statutory instrument. As this is a negative instrument, the committee is not required to make any recommendations on it.

If other members have no comments on the instrument, I would just like to make one comment on an issue that has previously come before the committee—that is, planning application fees. I welcome the fact that our planning authorities might be able to recoup some of their costs through fees that better reflect things.

Does the committee agree that we do not wish to make any recommendations on the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

As previously agreed, we will take the next items in private, so I close the public part of the meeting.