SLCC Consumer Panel

This year saw the Consumer Panel advising the SLCC on a number of areas of improvement work. Throughout the year, the Panel provides reflections on the customer feedback the SLCC receives, which informs the development of forthcoming service experience improvements. It has also helped to drive the development of a ‘You said, we did’ report and to shape our current review of our approach to customer feedback.

The Panel published a report on the demographics of people who complain to the SLCC and made a number of recommendations for action to improve accessibility. This includes drawing on learning from the work led by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman to consider how to make complaints process more child-friendly.

Members also fed in their expertise to work by the SLCC Service Experience Team, including the update to how the SLCC deals with service delivery complaints about its work.

The Panel continued to provide a strong voice for consumers in the debate on legal services regulation, including responding to the parliamentary call for views on the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill and giving evidence on the Bill in Parliament. The Panel has continued to highlight the need for the consumer voice to be heard in these discussions to deliver reforms that truly meet consumer needs and inspire public confidence. The Panel remains concerned about the lack of consumer research to inform consumer-focused regulation and will be reflecting on its own role in the coming year.

The Panel also took the opportunity to highlight its previous work on consumer vulnerability through an updated social media campaign.