Comments, compliments and complaints
We always aim to provide a high standard in our provision of services. Views from members of the public using our services are important and help to ensure they are consistently meeting people’s needs.
Comments
Often people want to suggest improvements to services. If you make a suggestion, we will record this as a comment.
We will acknowledge receipt of your comment within 5 working days and ask the relevant service area to reply to you within 5 working days of the acknowledgement.
Compliments
If you tell us about a service that has been good or a member of staff who has been helpful, we will record this as a compliment and share your praise with those involved.
Complaints
You can complain if you are affected by the way we provide services. Common examples of complaints are delay; poor record keeping; failure to act; failure to follow procedure or the law; poor communication; behaviour of our staff (also called officers); or giving out misleading information.
There are statutory regulations in place for some complaints that we must follow:
- Adult Social Care & Public Health Statutory Complaint Process
- Children’s Statutory Social Care Complaint Process – specifically processes and assessments relating to a child in need; a looked after child; a child leaving care; special guardianship support or adoption support
If your complaint is about any other service we provide, it is likely to follow our own Council Complaint Process.
We are committed to dealing with complaints fairly and in most cases, they are managed without difficulty. However, if you communicate in a way that is unreasonable or behave unacceptably this can impede the investigation of your complaint. If it is necessary to address any behaviours that are unreasonable or unacceptable, we will apply the Unreasonable Customer Behaviour Policy and Procedure (PDF).