Complaints and feedback

Resolving a problem

If you haven't contacted the council yet, the quickest ways to resolve a problem are to:

• visit the service’s webpages to find what you need
• report a problem you’d like us to fix
• phone customer services.

We’ll aim to deal with your issue within a few days.

Make a formal complaint

If you’ve contacted the council about an issue and you aren't happy with the way it was handled, you can make a formal complaint.

How we will handle your complaint

When you make a formal complaint, we will send you an acknowledgement within three working days.

We will investigate your complaint and you will receive a response within 10 working days.

If you are still unhappy, our corporate complaints team will carry out an independent review of your complaint. You may be asked for more information. We will respond to you within 20 working days.

We record information and use the feedback to help improve our services.

Make a complaint

For some services, there are different complaints processes.

These include:

• Adult Social Care
• Children's Services
• Councillors.

Complaints about schools  

Schools have their own complaints procedures. If you have a complaint about a school or a member of school staff, you should contact the headteacher. If you are still unhappy you can complain to the school's governing body. The school will explain the procedure to you.

Taking your complaint further

If you are still not satisfied with our response, you can contact an ombudsman who investigates complaints about local councils. These services are independent, impartial and free.

The ombudsman will usually only consider your complaint after you have completed all stages of our complaints process and have given us the opportunity to resolve matters for you.

For complaints from council tenants relating to housing visit the Housing Ombudsman Service website.

For complaints relating to other council matters please visit the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman website.