If you are unhappy with how we respond to your complaint
In the unlikely event that you feel that we have not dealt with your comments satisfactorily, you should follow the complaints process below.
If you then remain unsatisfied, the Housing Ombudsman or the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman may be able to help you.
Complaints will not usually be accepted where the event giving rise to the complaint occurred more than 12 months ago. This is because a significant lapse of time makes a thorough and meaningful investigation more challenging.
Go to the full customer complaints and feedback policy
Complaints handling process
All complaints complete stage 1 of the complaints handling process, as outlined in Make a complaint.
If you are unhappy with our response to your complaint, it will move to stage 2 of the process.
Stage 2 complaints
After receiving your stage 1 response, you can request that your complaint progresses to stage 2.
Your complaint will be referred to a officer who was not involved in stage 1 of the complaint.
The allocation and acknowledgment processes are the same as for a stage 1 complaint. The investigating officer will contact you to ensure that the nature of the stage 2 complaint is understood, any outstanding issues and the desired outcome as well as any reasonable adjustments required.
Where this is not possible, the stage 2 investigation will be a review of the stage 1 response.
They will be given all the complaint information and will conduct a thorough review of the investigation and the response provided to you at stage 1.
They will write to you with the outcome of their investigation within 20 working days, from the date when the 5-day acknowledgement was issued.
Where it is not possible to respond within this time, we will contact you and advise you of an estimated date of response, which will not exceed a further 10 working days without good reason.
If after receiving the stage 2 response, the complainant is still unhappy with the outcome, they can refer it to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman or Housing Ombudsman.
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) investigates complaints in a fair and independent way. It does not take sides. It is a free service.
The LGSCO expects you to have given us chance to deal with your complaint, before you contact them.
If you have not heard from us within a reasonable time, it may decide to look into your complaint anyway. This is usually up to 12 weeks but can be longer for social care complaints that follow a statutory process.
The LGSCO looks at individual complaints about councils and some other organisations providing local public services.
It also investigates complaints about all adult social care providers (including care homes and home care agencies) for people who self-fund their care.
Contact the LGSCO
Website: Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
Telephone: 0300 061 0614 (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 10am to 1pm. Wednesday: 1pm to 4pm)
Council tenants
If you are a council tenant you may wish to complain about a matter specifically related to your tenancy. You can do this using any of the ways described above.
You can also make contact with the Housing Ombudsman at any point for additional support, and do not have to complete the council's full complaints process before you do so.
Find out more on Make a complaint about your council tenancy.