Complaints about most areas of the Council are dealt with under the Corporate Feedback Process. You can read in further detail about our corporate feedback process on our downloads page.
Our Customer Feedback Process is compliant with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.
Information about the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) and the Complaint Handling Code can be found on the LGSCO website.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman can be contacted at any time for help and advice.
We will accept complaints made by a third-party representative. This includes Members of Parliament and local Councillors. We may need to obtain a signed authorisation from you to allow them to act on your behalf.
If you wish to submit your feedback anonymously, it will be recorded as a suggestion. No response can be provided if you have not provided any contact details.
Give us your feedback (Opens in a new window)
Service Requests
If it is the first time you are reporting an issue to us, we may decide to treat this as a service request.
The LGSCO’s definition of a Service Request is “a request that the organisation provides or improves a service, fixes a problem or reconsiders a decision”.
If you express dissatisfaction with the response to your service request, even if the handling of the service request remains ongoing, we will ensure that a complaint is raised.
Complaints
We have adopted the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman definition of a complaint.
A complaint is -
‘an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual or group of individuals’.
You do not have to use the word ‘complaint’ for it to be treated as such. If you express dissatisfaction in any way, we will record a complaint. If you do not want us to do so, please let us know as it does remain your choice.
When dealing with your complaint we will -
- acknowledge receipt
- clarify any aspects of the complaint that we are unclear about
- keep you informed.
- treat you fairly.
- look into your case fully and properly
- include details of the LGSCO whenever we write to you
- record on our complaints management system, details of all contacts with you, and information provided by you
If you request contact using a specific method of communication, this will be facilitated wherever possible to do so.
Let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments.
You should make us aware of your complaint within 12 months of the incident happening, or within 12 months from when you first became aware that you had reason for complaint. If your complaint is received later than this, we may not be able to be fully investigate it. We will always take into account if there is a good reason for the delay. Where late complaints cannot be accepted, we will explain why.
Other reasons that we may not consider a complaint include -
- when legal proceedings have started e.g. the matter is being dealt with as a claim. This is defined as details of the claim, such as the Claim Form and particulars of claim, have been filed at court
- when it relates to matters that have previously been considered under the complaints process and a final response (Stage 2) has been provided
- where an alternative review, appeal process or other regulatory body exists, for example the Information Commissioners Office
- complaints that are vexatious in nature or the customer refuses to engage with us or behaves in an unacceptable manner
Complaints about the conduct of employees will be recorded and will be investigated internally. To comply with data protection legislation, the outcome must remain confidential and will not be disclosed to the customer.
We ask that you treat the Council and its employees with dignity and respect when submitting complaints and feedback. We reserve the right to cancel any complaint that contains excessive foul and abusive language. You will be asked to resubmit the complaint.
We are committed to providing a fair and reasonable complaints service and to making it as accessible as possible.
Any complainants who, through the nature or frequency of their contact with us, behave unreasonably and hinder the consideration of their own or other people’s cases, will be referred to the Customer Feedback Team Leader. They will then consider their access options. This will be done on a case-by-case basis.