Efforts to improve the handling of complaints about public services have been successful, but more work is needed to improve the level of trust felt by the public, according to the annual report of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO).

Professor Alice Brown, who steps down from the role early next year, believes that in her time in office there have been "enormous advances in creating a modern complaints handling service".

She also welcomed the inclusion in this year's report, for the first time, of SPSO financial data and information from the body's audit committee, which Brown argued to be an important step towards complete transparency.

The report welcomes "success" in meeting the office's original aims of consolidating public services complaints handling, and providing a body that the public feel comfortable approaching and working with.

"There is evidence too that there has been a shift in culture within the whole range of organisations that deliver public services with complaints increasingly being seen as a positive opportunity to learn from the public about their experiences as users of services and to drive up improvement," Brown added.

"This contrasts with the rather negative and defensive approach that we sometimes encountered in the early years. However, as the investigations of complaints by my office show, there is more still to be done, particularly as some of the same problems continue to persist.

"For example, there are issues that recur in health complaints together with growing concern about a lack of dignity in the provision of care and treatment, especially to the most vulnerable patients. Planning cases too form a large proportion of complaints to the SPSO and are rooted in ongoing discontent or disagreement with the planning process and its outcomes."

Brown argues that problems persist in areas where there is little trust between the public and services providers, and calls for continued progress in fostering good relations to alleviate these concerns.

"There is evidence too, across the public sector, that handling complaints well, and learning from them, are now seen as integral to the delivery of high quality public services and part of a culture of service with the user at its heart. I am very proud of this legacy and what my office has achieved over the years," she added.