Brighton & Hove City Council Corporate Complaints Policy and Procedure

This is the council’s complaints policy and procedure for dealing with corporate complaints. This means any service complaints except those relating to Adult or Children’s Social Care.

This policy is based on the complaint handling codes issued by the:

• Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
• Housing Ombudsman

This policy will be published on the council’s website and communicated to staff via the complaint-handling guidance on the council’s intranet and complaint-handling training.

Information about accessing the complaint procedure is easily accessible on the council website. 

Details of how to access the complaint process and of the Housing Ombudsman for tenants or leaseholders are published in the tenant/leaseholder newsletter called Homing In. It is available digitally or in hard copy to all tenants and leaseholders on a quarterly basis.

For the purposes of the council’s corporate complaints procedure, a complaint is defined as:

‘an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the landlord, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting a resident or group of residents.’

A customer does not have to use the word “complaint” for it to be treated as such.

A complaint differs from a service request which is defined as:

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

These are not to be treated as complaints but must be recorded, monitored and reviewed regularly.

Certain matters fall outside the scope of the complaints procedure and these exclusions are outlined in Appendix B.

An effective complaints procedure ensures that the council has an opportunity to put things right for an individual or group of individuals who have received poor service.

The council can also learn from its mistakes and improve services.

The council aims to develop a positive complaint-handling culture in which:

• complaints are encouraged and welcomed
• staff at all levels are aware of and committed to the council's complaints procedures
• there's a strong and focused emphasis on learning from complaints so that mistakes are not repeated
• complaints are about improving services and developing staff rather than attributing blame
• a collaborative and cooperative approach is taken towards resolving complaints, working with colleagues across teams and departments
• both failures and successes are recorded and the data is shared and used to drive service improvement
• complaints are dealt with in a way that is fair to both the complainant and the staff involved

One of the most important functions of the complaints procedure is to ensure that the council learns from complaints and uses them to improve services.

All teams must analyse complaints for learning points and record them. Teams will be asked to provide evidence of learning and associated service improvement by senior officers or elected members and also:

• for external scrutiny by agencies such as:
  • OFSTED
  • The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO)
  • The Housing Ombudsman
• when we're asked for complaint statistics via FOI requests

We have a statutory obligation to demonstrate learning from complaints as part of our membership of the Housing Ombudsman scheme.

All complaints will be analysed to:

• identify causes of complaints
• make any appropriate recommendations for changes to policies or procedures to drive service improvement

A summary of recommendations from complaints, including progress on implementing them, will be included in an annual report to the council’s Cabinet. The annual report will be available online.

All members of staff are expected to:

• recognise when a customer wishes to make a complaint
• signpost the customer to the Customer Feedback team

Complaints will be received via the online complaint portal, by post or via telephone either directly to the Customer Feedback team or details taken by another staff member and passed to the Customer Feedback team to process.

Customers have the right to:

• have a representative deal with their complaint on their behalf
• be represented or accompanied at any meeting with the council where this is reasonable

Consent from the customer for someone else to act on their behalf will be required before the complaint can be logged and progressed.

Complaints received directly to a service team should be copied to the Customer Feedback team to be logged.

All complaints will be accepted unless there is a valid reason not to do so. Circumstances in which a complaint will not be considered (exclusions) are set out in Appendix B of this policy but all matters will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

If the council considers that it cannot accept a complaint a full explanation will be given to the customer setting out:

• why the matter is not suitable for the complaints process
• their right to take that decision to the relevant Ombudsman

In relation to complaint submission and response, the council will consider reasonable adjustment requests in line with the Equality Act. See Appendix D for details of how we'll do this.

Role of the Customer Feedback Team

The council’s Customer Feedback team are responsible for overseeing complaint handling to ensure complaints receive the necessary attention and that these are reported to elected members.

Staff within the Customer Feedback team fulfil the role of “Complaints Officer” as required in the complaint handling code from the Housing Ombudsman and the LGSCO.

The council's aim is to resolve all concerns as quickly as possible and as near as possible to the point of service delivery.

It's the responsibility of whichever member of staff, in any council service team, that a concern is initially raised with, to try to resolve the problem there and then wherever possible.

Service teams will be expected to take ownership of the matter even if the concern has not been formally referred to them by the Customer Feedback Team.

When a concern is raised directly with the Customer Feedback Team and the problem appears to be simple, Customer Feedback Officers will, in agreement with the customer, contact the service team and give them 24 hours to resolve the problem.

This will be logged as an enquiry for audit purposes.

If the matter is not resolved within 24 hours and further enquiries are needed to resolve the matter, or if the customer/resident requests it, the issue must be logged as a complaint.

Stage 1 complaint

The first stage of the complaint procedure aims for the relevant service team to:

• fully resolve the complaint
• identify learning which will drive service improvement

Where the council has made a mistake, we should aim to put the customer back in the position they would have been in had the mistake not been made. If this is not possible through direct actions, consideration will be given to alternative remedies which will be determined based on guidance from the:

• Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO)
• Housing Ombudsman

All complaints, whether received directly by the department concerned or via another department, must be registered on the council’s central customer feedback case management system.

Throughout the complaint process responding officers must adhere to any reasonable arrangements agreed with residents in terms of frequency and method of communication.

Acknowledging the complaint

An initial automated confirmation of receipt will be sent by the Customer Feedback team. This will state:

• the reference number of the complaint
• an explanation that the complaint has been referred to the relevant service
• an invitation to advise the Customer Feedback team if the customer has any specific access needs and advice that they can be represented by someone else if needed, with proof of consent

The Customer Feedback team will refer the complaint to the service manager and a more detailed acknowledgement will be sent by the responding officer, or someone writing on their behalf, within 5 working days of the complaint being received. This will include:

• the council’s understanding of the complaint and outcomes the resident is seeking (the complaint definition)
• requests for any clarification if all aspects of the complaint are not understood
• details of when the complainant can expect a reply, this should be within 10 working days of this acknowledgement letter
• if there are valid reasons why the complaint cannot be taken forward (see Appendix B on exclusions) this will be explained
• details of the Ombudsman Service

Complaints received directly by a service team should be forwarded to the Customer Feedback Team, to be formally logged. The customer should be advised of the reference number, while the service team proceed with their detailed acknowledgement and investigation of the complaint.

If complaints are received from a number of people about the same issue, but raising different points, they should be advised that the complaints will be registered separately but all points will be collectively investigated and one report will be issued in response, with a covering letter. Any points personal to an individual will be responded to separately.

Responding to the stage 1 complaint

Complaints must be responded to within 10 working days of being acknowledged but every effort should be made to respond to the problem as soon as possible.

In exceptions, if it is not possible to fully reply within 10 working days the customer must be contacted by the responding officer, apologising, explaining why there is a delay and giving a clear timeframe for when the response will be received.

This should not exceed a further 10 days without good reason.  If the customer is unhappy with the additional time needed, they will be advised of their right to contact the Ombudsman.

A complaint response should be provided when the answer is known, not when outstanding actions to address the complaint are completed.

Required actions must be monitored and the customer must be kept updated on progress.

In some cases, it may be appropriate and customer-focused to phone or meet with the customer to let them know what action has been taken in response to their complaint. A note should be made and recorded on the case management system detailing the conversation or meeting.

In all cases, even following a phone conversation or meeting, the responding officer must confirm the following in writing to the customer at the completion of stage one in clear, plain language:

• the complaint stage
• the complaint definition
• the decision on the complaint
• the reasons for any decisions made
• the details of any remedy offered to put things right
• details of any outstanding actions
• what further action the complainant can take if they are not satisfied with the department’s response, e.g. information about any appropriate appeal mechanism or the next stage of the council’s complaints procedure (stage 2)

A Code of Practice on how to respond is included in Appendix C.

A copy of the stage 1 response must be sent to the Customer Feedback Team along with the Complaint Outcome Summary form giving details of whether the matter was upheld and any learning that was identified. The Customer Feedback team will record all outcomes and learning from the complaint and close the record.

If a customer wishes to escalate a complaint to stage 2 of the complaints procedure this must be done within 12 months of the stage 1 decision unless there is a good reason why it couldn’t have been done earlier.

Stage 2 complaint consideration

If a complainant is still unhappy after the complaint has been responded to at stage 1, they can ask for the complaint to be considered further and a review to be carried out by a Customer Feedback Manager.

Individuals should not be required to explain their reasons for requesting a stage 2. The Customer Feedback Team should make reasonable efforts to understand why an individual remains unhappy.

The Customer Feedback Team will log the escalation request and send confirmation of receipt.

The Customer Feedback Manager, assigned to the case, will acknowledge the stage 2 request within 5 working days of the escalation request being received.

This acknowledgement will include:

• who is dealing with the complaint
• the council’s understanding of the outstanding issues and the outcomes the resident is seeking (the complaint definition), the definition must be agreed upon by both parties
• a request for clarification if any aspect of the complaint is unclear
• the timescale for responding

What happens during stage 2 consideration

Depending on the circumstances of the complaint and the action already taken by the department the Customer Feedback Manager (CFM) will take one of the following steps:

1. If it's clear there has been a fault and the matter has not been resolved, the CFM will liaise with the department involved to ensure a resolution is identified and appropriate remedy offered.
2. In certain cases, the CFM may decide, after careful review, that further action is not required. This option would only be appropriate when the review identified that:

• the complaint has already been comprehensively investigated by the department involved at Stage 1 and, if fault has been found, an appropriate resolution has been offered
• the department has clearly followed the appropriate procedures and there has been no fault
• the Customer Feedback Manager is satisfied, having considered the relevant information, that further investigation would not achieve anything further for the complainant
• the complaint falls outside the scope of the complaints procedure (see Appendix B)

Further investigation by the CFM may be appropriate in cases where:

• the customer is still dissatisfied with significant issues of the complaint
• it's unclear if there has been fault or not and what, if any, remedy and learning should have been identified
• the Customer Feedback Manager is satisfied that there are sufficient grounds to warrant a further investigation by a complaints officer who is separate from the service team

If an investigation is to be carried out the Customer Feedback Manager will notify the appropriate manager in the department within 5 working days of receiving the complaint.

Investigations will focus on the administrative process and whether the council has acted in accordance with the appropriate policies, processes and legislation.

The Customer Feedback Manager cannot consider the merits of a decision or the professional judgment of officers. However, Customer Feedback Managers will consider if the service team has acted fairly, proportionately and reasonably.

Staff involved in the investigation will be sent a copy of the reply for fact-checking and comment.

Completion of stage 2 and response

Stage 2 complaints should be responded to within 20 working days of the complaint being escalated.

In exceptions, if it is not possible to reply within 20 working days the customer must be contacted, and an apology and explanation must be provided containing a clear timeframe for when a reply will be received.

This should not exceed a further 20 days without good reason. If the customer is unhappy with the additional time needed, they will be advised of their right to contact the Ombudsman.

In all cases, on completion of stage 2 the Customer Feedback Manager will confirm the following in writing to the complainant in clear, plain language:

• the complaint stage
• the complaint definition
• the decision on the complaint
• the reasons for any decisions made
• the details of any remedy offered to put things right
• details of any outstanding actions
• confirmation that this is the council’s final decision and concludes the complaints process
• details of how to contact the relevant Ombudsman

Any member of the public can complain to the relevant Ombudsman, at any time but the Ombudsman would normally expect to see that the council’s own complaints procedure had been exhausted first.

Ombudsman complaints will be handled by the Customer Feedback Team. A Customer Feedback Manager will act as the link and contact all relevant teams to request and collate the required information.

The Customer Feedback Manager will then prepare a written response on behalf of the Chief Executive and then liaise with the Ombudsman and service managers until the matter is resolved.

Service managers and directors will be advised when Ombudsman complaints are received and of their provisional views and final decisions.

Directors are advised that they may wish to share this information with their lead councillors for awareness.

Officers must have regard to the council’s complaints procedure when commissioning services or setting up partnership working/agreements.

The council remains ultimately responsible for any service contracted out. Contractors should be aware of the complaints procedure and comply with it.

The council service team should respond to the complaint at stage 1 of the complaints procedure unless it's agreed that the contractors will do so.

The complaint acknowledgement should:

• be clear about who is responding
• explain that the council will be aware of the complaint and the contractor’s response

The council’s contract manager must be involved. The complainant must be signposted to the Customer Feedback Team if they're unhappy with the outcome so they can escalate the complaint.

If a complaint involves criticism of a member of staff, they should be:

• advised as soon as possible
• given a copy of the complaint

The member of staff should be:

• given the opportunity to comment on the issues of the complaint
• kept informed of any proposed action taken as a result of the complaint

Senior Officers must formally respond to complaints about named officers.

In cases of complaints about misconduct by an employee, the matter should be investigated and, where appropriate, action taken in accordance with the council’s disciplinary procedure, in Part 4 of the Constitution.

10a.  Complaints from staff

If a staff member has a specific concern about alleged malpractice in a service, they should, where possible, raise this with the manager of the service concerned. If this is not possible, the council’s Whistleblowing Policy provides detailed guidance on other ways to raise concerns.

The council’s Customer Feedback Team act as a central hub for ensuring that complaints are recorded and dealt with in accordance with the complaints procedure. The Customer Feedback Team will record all learning and service improvement arising from complaints and compliments.

The Customer Feedback Team will produce quarterly reports for DMTs (Departmental Management Teams) and an annual report which will include information on:

• the number of compliments and complaints received
• what they were about
• the time taken to deal with them
• any learning or actions taken as a result

These reports will also be circulated to the Chief Executive and ELT (Executive Leadership Team).

The Customer Feedback Team will meet with individual service teams to discuss complaint performance either:

• at their request
• if the Customer Feedback Team identify:
  • areas where complaint performance needs improvement
  • themes and trends in service performance which are causing significant or unusual numbers of complaints

The council is committed to ensuring equality of access for all with protected characteristics.

See Appendix D of this procedure for details on how the council will:

• support equality of access
• consider requests for reasonable adjustments

The council is committed to ensuring that complaints about discrimination on the grounds of protected characteristics are investigated thoroughly.

If a complaint about discrimination is received the council’s Customer Feedback Team should be notified so that this can be recorded for monitoring.

The Customer Feedback Team will ensure that the complaint is:

• recorded as a complaint about discrimination
• properly investigated by the department

The complaint will also be shared with the council’s Equalities team.

There will inevitably be some customers who will continue to:

• complain after their complaint has been through the council’s complaints procedure
• make a series of interrelated complaints which do not vary significantly from their original complaint

Continual correspondence with these customers does not help them, reduces the council's efficiency and can cause a considerable amount of stress to members of staff. However, in considering when to use this policy it's critical that we first consider and ensure we understand the customer’s circumstances.

We must be sure that we have:

• given them the right opportunity to express their views
• listened and given appropriate thought and effort to resolving and explaining the situation

We also have equalities duties which means that even when someone is challenging to work with we need to ascertain whether they are vulnerable or whether there may be any underlying cause, for example mental health issues, which may be influencing their behaviour.

This should be taken into account when deciding what action to take in response to their behaviour. If this is the case reasonable adjustment should be made in terms of their contact with the council.

Any restrictions placed on a resident’s contact due to unacceptable behaviour should:

• be appropriate to their needs
• demonstrate regard for the provisions of the Equality Act 2010

Full details of how the council will deal with these situations are set out in our managing unreasonable customer behaviour policy (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Staff who deal with complaints will inevitably occasionally have to deal with customers who are challenging or aggressive. The council recognises that some people find it difficult to express their concerns calmly.

Customers have the right to have their complaints dealt with but equally members of staff have the right to be treated with respect. The council recognises that it has a duty of care towards staff and that duty of care involves having a safe working space.

If a member of staff feels that the type of behaviour they are experiencing during the course of dealing with a complaint is unreasonable or concerning they should seek advice from a senior manager. Training can be provided for dealing with low-level challenging behaviour and support will be given for more serious situations.

Further information on the council’s complaints procedures and any aspect of dealing with complaints is available from the Customer Feedback Team.

Contact the Customer Feedback Team.

Putting Things Right - the council’s policy on complaint remedies

If the council has been at fault the very least we should do is apologise. There will be some occasions, however, when an apology on its own will not be sufficient. In these cases, consideration should be given to providing a tangible remedy to the complainant. This can range from the offer to provide a service which has previously not been provided to, in appropriate cases, a payment in compensation.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman suggests the following as a general principle for guidance:

“As far as possible the complainant should be put in the position he or she would have been in had things not gone wrong”.

The remedy offered will depend on a number of factors and each case should be judged on its merits. The following list of options is a useful guide.

• an apology.
• an explanation - in some cases, all the complainant wants is to know why things went wrong
• an assurance that action will be taken to prevent the same thing from happening again, this requires follow-up action and monitoring
• specific action - consideration should be given as to whether there is any practical action which can be taken which could provide all or part of a suitable remedy. For example:
  • to effect the repairs to a council property
  • to assess entitlement to a benefit (for example housing benefit) and make any requisite payment
  • the processing of a planning application where this has not yet been done

Compensation payments

Where it's obvious that the complainant has suffered some loss due to a fault by the council, consideration should be given to offering a payment to the complainant. In deciding whether compensation is appropriate the council will follow guidance on remedies from the:

• Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
• Housing Ombudsman

Read guidance on remedies from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

Read guidance notes from the Housing Ombudsman (housing-ombudsman.org.uk).

Further advice about remedying a complaint is available from the Customer Feedback Team.

The following is a list of matters that are excluded from being dealt with by the council’s corporate complaints procedure:

• complaints about a decision taken by a committee of elected members of the council, or by full council
• complaints where the complainant has commenced legal proceedings against the council - this is defined as details of the claim, such as the Claim Form and Particulars of the Claim, having been filed at court, in this case, advice should be sought from Legal Services
• complaints where the council has commenced or intends to commence legal proceedings against the complainant or another person relating to the matter of complaint
• complaints that involve an insurance claim against the council (although there may be aspects of the complaint that could be investigated concurrently)
• matters under consideration via another function of the council, e.g. a live planning application or a parking scheme
• matters relating directly to a decision by the Local Planning Authority
• complaints where an alternative right of appeal exists, such as:
  • a School Admissions Appeal
  • an appeal against a Housing Benefits/Council Tax Benefit decision
  • a right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal if someone disputes council tax liability
  • appeal against a planning decision
  • appeals against Penalty Charge Notices
  • homelessness decision reviews
  • matters where there's a right of appeal via Judicial Review etc
• a matter which has not affected the complainant personally or caused them an injustice
• a widespread service issue which affects most people in the council's area, such as issues caused by industrial action
• complaints about schools management
• complaints about a member of staff that would more properly be dealt with through the council's disciplinary or capability procedures
• complaints from members of staff relating to personnel matters
• complaints about the decision of a recruitment process
• allegations of fraud or corruption that would more appropriately be dealt with by the council's anti-fraud and corruption policy or whistleblowing procedure
• allegations of malpractice in a service which are of such a serious nature that they need to be reviewed by the council’s Monitoring Officer
• complaints about contractual matters made by commercial suppliers to the council
• matters that the complainant knew about more than 12 months before the complaint was made unless there are good reasons why they have not been raised sooner
• matters already dealt with through appropriate complaint or appeal procedure and where that process has been exhausted - these matters will only be considered again if new relevant evidence comes to light which may change the previous outcome
• complaints about elected and co-opted members of the council should be referred to the Monitoring Officer.
• complaints about Adult or Children’s Social care will be dealt with by the Customer Feedback Team under the relevant statutory procedures
• complaints about a breach of data protection or Freedom of Information requests - where an issue relating to these points is raised within the context of a service complaint the Customer Feedback team will record that it has been received and alert the Information Rights team that it has been referred to the service team for response, the complainant will be advised to contact the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) if they're unhappy with the response they receive

Where a decision has been made not to deal with a complaint through the complaints procedure the complainant should be advised of any alternative options that might be available to them.  Where alternative options are not clear the complainant should be advised to seek their own independent legal advice.

It should be recognised that the above list is a general guide and is not exhaustive. This list does not preclude individual complaints that may fall into one of the above categories, being dealt with through the complaints procedure where this would be the most pragmatic course of action. 

Code of Practice for responding to Complaint Correspondence

The following is a list of what the council expects from you when dealing with a complaint:

• approach all complaints with an open mind, don’t be defensive
• start by reading the complaint through a couple of times, note down all of the points, no matter how small they seem to you as they are important to the customer
• research/investigate each of the points made and make an informed and balanced decision
• open the response by thanking the person for bringing the complaint to your attention and explain what you have done to research their complaint, such as:
  • giving the job titles of the people you have spoken to
  • the correspondence you have reviewed
  • the procedures you have checked
  • the site visits you have made
• respond to each point in turn in a structured way giving a simple, clear, reasoned reply - avoid using technical language as the customer is unlikely to have specialist knowledge
• show empathy throughout your reply to demonstrate that you understand why the person has complained
• where there has been a mistake, be open about it and apologise - explain what you're doing to put things right, and when that will be done
• explain what you have learned from the complaint and what changes you are recommending to prevent similar complaints occurring
• where there's been no fault, explain why things had to be done the way they were, but show you appreciate why the person thought there was reason to complain
• use the standard stage 1 final paragraph, as set out on the referral form, to invite the person making the complaint to come back to you to discuss any outstanding issues

If you're unsure how to deal with the complaint and would like advice, contact the Customer Feedback Team on 1229. 

Equalities and Access to the Complaints Procedure

The council does not insist on complaints about straightforward matters being put in writing and staff should be prepared to take down details of a complaint at a contact centre or over the phone.

Customers are invited on our website and in our complaint receipt confirmation to tell us if they have any specific access needs. These would include:

• disability access
• alternative correspondence formats
• translation services

Customers are also given the opportunity to be represented by an advocate.

We want to make sure disabled people are not disadvantaged when they make a complaint. For this reason, we'll make reasonable adjustments for disabled people.

We cannot explain how we will approach every situation, but this is a general statement that confirms:

• our commitment to improving accessibility
• the basic principles we will follow to provide reasonable adjustments for disabled people
• what we'll consider in dealing with requests for reasonable adjustments

What are reasonable adjustments?

The Equality Act 2010 says we must provide reasonable adjustments for disabled people. We must make reasonable adjustments if the way we do things puts a disabled person at a big disadvantage.

Reasonable adjustments are not defined by the Act but there is a Code of Practice to help. Depending on the individual’s needs, these might include:

• using larger print, or a specific colour contrast
• giving more time than usual to provide information or comments on a complaint
• using the telephone rather than written communication
• communicating with a person through their representative or advocate
• arranging a single point of contact
• having an ‘easy read’ version of the complaint process or decisions

Asking for reasonable adjustments

We'll let people know that they can request reasonable adjustments by:

• publishing this guidance on our website
• asking people if they have a disability and if they need reasonable adjustments
• making sure staff are aware of their responsibilities
• making sure our procedures say people can ask for reasonable adjustments

Our response to requests for reasonable adjustments

We will not assume what reasonable adjustments a disabled person may need. But we will consider any request and discuss this with the person to agree on any possible changes.

Before making reasonable adjustments, we need to consider some important factors:

• what the disadvantage would be if the change was not made
• whether the change will be effective in reducing the disadvantage
• how practical it is to make the requested change
• whether it would disrupt our other activities
• the cost and availability of resources, including external help and finance

We will agree on reasonable adjustments without delay. But, in some cases, we may need to consider the request in more detail.

There may be circumstances where we decide not to meet the request. The law says we should make adjustments if they are ‘reasonable’. We'll test this against the resources available to see how easy it will be to put into place.

We'll record the reasonable adjustments requested and the decision made.

If someone is unhappy about how we looked at their request or is unhappy about the reasonable adjustments provided, they can complain.