We hope to resolve complaints at the earliest opportunity. If this is not possible, our complaints procedure has four stages and at each stage your complaint will be considered by someone different. If your complaint is about an education or social services issue, please look at the section 'Do all complaints follow this procedure.'
If your complaint is because you feel that you have been discriminated against on whatever grounds, your complaint should go straight to stage 3, and you should write to the director of the service area involved.
Firstly…..Stage 1
We want to put things right as quickly as possible and this may usually be done if you speak directly to the staff providing the service first. For example, if your complaint is about a library or a sports centre, you should first speak to the staff at the site. If you are unhappy with the response, please ask to speak with an operations manager who will try to resolve the matter for you.
If you are still unhappy after discussing the matter with the staff providing the service then you should complain by following stage 2 of the procedure.
Stage 2
To start this stage, contact the manager or Chief Officer of the service area you wish to complain about. You may do this by using the form; by the Council’s website, by email, letter or telephone. We will ensure website, email, letters and telephone complaints get to the service manager. If you choose not to use the form, please make sure that you have covered all the points included in the form.
If you need help with your complaint, you may contact the Council’s Customer Services and ask them to write down your complaint for you. Or, the Citizen’s Advice Bureau will help you. Please make sure that you agree with what has been written down.
Once we receive your complaint, we will investigate and within ten working days send you a full written reply, or let you know if our reply will take longer, explaining the reason for the delay.
If we do not hear from you within ten working days of our final reply, we will close the complaint.
Stage 3
We hope that by now we would have resolved your complaint. However, if we haven’t, you should write to the director of the service area within ten working days, asking for your complaint to be investigated further. This will then become a complaint at stage 3 of the procedure.
The director will personally investigate your complaint or appoint a Chief Officer or senior manager who has not previously been involved, to investigate. Again, within ten working days, we will send you a full written reply, or let you know if our reply will take longer, explaining the reason for the delay.
If we do not hear from you within ten working days of our final reply, we will close the complaint.
Stage 4 - And if you are still not satisfied…..
If you feel that your complaint has still not been resolved, you may write to the Chief Executive of the Council, within ten working days of the director’s reply, explaining why you are not yet satisfied. The Chief Executive will consider whether your complaint has already been dealt with properly, and if so, will write to let you know. If not, a review panel will be set up to deal with your complaint. The panel will review the findings of the director at stage 3 of the procedure, but will not carry out further investigation. A review panel will consist of two independent people and a borough councillor and you will be invited to attend to present your complaint.
The review panel will make recommendations to the Chief Executive as to whether or not your complaint should be upheld, and if so, what remedial action, if any, the Council should take. The Chief Executive will, following consideration of the report of the review panel, make a final decision on your complaint.
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