Public Sector Complaints Scotland Conference

Ann is Deputy Chief Executive and Director of the Nursing and Systems Improvement directorate in Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS). Ann joined HIS in May 2017 as their first Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions (NMAHP) Director. Prior to this Ann held various senior leadership posts as Interim Executive Nurse Director, Associate Nurse Director for Primary Care,  and IJB lead Nurse in NHS Ayrshire and Arran before moving to Greater Glasgow and Clyde as Chief Nurse for Regional services. Ann has worked at Scottish Government contributing to the development of policy on early years and on public health nursing. Core to all of these roles has been a drive to improve the quality of care for those receiving services and a desire to improve experience for staff.

Within Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Ann provides professional leadership for NMAHP professionals and their teams to continuously improve nursing and AHP led care and for the Systems Improvement team who work on a number of key areas such as Primary Care Improvement, Dementia and Frailty, Improving Access and Hospital at Home. Within HIS Ann’s teams lead on the development of the Scottish Quality Management system for Nursing and Midwifery and Excellence in Care (EiC).

Ann spent 2 years as chair of the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors, and is an Advisor to the RCN Foundations Grants committee. She has extensive networks with Scottish and UK regulators and improvement organisations to share intelligence and develop a Scotland wide strategic approach to identifying and targeting areas for improvement in care.

Ann has a passion for child health, inequalities and improving care for vulnerable people.

Away from work Ann is married with a daughter and enjoys reading, walking and yoga.

Caroline Robertson is Director of Resolution of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.

Caroline’s background combines experience of customer service, law and complaints. While working to complete her second degree, an LLB Law, Caroline was involved in various project work with Tesco such as piloting an online shopping and grocery system as well as dealing with UK wide complaints and queries.

Caroline’s first role as a solicitor was with a sole practitioner where she under took a range of civil work. Caroline then worked in house at the Scottish Legal Aid Board for 5 years, concentrating on civil merits applications. After another short period in private practice Caroline began working for the Law Society of Scotland in 2006 dealing with complaints against solicitors. Caroline joined the SLCC at its creation in 2008.

Caroline also sits on the Committee for Excellence for Scottish Mediation

Laurie leads customer operations on the Crinan and Caledonian canals and Moorings business across Scotland. He is also

A graduate of Stirling University, Laurie has worked in the public, private and third sector settings, being responsible for customer-facing service delivery at the arms’ length trusts operating in Fife and Highland, relaunching Scotland’s largest multi-arts venue, Eden Court in Inverness and establishing a new framework for tourism development in Moray Speyside.

In his (rare) spare time Laurie enjoys opera, swims, cycles, watches football and nurses two elderly SAABs

My current role with Highland Council is Customer Resolution & Improvement Manager, managing a relatively new central operational team who progress all incoming Complaints, Freedom of Information, Data Rights Requests, MSP/MP, Chief Executive and Senior Management correspondence.  During my 21 years with the Council, I have worked across all Services, with roles in Customer Services, Member Services and Business Support. 

My main focus is on managing complex complaints and escalated correspondence; however, I have a particular interest in resolving complaints at the earliest opportunity and restoring relationships between the Council and the customer.         

As Director of Operations and Customer Services for National Records of Scotland, Jane leads teams across multi-sites, providing access to information about Scotland’s people and history, helping to inform current and future generations. These diverse services range from online services provided through the Scotland’s People website to 1.7 million customers worldwide, to supporting civil registration services as the Deputy Registrar General across Scotland.

Jane joined the civil service in 2019, after a twenty year career in local government, initially as a chartered librarian in East Lothian Council, then managing local neighbourhood services in Edinburgh and then leading on delivery of council based customer and library services across Midlothian. In 2017, moving into the role of Head of Customer and Housing Services, with responsibility for delivering housing, homelessness, welfare benefits and a range of customer services. Throughout this career, Jane has been passionate about putting customers at the heart of service delivery, making sure that complaints are encouraged and feedback is built into ongoing service design and delivery.

Josh has been the SPSO’s lead on child friendly complaints for the last two years, managing a widescale co-design project involving children and young people across Scotland, as well as the adults in their life and the professionals that work with them.

He previously worked in various complaints handling roles for the SPSO since he joined in 2015. Before that he worked in housing and homelessness, a cause that remains a focus in his spare time, as Vice-Chair of Edinburgh homelessness charity Foursquare.

He is originally from Oban, but moved to Edinburgh for the weather. He likes to claim that he is the only person to have worked at every stage of the public sector complaints process, but admits he has no way of verifying this with any certainty.

Chris Gill is Professor of Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Glasgow where he specialises in access to justice and administrative justice. He has a particular interest in the ombudsman institution and public sector complaint handling. Chris previously worked in complaint roles at the Advertising Standards Authority and in the office of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. He remains actively involved ombudsman and complaints policy and sits on the Ombudsman Association’s Validation Committee, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission’s Consumer Panel, and the Administrative Justice Council’s Academic Panel. Chris is regularly commissioned as a consultant for consumer research, independent reviews, complaint handling evaluations, and benchmarking.

He is currently conducting academic research projects funded by the British Academy and the Economic and Social Research Council on access to justice for asylum seekers and refugees in Northern Ireland and on enhancing the social care complaints system in Scotland. For more information, please visit: https://profchrisgill.com/

Miriam Craven is the Chief Operating Officer for Social Security Scotland, holding responsibility for overseeing Social Security Scotland’s operational performance and deliverables. Including establishing and monitoring performance measures and improvement plans.

Prior to the Chief Operating Officer role, Miriam was the interim Director for the Ukraine Resettlement Directorate, overseeing the arrangements to welcome and support Ukrainians arriving from Scotland, including offering support on arrival and temporary accommodation for those people utilising the Scottish Super Sponsor Scheme.  Miriam has also held leadership roles as Deputy Director, Strategy, Change, Data and Engagement, Social Security Scotland; Head of Local Delivery Social Security Scotland; Director of Policy and Engagement, Student Awards Agency Scotland; Funding Awareness and Training Manager, Student Awards Agency Scotland.

Emma Murphy is Patient Feedback and Whistleblowing Manager at NHS Dumfries and Galloway and has worked in public sector complaints for the last 14 years.

She is also Vice Chair of the NHS Complaints Personnel Association Scotland (NCPAS).  Emma has a keen interest in using the learning from academic theory to enhance professional practice in the field of dispute resolution. 

She is a trained mediator and specialises in supporting teams to manage complex disputes and challenging behaviours.   

Ann is Deputy Chief Executive and Director of the Nursing and Systems Improvement directorate in Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS). Ann joined HIS in May 2017 as their first Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions (NMAHP) Director. Prior to this Ann held various senior leadership posts as Interim Executive Nurse Director, Associate Nurse Director for Primary Care,  and IJB lead Nurse in NHS Ayrshire and Arran before moving to Greater Glasgow and Clyde as Chief Nurse for Regional services. Ann has worked at Scottish Government contributing to the development of policy on early years and on public health nursing. Core to all of these roles has been a drive to improve the quality of care for those receiving services and a desire to improve experience for staff.

Within Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Ann provides professional leadership for NMAHP professionals and their teams to continuously improve nursing and AHP led care and for the Systems Improvement team who work on a number of key areas such as Primary Care Improvement, Dementia and Frailty, Improving Access and Hospital at Home. Within HIS Ann’s teams lead on the development of the Scottish Quality Management system for Nursing and Midwifery and Excellence in Care (EiC).

Ann spent 2 years as chair of the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors, and is an Advisor to the RCN Foundations Grants committee. She has extensive networks with Scottish and UK regulators and improvement organisations to share intelligence and develop a Scotland wide strategic approach to identifying and targeting areas for improvement in care.

Ann has a passion for child health, inequalities and improving care for vulnerable people.

Away from work Ann is married with a daughter and enjoys reading, walking and yoga.