Dealing with compliments and complaints

How we deal with compliments and complaints

How we deal with compliments

Your compliment will be passed to the appropriate department. If it relates to a particular member of staff, they will be informed.

How we deal with complaints

At each stage of our complaints procedure you have the right to take things further if you are still not happy with the way we dealt with your complaint.

We aim to send you a full response within ten working days. If this is not possible, we will write to you to explain this and give you a date by which a full response will be sent.

Stage one

We try to deal with the complaint informally

This is when you tell us what area of our service or actions you are unhappy with. Our aim is to deal with most of these complaints during everyday business, without taking the problem to senior members of staff. However if appropriate we may need to discuss or share your complaint including your contact details with relevant Council staff, Members and Third Parties contracted by the Council. Please try to include all elements of your concerns that you would like us to consider.

Stage two

We will treat your complaint as a formal complaint when

you are unhappy with the outcome of an informal complaint.
you feel a member of staff has behaved inappropriately; or
the matter is complicated or serious enough that it needs a senior member of staff to deal with it.
The request for a review against a stage 1 response, needs to specify the reason/grounds for the review request. For example new or additional information, not contained within the initial complaint.

All formal complaints will be investigated by a senior member of staff, generally the relevant Strategic Director/Corporate Head of Service with overall responsibility for the Service concerned.

Stage three

The final stage of the Surrey Heath Borough Council’s complaints procedure, should you remain dissatisfied following the stage 2 response. Is to request for the matter to be reviewed by an impartial Strategic Director/Corporate Head of Service independent of the service concerned. Again the reasons/grounds for the appeal, that have not previously been considered  need to be specified. 

Stage four

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

If you are still unhappy with the way we have dealt with your complaint after going through the other stages, you can take the matter to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is independent of us and investigates complaints about local authorities.

The Ombudsman's details are as follows:

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, PO Box 4771, Coventry CV4 0EH

Phone: 0300 061 0614

Visit the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman website (external link)

Contact us
Phone
Address

Contact Centre
Surrey Heath House
Knoll Road
Camberley
GU15 3HD
United Kingdom

Email
enquiries@surreyheath.gov.uk