Corporate complaints process
Last updated: 10 May 2012 15:31You can make a complaint in person, or by letter, email, telephone or use our comment, complement or complaints form.
Stage 1
The people who can best deal with a complaint are those who provide the service. You should speak or write to the service manager or contact the city helpdesk and let them know what the problem is. We can usually sort out mistakes and misunderstandings quickly and informally at this stage.
We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days. We will investigate your complaint and we will respond within 10 working days. If we cannot do this, we will let you know when you can expect a reply.
Our response will include details of who to complain to if you are not happy with the response at stage one. If you are still not sure who to contact, you can talk to the comments, compliments and complaints team.
Stage 2
If you are not happy with the service manager’s reply, you can complain to the head of service. It is best to let the head of service know which parts of our response at stage one you are not happy with.
We will investigate your complaint and the head of service will respond to you within 15 working days. An investigation may take longer than this but if it does we will explain the reasons why and let you know when you can expect a full reply.
In our response to your stage two complaint, we will provide contact details for the chief executive’s office. You will need to contact them if you are not happy with our response.
Stage 3
If you’re still not happy, you can contact the chief executive’s office. They are independent of the service you are complaining about and can carry out a full review of your complaint. It will help the investigation if you explain why you are not satisfied and what you expect from a further review.
The chief executive’s office will reply within 20 working days. They will let you know if there are any delays.
If you are not satisfied with the way we handled your complaint, you can contact the Local Government Ombudsman.
Local Government Ombudsman
The ombudsman is an independent national service, which investigates complaints about local councils. You can complain to the ombudsman at any time, but they will usually refer your complaint back to us if you have not used our complaint’s procedure.
The ombudsman will usually only consider complaints made to her within 12 months of when the person first had notice of the matters alleged in the complaint.
You can contact the ombudsman at:
- Local Government Ombudsman
PO Box 4771
Coventry, CV4 0EH
- Call 0300 061 0614
- Text "call back" to 0762 480 3014
- Fax 024 7682 0001
- Email advice@lgo.org.uk
- Online complaint form
- visit their site
Complaints in respect of councillors
This policy does not apply to complaints in respect of councillors. Details and guidance on how to proceed with a complaint about a councillor can be found on our Standards Committee page.
