Corporate Complaints Procedure

As part of our commitment to improve Customer Service, we have implemented a Corporate Complaints Policy. We want to make sure that any complaints we receive are dealt with:

• Fairly
• Honestly
• Quickly

We want you to be able to tell us where our services or policies are failing, because without your feedback we cannot improve the service we provide.

What is a complaint?

A formal complaint can be made when:

• The service has let you down
• We have not done something we said we would do
• We did something wrong
• The service we provided was unfair

What is not a complaint?

A request for service is not a complaint. For example, if you want to 'complain' about a noisy neighbour, we will treat it as a request for service because there are set procedures to follow. Your request could become a complaint if we do not take the appropriate action, or we do something wrong.

How do I make a complaint?

We will accept complaints through any communication channel. Whether you write us a letter, telephone us, send an e-mail, tell one of us verbally or complete an online form we will treat your complaint seriously and professionally.

For the complaint to go through our formal procedure, we will require your contact details.

We will need to contact you:

• If we need further information
• When we want to update you with the progress of your complaint
• When we have finished our investigation and need to provide you with a formal response.

What will happen after I have complained?

• Your complaint will be passed to the Corporate Complaints Officer who will monitor the progress of your complaint from start to finish.
• You will receive a written acknowledgement within two working days of making your complaint.
• Your complaint will be passed to the Head of Service of the Department concerned for investigation.
• We will keep you informed at all times of the progress of your complaint.
• At 10 working day intervals we will send you a progress update letter.
• If we have not been able to resolve your complaint after 20 working days, it will be referred to the Council's Chief Executive.
• When your complaint has been fully investigated we will send you a formal response by letter.

What if I am not satisfied with your response?

If you are not satisfied with our response you can take your case to your local councillor or the Local Government Ombudsman for independent judgement.

What action will you take to ensure my problem is not experienced by others?
When we have finished our investigation, we will identify where our service failed and make any necessary changes to procedures to ensure that our customers are not inconvenienced in the same way again.

Whilst we make every effort to get things right first time, we accept that there are occasions when our services won't meet your expectations. We want to actively encourage complaints and feedback to help our services improve.

If you have been let down by a service, or we have not met your expectiations, please let us know as soon as you can so we can address any problems.