COUNCILLORS heard yesterday that a mum panicked when she went to collect her five-year-old daughter from school – and the little girl failed to emerge.

It transpired the infant had told a supply teacher she was allowed to walk home on her own and had thus been let out of school through a different door from those pupils whose parents were waiting for them in the playground.

“When the mother realised all the children had left she began to panic,” stated a report to yesterday’s meeting of Scottish Borders Council’s executive.

“Fortunately the child was found safely waiting outside her house, but the incident raised the fact that the school had no policy regarding letting young children leave the school on their own.”

As a result of the mother’s subsequent complaint to the council, the un-named school has developed a written protocol which has been shared with parents and now forms part of the induction for new staff.

The incident in February was highlighted in the council’s annual complaint-handling report as an example of lessons being learned and services improved as a result of representations from members of the public.

In another case study, a woman complained that a memorial tree with a plaque in memory of her daughter had been removed without consultation during works at a council-owned park.

“As a result, the complainant was invited to meet an officer to discuss a new site for her daughter’s tree and plaque,” stated the report.

The meeting was told that a total of 759 complaints were lodged with the council in the year to March 31, 2017 – up by 11% on the previous year.

However, of the 563 complaints which were defined as “valid”, just 236 were upheld – down from the 251 which were upheld in 2015/16.

The report, which measures performance against standards set by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO), revealed that, for the first time, most of the complaints – 336 - were lodged online, compared to 209 the previous year.

Of the other gripes, 236 were submitted by telephone, 84 by email, 61 by letter and 41 in person.

The report revealed that 450 of the complaints were dealt with at “stage one” of the council’s complaint handling process where resolution is normally via an on-the-spot apology or an explanation that something has clearly gone wrong. Of these, 180 (40%) were upheld and 270 were not upheld.

A further 117 complaints made it to “stage two” of the handling procedure which involves a detailed investigation, a discussion with the complainer and a full response within 20 working days. Of these, 44 (38%) were upheld and 73 (62%) not upheld.

Of the 26 complaints which were unresolved to the satisfaction of the complainer and referred to the SPSO, 12 were upheld and 14 were dismissed by the watchdog.

“It is disappointing to hear our services have fallen below the standards expected by our customers,” wrote SBC chief executive Tracey Logan in her foreword to the report.

“But this feedback provides us with the opportunity to continuously review and, where necessary, make improvements to our services to ensure they meet the needs of the residents of the Scottish Borders.

“We will therefore continue to monitor trends and patterns in complaints to help us identify areas where improvements can still be made and which may result in changes to the way we serve customers.”

The annual report also acknowledges that, in 2016/’17, the council received over 125 “unsolicited compliments” from members of the public.

The highlighted selection of these testimonials includes the following: “Thank you for the speedy response to the broken drain cover”.

“Looking after an elderly parent is not easy and I greatly appreciate your willingness to quickly investigate and resolve this straightforward issue.”

“Please accept and pass on my thanks for the thorough and very professional job which was completed a few days after my request – great service!”

“The service at the Eshiels [Recycling] site has improved radically over the last few months.”