Complaints, comments or compliments

These are our top tips on making an effective complaint.

Don't delay

The sooner you raise a concern with us the better. We may be able to solve the problem quickly with little impact on you. If a full investigation is required access to information and the people involved will be much easier, meaning that the investigation will be much more effective.

Make checks

Make sure you are complaining to the right organisation and that complaints is the right procedure to follow.

Provide all the relevant information

To carry out a thorough and effective investigation, we need to know as much as possible about the situation, though only information that is relevant to the case. Please let us know:

• which service is involved
• the names of the people involved
• what has happened
• when it happened
• where it happened
• how it has affected you
• what you would like us to do to put it right
• your contact details
• if you have contacted us about this before - for example who you contacted, when, if you got a response.

Be clear and brief

Cover all the relevant points, but please be as brief as you can - lengthy documents can slow down the process. Use numbered lists and headings to highlight the important issues and only tell us what is actually relevant to your case. If we think we need more information to consider your complaint fully we will contact you to let you know.

Provide evidence if relevant

If you have documents that may help us look into the matter, please send them to us. You can send a scanned copy by email if you prefer and if you want us to return hard copy documents we will do so - please let us know when you send them in. If you do send us items through the post please make sure you keep a copy.

If it is a complex issue put it in writing

It is helpful if you could put your complaint in writing to us, particularly if it is a complex matter. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, you could ask a relative, friend, advocate or an organisation like Citizen's Advice to help you.

A complaint may be made about anything relating to the functions of children's social care. Making a complaint will not affect your right to receive our services. Some complaints about children's social care may need to be considered under the corporate complaints procedure.

We aim to resolve complaints as quickly and informally as possible. If you are able to talk to your social worker, independent reviewing officer or the managers who deliver your service, this is often the quickest and best way to get a problem resolved.

If you are a young person, you can also contact the national youth advocacy service to ask for an advocate. This is someone who is independent and does not work for children's social care. They will put your views across to those who support you and try to improve things for you.

The three stage complaints procedure

Stage one

Your concerns will be passed to the managers of the team that are working with you. Following investigation the manager will write to you to tell you about what they have found and what action has been taken.

• If we cannot respond immediately, we will send an acknowledgement within five working days telling you who is dealing with your complaint and giving a timescale for response;
• We will respond to you within 20 working days, or if we are unable to do so will explain why; and
• If we have made a mistake we will take action to put things right.

Stage two

If you are not satisfied with the outcome at stage one, you can ask that we consider your complaint at stage two of the complaints procedure.

• Your complaint will be considered by two people independent of the Council. They will investigate your concerns and then write a report of their findings
• The report will be passed on to a senior manager in children's social care who will consider your complaint along with the findings of the independent officers. The senior manager will then write to you with their response

Stage three

If you have been through stages one and two and remain unhappy with the way your complaint was dealt with, you can ask for your complaint to be considered by a review panel.

• The stage three review panel will consider whether the stage two investigation was carried out adequately and will focus on achieving resolution
• The review panel will not re-investigate your complaint but will reconsider the information that is offered

Once your complaint has been submitted

If you are not satisfied with the response you have received from us you can contact us again to see if there is any other way of resolving your complaint. If you are not satisfied with the final decision or the way we have dealt with your complaint, you can contact the local government and social care ombudsman to carry out an independent investigation into your complaint (see further details below). You can also contact the ombudsman for advice at any time. They will usually ask us to investigate your complaint first if we have not had the opportunity to try to resolve your concerns.

Complaints about independent care providers

If your complaint is about an independent children's home, you should contact them in the first instance as they will have their own complaints procedure to follow. If you are unhappy about their response and your care has been arranged and funded by children and young people's services, we may be able to look into your complaint further.

Ofsted inspects all registered children's homes. For further information and advice, visit the Ofsted website.

What complaints can be made about

A complaint may arise as a result of many things relating to statutory social services functions such as:

• an unwelcome or disputed decision
• concerns about quality or appropriateness of a service
• delay in decision making or provision of services
• delivery or non- delivery of services
• quantity, frequency or change in service
• attitude or behaviour of staff
• application of eligibility and assessment criteria
• impact of application of a local authority policy

Complaints about social workers

In most cases, we will not change your social worker, but each case is different and it would be down to the children's social care team manager to decide if it is in the best interests of all parties involved.

What complaints can not be made about

Where the following are intended, or are already in progress:

• court or tribunal proceedings
• disciplinary proceedings
• criminal investigations or proceedings

Other examples of when we are not able to consider your complaint:

• a decision that has not yet been made
• if you continue to complain about the same issue which has already been investigated fully
• it has been investigated by the local government and social care ombudsman
• if you became aware of the issue over a year ago
• the complaint relates to decisions or actions of another department (police or the courts, for example)

There are some complaints that we have to look at through different procedures. Some examples are:

• requests for services, for example referrals to children's social care
• insurance claims against the council for compensation
• requests for information on Council policy or practice
• requests for explanations of Council policy or practice
• matters for which there is a right of appeal

Time limit for complaints

There is a 12-month time limit for making a complaint.

You should make us aware of your complaint within 12 months of the incident happening or from when you realised you had cause for complaint. The time limit may be extended at the discretion of the complaints manager if there is a reason for the delay.

Once your complaint has been submitted

We aim to resolve complaints as quickly and informally as possible. You will receive an initial acknowledgment to your complaint within 3 working days.

The local manager is usually asked to look into and respond to your complaint in the first instance. We recommend that our local managers contact complainants as soon as possible, however, this is at their discretion.

If you are not satisfied with the response you have received from us you can contact us again to see if there is any other way of resolving your complaint. Alternatively, if you are not satisfied with the final decision or the way we have dealt with your complaint, you can contact the local government and social care ombudsman. You can also contact the ombudsman for advice at any time. They will usually ask us to investigate your complaint first if we have not had the opportunity to try to resolve your concerns.

Complaints about independent care providers

If your complaint is about a private care home or agency, you should contact them in the first instance as they will have their own complaints procedure to follow. If you are unhappy about their response and your care has been arranged and funded by health and adult services, we may be able to look into your complaint further.

The care quality commission inspects and reports on social care services. For further information and advice, visit the care quality commission website.

If you are unhappy with the independent provider's response to your complaint, you can contact the local government and social care ombudsman for advice (see further details below).

Making a complaint on behalf of someone else

Someone acting on behalf of the person receiving support can also make a complaint as long as they have their consent.

You are also able to make a complaint if you are acting on behalf of a person receiving support who is unable to make the complaint themselves.

You can ask a relative, friend or an advocate to complain on your behalf or support you to make the complaint yourself. We will need to confirm your agreement to the complaint and your consent to share your information with your representative.

Time limit for complaints

There is a 12-month time limit for making a complaint.

You should make us aware of your complaint within 12 months of the incident happening or from when you realised you had cause for complaint. The time limit may be extended at the discretion of the complaints manager if there is a reason for the delay.

Complaints about both NHS and adult social care services

If you are complaining about a range of services jointly provided by or commissioned by both the Council and an NHS Trust (a hospital for example), you can contact either organisation involved and ask them to look into your complaints.

We will need your permission to pass your details on to the other organisation and we will let you know who will be co-ordinating the response to your complaint.

If you have a complaint against a member which does not involve an alleged breach of the council's code of conduct for members, then you should submit your complaint online above.

Complaints about the conduct of a member 

If your complaint is specifically about the conduct of a councillor, there is a different procedure to follow. Please view information here about the code of conduct and how to submit a complaint to the standards committee.

Once your complaint has been submitted

If we cannot respond straight away we will acknowledge your complaint within five working days. A full response will be made within 10 working days (20 working days for very complex cases, or where key people are not available). If it will take longer, we will contact you to explain why and keep you informed.

If you are not satisfied with the response you have received you can contact us to escalate your complaint through the two stages. However, if we feel that your complaint has been considered fully at an early stage and it would not be of benefit to either party to pursue internally, we will instead let you know how to refer your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman or Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

You are free to contact the Housing Ombudsman or Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman yourself for advice at any point, though they will usually expect you to have allowed the Council the opportunity to have dealt with your complaint before they will investigate it.

The two stage complaints procedure

Stage one

As a first step you should take your complaint to the office or person who dealt with your enquiry, or who deal with the service you want to complain about. Our staff will do their best to resolve your complaint without you having to do anything else.

• if we cannot respond immediately, we will send an acknowledgement within five working days
• we will respond to you within 10 working days (20 working days for very complex cases, or where key people are not available) or if we are unable to do so will explain why
• if we have made a mistake we will take action to put things right

Stage two

If the person dealing with your complaint has not been able to put things right, or you are not happy with the way they dealt with your complaint, you can ask for it to be considered at stage 2, we would expect you to ask for this within 20 working days of the date of the stage 1 response, but will use discretion if we receive this later. 

We would not consider any stage 2 request received more than six months after the stage 1 response, unless there is a compelling reason to do so.

Your stage 2 request should include your reasons for wishing to progress to the next stage and what your desired outcome is

• Your request will be acknowledged within five working days. An appropriate member of staff who has not had any previous involvement in the case will carry out an investigation. This will be done within 20 working days, but where a case is more complex and will take longer we will keep you informed of timescale.
• If we are confident that we have followed policy, procedure and legislation and that you have not been unfairly disadvantaged, we will not progress your complaint to stage two and we will instead let you know how to refer your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman and Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

On completion of a stage 2 investigation the Council will consider the matter closed and will not enter into any further correspondence on the issue, unless significantly new and relevant information is provided that may alter the outcome of the complaint. 

Time limit for complaints

There is a six-month time limit for making a complaint about housing.

You should make us aware of your complaint within six months of the incident happening or from when you realised you had cause for complaint. The time limit may be extended at the discretion of the complaints manager if there is a reason for the delay.

Read our housing complaints policy.

If you would like to complain about a Trading Standards matter (for example, about a trader, product or to report a scam) you need to refer this to the Citizens Advice service, who deal with these. They will pass on details of any enforcement issues to us.

Once your complaint has been submitted

If we cannot respond straight away we will acknowledge your complaint within five working days. A full response will be made within 15 working days (though this may sometimes be extended up to 20 working days, for example for very complex cases, or where key people are not available). If it will take longer we will contact you to explain why and keep you informed.

If you are not satisfied with the response you have received you can contact us to escalate your complaint through the two stages. However, if we feel that your complaint has been considered fully at an early stage and it would not be of benefit to either party to pursue internally, we will instead refer you to the local government and social care ombudsman.

You are free to contact the local government and social care ombudsman yourself for advice at any point, though they will usually expect you to have allowed the Council the opportunity to have dealt with your complaint before they will investigate it.

The two stage complaints procedure

Stage one

As a first step you should take your complaint to the office or person who dealt with your enquiry, or who deal with the service you want to complain about. Our staff will do their best to resolve your complaint without you having to do anything else.

• if we cannot respond immediately, we will send an acknowledgement within five working days
• we will respond to you within 15 working days (20 working days, for example for very complex cases, or where key people are not available), or if we are unable to do so will explain why
• if we have made a mistake we will take action to put things right

Stage two

If the person dealing with your complaint has not been able to put things right, or you are not happy with the way they dealt with your complaint, you can ask for it to be considered at stage 2, we would expect you to ask for this within 20 working days of the date of the stage 1 response, but may use discretion if we receive this later. 

We would not consider any stage 2 request received more than six months after the stage 1 response, unless there is a compelling reason to do so.

Your stage 2 request should include your reasons for wishing to progress to the next stage and what your desired outcome is

• Your request will be acknowledged within five working days. An appropriate member of staff who has not had any previous involvement in the case will carry out an investigation. This will be done within 20 working days, but where a case is more complex and will take longer we will keep you informed of timescale.

• If we are confident that we have followed policy, procedure and legislation and that you have not been unfairly disadvantaged, we will not progress your complaint to stage two and we will instead let you know how to refer your complaint to the local government and social care ombudsman.

On completion of a stage 2 investigation the Council will consider the matter closed and will not enter into any further correspondence on the issue, unless significantly new and relevant information is provided that may alter the outcome of the complaint.

Time limit for complaints

There is a 12-month time limit for making a complaint.

You should make us aware of your complaint within 12 months of the incident happening or from when you realised you had cause for complaint. The time limit may be extended at the discretion of the complaints manager if there is a reason for the delay.

Read our corporate complaints and compliments policy.

The housing ombudsman is an independent body that will consider complaints about housing, including the social housing owned by the Council.  It will normally only consider complaints made within 6 months from the date you first knew about the matter complained about, but can decide to look at older complaints if there is a good reason to do so.

You can approach the housing ombudsman at any time during your complaint investigation should you require their advice.

Information on how to refer your complaint to the HO can be found at:
Website: Housing Ombudsman
Telephone: 0300 111 3000
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 9:15am to 5:15pm

The local government and social care ombudsman looks at complaints about councils and some other authorities and organisations, including education admissions appeal panels and adult social care providers (such as care homes and home care providers). It is a free service.

They aim to provide independent investigation to individuals for injustice caused by unfair treatment or service failure by local authorities. If fault is found they will make recommendations about how we should put things right.

They will expect you to have taken your complaint through our complaints procedures first.

Information on how to refer your complaint to the  local government and social care ombudsman can be found at:
Website: local government and social care ombudsman website.
Telephone: 0300 061 0614
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm (except public holidays)

We understand that making a complaint can be a very emotional process and we will do all that we can to help you through the procedure. However, we will not tolerate unacceptable behaviour from those making a complaint. Such behaviour may include (written, verbal or in person):

• offensive sexual or racial remarks or offensive remarks about a person's disability
• inappropriate personal remarks
• unwanted physical contact or assault
• intimidation
• threats
• excessive swearing, foul or abusive language
• unreasonable persistence, for example contacting the Council many times about the same issue

See our Unacceptable complainant behaviour policy

We will tell you if we think your behaviour is unacceptable. If the behaviour continues we may limit the way you can contact us, for example only in writing.

You can make an anonymous complaint but we would rather talk to you directly about your concerns. If you do not provide contact details we won't be able to let you know what has happened with your complaint. We will still ask a relevant manager to look into the issues raised.

You may wish to include audio or video recordings as part of the evidence to support your complaint. If you do, you need to provide a copy of the full recording, not just parts of it and it must not be altered in any way. This will ensure that the full context of the conversation can be considered. 

If you provide only part of a recording we might not accept it as part of evidence towards a complaints investigation.

All recordings should be of good quality. If they are not clear enough to understand we will not consider them as evidence.

Recordings will be shared with any council officers (or anyone providing a service on behalf of the council) that took part in the conversation for them to verify that it is a true and full recording.

We will not pass on any recordings which you provide us with to third parties unless there is an overriding legal obligation for us to do so, for example for crime prevention or detection.

All staff in customer-facing roles must speak fluent English. This includes the ability to speak with confidence and accuracy, using appropriate sentence structures and vocabulary, and understanding customer needs and responding clearly.

If all or part of your complaint relates to this, that aspect will be considered under the council's corporate complaints procedure (see Complaints about another service above).

For the purposes of the fluency duty, a legitimate complaint is about the standard of spoken English of a public sector member of staff in a customer-facing role.  A complaint about a member of staff’s accent, dialect, manner or tone of communication, origin or nationality would not be considered a legitimate complaint about the fluency duty.