Complaints

What happens when you make a complaint

The process of making a complaint is set out below.

When you make a complaint, we will:

  • Acknowledge receipt of your complaint within three working days and tell you who will be investigating your complaint.

  • Deal with your complaint quickly and fairly.

  • Provide a full written response within ten working days, or keep you informed if this is not possible.

 

The complaints process is split into two key stages:

Stage 1 - Investigation

A new complaint will be recorded as a formal complaint at Stage 1 of the council's complaints procedure.

The complaint will be investigated and responded to by an appropriate officer from the service concerned or the partner organisation that delivers the service on our behalf.

 

Stage 2 - Review

If you are not satisfied with the outcome or the way the complaint has been handled, you can contact us to request a review under stage two of the procedure.

 

Our timescales for responding to complaints

Stage 1 complaints:

  • we will acknowledge the complaint within three working days
  • we will send a detailed response within 10 working days from the date allocated to the investigating officer
  • for complex cases it may take up to a further 10 working days for a detailed response, if this is the case we will contact you

Stage 2 complaints:

  • we will send a detailed response within 10 working days from the date allocated to the reviewing officer
  • in some cases it may take up to a further 10 working days for us to respond, if this is the case we will contact you
  • if we need to extend the response time beyond this, a date for response will be agreed with you

For more details about timescales for responding to complaints see our Complaints Policy and Procedure.

 

Diversity Monitoring

To help us design services that meet our customers' needs you may be asked to complete some diversity questions when passing us compliments, comments or when making a complaint. Any information you give us will be used in the strictest confidence. The information supplied will only be used for statistical purposes and will not be passed to other organisations.