Complaints policy

What you can complain about

A complaint can be made about services delivered by Islington Council. When you complain, the service should follow the process set out in this policy.

Complaints about staff

You can complain about staff conduct, attitudes and approach and we will consider your complaint under this policy. This includes allegations of bullying, harassment, prejudice, or discrimination which we take very seriously.

Complaints about commissioned or contracted services

If your complaint is about a service provided by a third-party on behalf of the council, we would normally direct you to complain to the third-party. However, should you not be satisfied with their response, you can bring your complaint to us, and we will review the complaint at stage 2 of our complaints process.

Complaints about social care

Adult social care and children's social care have their own statutory complaints procedures and are not governed by this process:

• children's social care complaints process
• adult social care complaints process

Complaints about elected members

Member of Parliament (MPs) and councillor conduct complaints are dealt with by the council’s Monitoring Officer. Complete a member complaint form.

Complaints about building safety

You can complain to us about building safety. Your concerns may be about the performance of an accountable person or principal accountable person, such as their communication to residents, responses to raised concerns or how they manage building safety risks. Most complaints will follow this complaints policy. However, if you live in a high-rise residential building, we will ask for additional details:

• the building address
• your contact details, or the contact details of someone acting for you, so we know who to respond to
• the name of the person or organisation you have previously complained to, if relevant
• details of your complaint, for example, the date you became aware of the problem, who you’ve already reported it to and when, if relevant
• any supporting information, such as photographs or documents you want to upload

A high-rise residential building is defined as being at least seven floors or at least 18 metres in height. Building safety risks are structural safety issues or the spread of fire issues. Examples of building safety issues include missing fire doors, cracks, or parts of the building falling off.

More information about building safety in high-rise buildings.

Complaints about data protection and information requests

Data protection complaints and complaints arising from Freedom of Information, Environmental Information Regulation and Subject Access Requests have their own statutory complaints procedures and are not governed by this process.

For more information see our Information Governance policies and procedures.

Complaints about maladministration of special educational needs

You can complain about the alleged or apparent maladministration of the administrative functions in relation to special educational needs including the alleged or apparent failure to provide a service.