Complaints and Feedback Policy

Our customers’ opinions are important to us. We are open to learning from complaints and using them to improve our services. We record compliments, complaints and concerns on our corporate complaints management system. We provide information about complaints to senior managers across the council. We also track the learning and changes made because of complaints. Senior Managers and Senior Management Teams must regularly and formally consider and review complaints, comments, and compliments to make sure that:

• we take appropriate action in individual cases
• we take action to address recurring complaints/comments
• we review our polices and systems in light of customer feedback
• we meet the timescales under the scheme

An annual report will be drafted at the end of each financial year summarising compliments and complaints received throughout the year. The report will identify trends and highlight any action taken because of feedback given. It will include:

• an annual self-assessment against the Ombudsman’s Code to ensure our complaint handling policy remains in line with its requirements
• any findings of non-compliance with the Ombudsman’s Code
• the service improvements made as a result of the learning from complaints
• the annual letter about the organisation’s performance from the Ombudsman
• any other relevant reports or publications produced by the Ombudsman in relation to the work of the organisation

The annual complaints performance and service improvement report will be reported through the council’s governance arrangements and published on the section of our website relating to complaints. We will publish the response to the report from the relevant governance arrangement alongside this.