Corporate complaints policy

This policy applies to all departments within Norfolk County Council. However, some activities in Adult Social Care, Children's Services, Education and the Fire Service are covered by separate statutory procedures that take precedence over this policy.

Schools, including academies and free schools, are required to have their own complaints procedures.

Details of statutory procedures can be found on the Norfolk County Council website.

Objectives

The objectives of our Corporate Complaints Policy are to:

Provide a framework which is simple for members of the public to use and is equally accessible to all.
Deal with problems as close to their source and as quickly as possible.
Give members of the public confidence that their comments are listened to and their complaints are being dealt with effectively.
Ensure action is taken to solve problems and generate a positive attitude to feedback.
Learn from feedback and prevent the recurrence of problems.
Generate a consistent approach to complaints throughout the County Council.
Protect the reputation and resources of the County Council.
Ensure that compliments are shared with the officers concerned to recognise their contribution.

Approach

The County Council's aim is to resolve the majority of problems as close to their source as possible. Therefore, the relevant department aims to seek early resolution where possible, when concerns are first raised.

If after speaking with an officer from the relevant department within County Council about a concern, or the member of the public doesn't feel it is an option and wishes to take the concerns further, complaints can be considered following our Corporate Complaints process.

Sometimes further information may be needed to fully understand a complaint, and the complaints case worker will work with the complainant to agree a clear summary of the complaint, to ensure that the correct points are answered for the complainant.

Compliments and other comments will also be referred to the officer(s) responsible for the areas concerned.

Complaints and correspondence received direct to the Chief Executive Officer or Executive Directors will be recorded by their relevant executive support team and in most cases forwarded to the Complaints team for action.

The Complaints team will send an acknowledgment, unless it is clear this has already been sent. They will then conduct an investigation, including contacting departments for information.

A complaint should normally be made within one year of the service being received. This time limit may be extended at the discretion of the Complaints Service Manager if the complainant has good reasons for not making the complaint within the time limit; and not notwithstanding the delay, it is still possible to investigate the complaint effectively and fairly.

Statutory and other procedures

Complaints for which statutory procedures exist under the Children Act, the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009, Fire and Rescue Service and Education Acts will be handled separately under those procedures.

When appropriate, mediation will be offered as an alternative dispute resolution process. When mediation is agreed, the complaints process will be put on hold and will only resume in the event that the mediation process does not resolve matters.

When a complaint has been fully investigated, the complainant will be advised that they can refer their complaint to the Local Government and Social care Ombudsman (LGSCO) if they remain dissatisfied with the outcome.

The complaints case worker also has the discretion to decide whether a complaint falls within the scope of this complaints policy and procedure and may decide that a concern / complaint or representation can best be dealt with using a different route, such as mediation or a restorative meeting.

Further, the County Council will not consider, or further consider complaints / representations under this policy and corporate complaints procedures where:

Complaints fall within the scope of legal processes, other procedures, appeals or fault reporting systems. These will be processed using those processes and procedures.
A concern / complaint or representation that can best be dealt with using a different route, i.e. appeals, and other departmental related processes.
Complainants have stated either orally or in writing to the County Council that they are taking, or intend to take proceedings in any court or tribunal in regard to any issue connected with the complaint
The County Council has been notified that any person is conducting an investigation in contemplation of criminal proceedings in regard to any issue connected with the complaint, or that criminal proceedings are pending in regard to any issue connected with the complaint
The complainant is a professional raising a complaint in their professional capacity.
The complainant is an employee or former employee who wishes to raise issues in relation to their employment.

However, the County Council will consider complaints from members of the public who are seeking employment with the County Council. In these circumstances, where the County Council decides that consideration or further consideration of the complaint / representation would prejudice the conduct of any proceedings or investigation, the complaints case worker will give notice in writing to the complainant explaining the reasons for the decision and specify how the matter could be dealt with in the future, if appropriate.

Eligibility

Complaints will be accepted by email, telephone, writing, or in person and the following people are eligible to complain:

Any individual or group who claims to have been negatively impacted as a result of the actions of Norfolk County Council, this includes children, and those who are raising issues which relate to matters of significant public interest.

The County Council will accept "representatives / advocates / friends" to assist the complainant in respect of the complaints process.

Where required, Norfolk County Council commission the National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS) to provide independent advocacy for complaints from children and young people.The representative / advocate / friend must act in the best interest of the complainant and respect the confidentiality of the complaints process including information provided under the process. The representative / advocate / friend will be asked to agree in writing to this effect.

The County Council reserves the right not to accept a representative / advocate / friend if in its opinion the representative / advocate / friend:

will not act or is not acting in the best interests of the complainant and/ or
will not agree to respect or is not respecting the confidentiality of the complaints process including the information provided under the process.

In these circumstances an alternative representative / advocate will be offered to the complainant by the County Council.

Unreasonable behaviour and persistent complaints

The County Council reserve the right not to consider complaints that:

Are malicious (that is, they are instituted without sufficient grounds and serving only to cause annoyance).
Use obscenities, racist or homophobic language.
Contain personally offensive remarks about members of staff.
Are repeatedly submitted with only minor differences after we have fully addressed the complaint.

Complaints of this nature or in the event complainants are pursuing complaints in unreasonable ways, the Unreasonable and Vexatious Behaviour Policy can be applied.

Confidentiality

Complaints made to the County Council will be treated in confidence.

The Complaints team will only pass the details of the complaint to those County Council staff members and partner organisations who need to know in order to investigate it.

Confidentiality cannot be guaranteed where a vulnerable person is considered to be at risk and safeguarding procedures apply. In these circumstances, the County Council may have to share the information with other departments within the Council or other external agencies.

Customers who make their complaints public in the media may forfeit their right to anonymity and the right to confidentiality.

Service Requests

Requests to receive a specific service, assistance, information, or improvements to a service or resolution to a problem, will be considered as a service request. In these cases, the relevant service area will take appropriate action in response.

Complaint Stages and Timescales

Acknowledgments will be provided by phone, letter, email or automated message when completing the online web form. Acknowledgements to complaints will be provided as within 5 working days from receipt of the complaint, in writing (letter or email), unless this format is not appropriate for the complainant.

Stage 1 complaints are considered with an open definition of: " when members of the public do not feel they have received a satisfactory response to an expression of dissatisfaction about a service provided by the County Council and/or when they wish to progress this through the corporate complaint procedure".

It should be possible for most complaints to be resolved at this level.

We aim to provide full response within 15 working days from the date the complaint was received. In some cases, it is not always possible to meet this timescale. In such cases, an extension may be applied, and complainants will be kept informed.

In some circumstances, it is necessary for the complaints case worker to seek further clarification from the complainant the 15 working days timescale for a response will start once the summary of the matters to be investigated has been defined and agreed with the complainant. The timescale for responding may be affected should further complaints be raised after this time or alternatively these may be considered as a new complaint.

Stage 2 Complaints will be interpreted: "as any matter that has not been resolved to the customer's satisfaction at Stage 1". Requests to escalate complaints to stage 2 of the procedure should be made within 6 months of receiving the stage 1 response.

While it is not a requirement, it is helpful for complainants to tell us why they are unhappy with the stage 1 response and what outcomes they are seeking from a stage 2.

Any new concerns that were not previously considered at stage 1, may not form part of the stage 2 investigation and may be considered as a new stage 1 complaint.

A senior manager within the department who has not previously been involved in the complaint at stage 1, will consider the complaint and determine any outcomes in coordination with the complaints case worker.

In some circumstances an investigator from another County Council team or department, or an external investigator, may be appointed to conduct the investigation.

At stage 2, we aim to provide a response within 25 working days from the date the stage 2 complaint was received. In some cases, it is not always possible to meet this timescale. In such cases, an extension may be applied, and complainants will be kept informed.

Statutory complaints processes may have a different timescale, but generally the above standard should be considered a minimum.

In circumstances where specific concerns regarding standards of care are raised by a third party, these will be investigated under the Adult Social Care Complaints Process.

Where restrictions on information sharing apply, meaning a complainant response is not possible, the Compliments and Complaints Team will ensure the concerns are shared with the appropriate service for further consideration.

Should the Council consider the concerns raised meet the criteria for investigation under Safeguarding Adults Procedures, the Compliments and Complaints Team will however provide an explanation of the safeguarding process, how the complainant may be involved in the process, the likely timescale for completion and an update to be provided.

Outcomes from complaints

If failure is identified as a result of investigating a complaint, there are different ways to resolve it based on the type of service failure. Solutions may include:

Acknowledging that things have gone wrong, apologising and explaining why
Acting where there has been a delay
Reviewing a policy or procedure
As far as possible, restoring all matters to a position they would have been, had things not gone wrong.

Independent review

When the County Council has fully investigated a complaint, the complainant will be advised that they can refer their complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

If you have complained to a care provider or the Council and you are unhappy with their response, you can make a complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. More information about this service can be found on the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman website.

If your complaint relates to poor care that you have seen or experienced, your complaint will be investigated under the statutory Adult Social Care Complaints procedure which can be found on our website. You should also tell the Care Quality Commission (CQC) who oversee all regulated adult care services. They are not able to take forward complaints on your behalf, but sharing information about poor care helps them to protect others from going through the same experience. More information about this service can be found on the CQC website.

If you wish to make a complaint about any immigration advice service you receive from the Council, you also have the right to complain to:

The Office of the Immigration Service Commissioner
5th Floor
21 Bloomsbury Street
London
WC1B 3HF

The Office of the Immigration Service Commissioner (OISC) is a public body, which regulates immigration advice and services within the United Kingdom. The OISC may review your file as part of their regulatory role.

Reports

Reports containing information about the complaints received and service improvements will be provided to the individual customer-facing departments.

In addition, an annual report will be provided through the Council's governance arrangements, analysing the Council's complaint handling performance. Details will be published on the Council's website.

Responsibility for the procedures

Overall responsibility for the Complaints Policy will lie with the Director of Legal Services and Monitoring Officer under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.

The Compliments and Complaints Team will take responsibility for the application of all aspects of the policy at departmental and organisational level.

A complaints case worker will be assigned to all complaints entering the complaints process, providing an objective liaison role between the complainant and the organisation.

The Complaints Service Manager will act as overall coordinator for complaints handling and service recovery and will be the designated link officer with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.