National Care Service - complaints and redress: research and co-design report - easy read

Part 2

What we learned

People listening to complaints told us:

• people complain in different ways and share different amounts of detail



• easy complaints are simple to fix, but it can gets harder when different services are involved



• vulnerable people who complain need to be treated sensitively



• staff need strong support and clear guidelines



• it is not clear if a single national complaint system might help or complicate things



• people often get help when making a complaint



• you can complain in a number of different ways. Some ways are easier than others



• people like there to be different ways for them to make a complaint



• people worry about how well services work together, especially when it takes a long time to get a response

How to find out more

We have changed how we write our easy read reports.

Easy read reports will now be summary versions of the full report in plain English.

Read the full report in plain English.

Find out more about why we changed how we write easy read reports.

What is next for the National Care Service

The Scottish Government is committed to deliver the NCS.

It will make social care support better, fairer, and more consistent in Scotland.

We are already working to make social care better now.

The National Care Service Bill is now called the Care Reform Bill, which passed Stage 3 in the Parliament process.

In Stage 3, members of the Scottish Parliament can make changes (called amendments) to the Bill.

The Bill will now be approved by the King and become an act of the Scottish Parliament.

We will continue to collaborate with people to develop the National Care Service.

We will continue to work to make social care better. This includes:

• improving how the Carers and Dementia Strategies are being used now



• working to make sure Getting It Right For Everyone (GIRFE) approach puts the needs of people first

GIRFE is a new way to provide health and social care support to people from young adulthood to the end of life.

• working to lower the number of people in Delayed Discharge

Delayed Discharge is about people who are stuck in hospital when they are ready to leave.

• working to support the Drugs Mission

The Drugs Mission is about supporting people affected by drugs.

• making the working conditions better for our valued staff



• making social care support work a more appealing career



• getting more skilled people to work in social care

We will do more work with people from groups that have not been included much in our work so far.

The interim Advisory Board is set up and had its first meeting in May 2025.

The interim Advisory Board is a group of people who will work together until the final Advisory Board is set up.

The interim Advisory Board will:

• decide how to do their work



• give advice on who the members of the final Advisory Board should be and how they should work together



• give advice to ministers on how to make health and social care work better together

How to get involved

We will co-design the new National Care Service.

Co-design means you can:

• share your ideas and experiences with us
• work with other people to find out how we can make things better

We want to hear from you as we develop the new National Care Service. If you would like to share your experiences you can join our Lived Experience Expert Panel.

If you join the panel, you will be invited to take part in different things like:

• surveys
• interviews
• discussions

For more information about the National Care Service, visit gov.scot/ncs