Complaints, Comments and Compliments

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Complaints Policy

Aims of complaints policy

Ribble Valley Borough Council (“Council”) is committed to providing high quality services to all our customers. Our Complaints, Comments and Compliments Policy is designed to ensure we continually improve our services and remedy any situations where we fail to meet our standards.

The Council takes all complaints seriously and values customer feedback. The Council is committed to learning from complaints and to making changes to policies and procedures to prevent similar complaints recurring.

We aim to:

  • enable individuals to be heard and understood
  • make it easy for people to exercise their right to complain
  • ensure all complaints are dealt with quickly and consistently
  • treat complainants with fairness and respect
  • improve the Council’s services
  • promote positive relationships between the Council and service users


Definition of a complaint

Ribble Valley Borough Council defines a complaint as:

“An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the Council, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual or group of individuals.”

This policy does not intend to define precisely all possible complaints, though some examples are highlighted, but rather to demonstrate the general principles we work towards and the process of communication by which we can achieve satisfactory resolutions.

Examples of the types of complaint are covered by the complaints policy:

  • a failure to provide a service
  • an unsatisfactory level or quality of service
  • a failure to follow the Council’s policy or procedures
  • the absence of proper procedures
  • delays in providing or completing a service
  • a failure to provide information or a failure to give correct information
  • complaints about the behaviour or attitude of a member of staff or contractors employed by the Council
  • complaints of bias, malice or unfair discrimination


What is excluded from the Complaints Policy

In practice there is sometimes confusion about what constitutes a complaint and it is important to recognise the difference between a complaint and a service request. 

A service request may be defined as:

“A request that the Council provides or improves a service, fixes a problem or reconsiders a decision.”

If a service request is made, this provides the Council with an opportunity to resolve matters to an individual’s satisfaction before it becomes a complaint.

Examples of common service requests include:

If a service request is raised via the complaint’s procedure, it will be passed to the relevant service area to deal with as any other enquiry would be.

In some cases the complaints process may not be the best course of action. This may include decisions made by the Council where an appeal process is in place or a remedy is available by appealing to a committee, tribunal, Minister of the Crown, or by proceedings in a court of law. Examples of matters excluded from this policy include:

Please note the complaints procedure will still apply to any part of the complaint that cannot be dealt with via the alternate options above - e.g. complaints about the conduct of a member of staff.

If a complaint is made by regarding an issue that occurred over 12 months ago (and the complainant has been aware of it for over 12 months) then discretion will be taken as to whether the Council will accept it and there must be good reason for doing so.

Where a complaint cannot be dealt with under the Complaints Procedure the complainant will be advised of any alternative procedures to use and provided with appropriate information and guidance.


Who can make a complaint?

Who can make a complaint:

  • Anyone who is not satisfied with any service provided by the Council
  • Anyone who has been affected by any error or omission in service provision.
  • Anyone who claims to have suffered an injustice as a result of action taken, or not taken, by or on behalf of the Council.


Complaints by a Third Party

We accept complaints made on an individual’s behalf by third parties or representatives e.g. a friend or family member, subject to confirming that they have the appropriate consent or other lawful basis to act.

A complaint can be made on an individual’s behalf by a Councillor and in such circumstances, we will handle it as if the individual made the complaint themself. Once such a complaint has been submitted, Councillors will not be involved in investigating the matter or providing a response to the complainant.


Anonymous complaints

The Council will not usually deal with anonymous complaints. However, a complainant may request that a complaint be dealt with in confidence and we may decide that it is appropriate to do so.


How to make a complaint

You make a complaint in the following ways:

Click here to download the complaints form

Ribble Valley Borough Council will make any reasonable adjustments in accordance with the Reasonable Adjustments Policy to ensure that anyone wishing to make a complaint can do so. 

You can also contact the Complaints Officer for advice about the process using the above contact details.

Alternatively, you can contact your local Councillor and raise your complaint through them. If you do not know who your local Councillor is or how to contact them you can find their details on the Councillors page on the Council’s website.

If your complaint is about a councillor see Complaints about Councillors.

This policy will be made available on the Council’s Website.


Complaints via Social Media

Expressions of dissatisfaction made on Council social media sites such as Facebook will not be treated as formal complaints.


The Complaints Process

Ribble Valley Borough Council has a two stage process once a complaint has been made.

Stage 1

The Council will acknowledge and register your complaint within five working days of it being received.

The complaint will be investigated, by the relevant Head of Department/Service Manager and we aim to provide a full response within 10 working days of the complaint being acknowledged.

If the Council feels that the complaint will take longer to investigate due to its complexity, you will be informed of this, along with an expected timescale for a response.  This should not be more than a further 10 working days, unless this is justified with good reason.  Any delay in providing a Stage 1 response will be explained to you and you will be provided with details of the relevant Ombudsman.

Stage 2

Once the Stage 1 response has been provided, if you are not satisfied, your complaint will progress to the final stage of the complaints procedure, which is a review by the Chief Executive/Director. 

The Council will acknowledge and log your escalation request within five working days of it being received.

This review constitutes a further investigation independent of the relevant service area and is typically conducted by the Complaints Officer. This independent investigation and the Stage 1 investigation are reviewed by the Chief Executive/Director who will then write a formal response to the complainant.  The Council aims to provide the final response within 20 working days of acknowledging the Stage 2 complaint.

If the Council feels that the complaint will take longer to investigate due to its complexity, you will be informed of this, along with an expected timescale for a response.  This should not be more than a further 20 working days, unless this is justified with good reason.  Any delay in providing a Stage 2 response will be explained to you and you will be provided with details of the relevant Ombudsman.


Complaints About Contractors

If a complaint is made against a contractor or other body acting on behalf of the Council it shall be dealt with in accordance with this policy.


The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

Stage 2 is the final stage in the Council’s complaints process, and should complainants remain unsatisfied after this stage is complete, the next stage is to refer your complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. Please note that complaints can be made to the Local Government Ombudsman at any time; however, it is likely that the Ombudsman will only investigate complaints when the Local Authority has had the opportunity to carry out its own investigation.

The Ombudsman will investigate the way your case has been handled, or the Council's failure to do something but does not question a council's decision because you do not agree with it.

You can make a complaint through the Local Government Ombudsman website www.lgo.org.uk/making-a-complaint

Alternatively, the Ombudsman can be contacted at:
Tel: 0300 061 0614
Fax 024 7682 0001
Text 'call back' to 0762 480 3014

The Local Government Ombudsman
PO Box 4771
Coventry
CV4 OEH


Putting Things Right

Where something has gone wrong, we will acknowledge this and set out the actions that we have already taken or intend to take to put things right.  This can take place at any stage in the process and can include (but are not limited to):

  • Apologising
  • Acknowledging where things have gone wrong
  • Providing an explanation, assistance or reasons
  • Taking action if there has been a delay
  • Reconsidering or changing a decision
  • Amending a record or adding a correction or addendum
  • Providing a financial remedy
  • Changing policies, procedures or practices


Performance reporting and self-assessment

The Council is committed to providing the best service possible and uses complaints as a source of intelligence to identify issues and introduce positive changes in service delivery.  The Complaints Officer will report to the Corporate Management Team and to Policy & Finance Committee on a quarterly basis with updates as to the volume, categories and outcomes of complaints and self-assessment against the LGSCO Code for complaints handling.

The Council will also produce an annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement report at the end of each financial year which will be considered by the Policy & Finance Committee and thereafter published to the complaints section of the Council’s website.


Record Keeping

The Complaints Officer will keep a comprehensive record of all complaints, and this will detail the nature of the complaints, the service area involved, details of the investigations and whether the complaints are upheld.  This information will be retained in line with the Council’s data retention policy.


Links with Other Policies

  • RVBC’s policy in respect of dealing with violent or aggressive behaviour to staff
  • RVBC’s reasonable adjustments policy
  • RVBC’s policy for managing unreasonable actions by complainants
  • RVBC’s data retention policy

Report It

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