Corporate Complaints Policy and Procedure
We are committed to providing high quality services to all
our customers. The services we provide are continually reviewed to
ensure they meet the needs and expectations of our customers, to
help us improve we actively seek comments good or bad concerning
all aspects of the services we offer.
If you have a complaint, suggestion or compliment please tell us
using the online form which is available below, if you prefer you
can ring Customer Services on 0845 600 6400, visit any one of our
Customer Service points or you can write to us at the address which
is given below.
What
is a complaint?
A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction by one or more
members of the public about the council’s action or lack of action
or about the standard of a service, whether the action was taken or
the service provided by the council itself or a person or body
acting on behalf of the council.
How to use the Procedure.
We will always try to resolve problems as
quickly as possible and to do this we would ask you to contact the
service that you are unhappy with. They may be able to put things
right there and then or at least look into the issue and come back
to you. If you have tried this approach or don't feel that it is
appropriate to contact the service involved directly, you can ask
for your complaint to be investigated formally. To do this you
should complete the Complaints form which is available here, click
here to access our Complaints
form.
Receipt of your complaint will be acknowledged
within 3 days and the complaints co-ordinator within the relevant
directorate will carry out a thorough investigation, they will
report back to you normally within 15 days although on some
occasions the investigation may take a little longer.
Should you remain dissatisfied with the
findings of the investigation then you have the right to have the
complaint referred to the Council’s complaints Officer and you
should contact;
The Corporate Complaints Officer
Support Services
Performance Group
County Hall
Morpeth
Northumberland
NE61 2EF
Telephone 01670 534025
e-mail Complaints@northumberland.gov.uk
Your complaint will be further investigated
and we will report back to you within 20 days.
Should you remain unhappy with the response
which you receive you have the right to contact the Local
Government Ombudsman at;
The Local Government Ombudsman
PO Box 4771
Coventry
CV4 0EH
Telephone 0300 061 0614
Fax 024 7682 0001
Text 'call back' to 0762 480 4299
Website http://www.lgo.org.uk/
e-mail advice@lgo.org.uk
A copy of the annual report into complaints
handling is available here Ombudsman's
letter.
Complaints in relation to
Schools
Complaints in relation to Schools are not
dealt with dealt with under this policy and you should make contact
with the school and ask them to supply you with a copy of their
complaints procedure.
Complaints in relation to Social Care
Complaints in relation to Social Care for
Children and Adults are dealt with under separate procedures. For
complaints in relation to Social Care for Children you should
contact 01670 533888. For complaints in relation to Social Care for
Adults you should contact 01670 394524 or click here for further
information Adult
Social Care.
Complaints about elected Members
Conduct
If you wish to complain about the conduct of
an elected member of the County Council you must submit your
complaint to;
Chair of the Assessment Sub-Committee
The Standards Committee
Northumberland County Council
County Hall
Morpeth
Northumberland
NE61 2EF
Click
here to access more information in relation to complaints against a
Member
The Assessment Sub-Committee can only deal
with complaints about the behaviour of a member. It will not deal
with complaints about things that are not covered by the members'
Code of Conduct. If you make a complaint to the Assessment
Sub-Committee it must be about why you think a member has not
followed the Code of Conduct.
The Member’s Code of Conduct is included in
the County Council Constitution, click here to view the Council
Constitution. The Constitution.
Outcomes and remedies
There are several possible outcomes of our
investigations into your complaint. If we do not find evidence of
maladministration or service failure or if we find that the
complaint is outside of our jurisdiction we will write to you and
explain why, we will of course consider any comments that you may
wish to make.
If we do find that our actions have been at
fault there are a range of actions that we may take, these include,
but are not restricted to the following;
- An apology
- Carry out repairs
- Take immediate action that should have been taken earlier
- Reconsider a decision that had been taken earlier
- Improve procedures
- Hold a fresh school admissions appeal
- Compensation in respect of any financial loss
