The County Council strives to satisfy the needs of its customers and citizens.
But we realise that sometimes we get things wrong and that sometimes people are
not happy with what we do.
Since 1995 we have had a corporate policy for handling complaints from people
who may not be happy with what we have done.
What do we mean by a complaint?
We define a complaint as "an
expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service,
actions or lack of action by the Council or its staff affecting an individual
customer or group of customers".
Some of the services we provide have formal appeals procedures of their own,
and have separate arrangements for handling complaints.
How to make a complaint
You can make a complaint:
through a
T
County
Councillor
in person at a council office or to a council officer
T
by telephone
T
in writing
(either by letter or by filling in our
on-line complaints form
).
through a representative.
When making a complaint, try to give us as much detail as possible, for example:
What service, policy, person or aspect of the Council you are complaining about.
If appropriate, the date, time and location where an incident may have taken
place and who may have been affected.
Any expectations you may have had of Council services, as a result of
information we provided or what staff or County Councillors may have said.
Your name, address and contact details so that we can respond to your complaint.
Anything else which you think would help to make your point and help us to
investigate your concerns.
How we handle complaints
In the first instance, your complaint will
be handled by the
T
Council
department
concerned.
Your complaint may be handled by a number of
people, but each department has a Departmental Complaints Officer who oversees
the handling of complaints.
If you wish, you can ask to deal directly with the
Departmental Complaints Officer.
We will try to resolve your complaint as soon as we receive it.
But if the
matter cannot be resolved immediately, we will write to you to acknowledge
receipt of your complaint within 5 working days of it being lodged, and then
provide a fuller written response.
We will send you a written response to your complaint within 25 working days of
it being lodged.
This could be our final response to your complaint or a
progress report of how we are investigating your concerns.
Where we have provided you with a progress report, we will continue to provide
you with further progress reports, until your complaint has been dealt with.
If we have not acknowledged your complaint within five days of receiving it or
have not provided you with a full written response within 25 days, then we will
write to explain the reasons why and to give you a date by which time we expect
to be able to give you a full or final response.
When we have provided you with a full response, we will ask whether you are
satisfied with the way your complaint has been handled.
If you are not
satisfied, your complaint will be referred to our Director of Corporate and
Legal Services who has overall responsibility for administering the Council's
complaints procedure and for arranging further investigations where necessary.
Complaints against Councillors of Chief Officers
If you make a
complaint against a Councillor or a Chief Officer, the matter will be handled
by the Chief Executive of the Council.
If the complaint is about the Chief Executive or the Director of Corporate and
Legal Services, then the matter will be referred to the Chairman of the Council
who will, where necessary, seek outside assistance in investigating the
complaint.
Complaints about financial impropriety
Complaints about improper use
of the Council's finances will be referred to the County Treasurer, who in the
first instance will arrange for the matter to be investigated by the Council's
Internal Audit section.
Putting things right
If your complaint is found to be justified, we
will write to apologise to the people concerned, and if necessary, the matter
will be reported to the appropriate Council body to consider remedial action.
Where a complaint has been investigated by the Local Government Ombudsman, we
will always give careful consideration to any recommendations.
Anonymous complaints
We will investigate anonymous complaints in the
same way outlined above and seek to put things right if the complaint is found
to be justified.
However, if an anonymous complaint involves alleged misconduct by a member of
staff which, if proven, would be grounds for disciplinary action, then the
appropriate officer responsible for disciplinary matters will investigate the
complaint.
Annual report of complaints
Each year we will publish an annual
report on complaints received giving details of:
the number and types of complaint
the average time taken to respond
and the number of satisfied complainants
We will also indicate what changes we have made to particular policies,
procedures or practices in response to complaints.
Specific complaints procedures
We are required by the law to have
separate arrangements for handling complaints about certain services provided
by our
T
Educat
ion Department
and Social Services Department (contact Social Services'
Information to the Public Team on 0191 383 3305 for further advice).
If you are not happy
with the way we are handling or have handled your complaint, you can refer the
matter to the Local Government Ombudsman (
www.lgo.org.uk
).
The Local Government Ombudsman is an independent person who investigates
allegations of maladminsitration causing injustice to the person who has
complained.
The Ombudsman investigates complaints about most council matters
including housing, planning, education, social services, and council tax.
The
Ombudsman who deals with Durham County Council is at:
Local Government Ombudsman
Beverley House
17 Shipton Road
York
YO30 5FZ
Telephone 01904 663200
Fax 01904 663269
The Local Government Ombudsman has a leaflet called "Complaint about the
Council? How to complain to the Local Government Ombudsman".
You can get a
copy by telephoning or writing to the address above, or you can download it
from the
Ombudsman's website
.
(The booklet which contains a complaint form is also available from any of the
Council's
T
branch
libraries
, the Help Desk at
T
County Hall
, or by
telephoning either 0191 383 4567 or 0191 383 3488.)
If you have an enquiry about the Local Government Ombudsman's service you can
telephone their Adviceline on 0845 602 1983.
Where the Ombudsman is involved in a complaint against the Council, the
Director of
T
Corporate and Legal Services
will handle the complaint, in consultation
with the relevant Department.