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Fact Sheet - G4
Complaints about us
This fact sheet is aimed at anyone who is dissatisfied with our service and is considering making a complaint to us.
Your complaints or concerns are important to us. Where something has gone wrong, they help us to put it right and improve our service.
When considering complaints about us we try to be:
helpful and accessible;
clear, timely and thorough; and
positive about putting matters right and learning lessons for the future.
Why complain?
We are committed to responding properly to your complaint.
If we do not agree with your view of our service, we will explain the reasons why. We hope this will help you to understand matters better, even if some of your concerns still remain.
If we do agree with all or part of your complaint, we will apologise and may take other steps we consider appropriate to provide a remedy for our failure.
The Ombudsmen and their senior managers regularly review the lessons learned from considering complaints about our service so that we can improve the quality of our service. In this way, the outcome of our consideration of your complaint may directly help to improve the experience of others who use our service.
What can I complain about?
Anyone who contacts us and is dissatisfied with our service can complain.
For example, you may wish to complain about:
inaccurate advice or information that we have given you;
how we are handling the investigation of your case;
our decision on your case;
your treatment by our staff (such as rudeness or not doing what we said we would do); or
your dealings with our Corporate Services (such as Human Resources or Communications).
But you cannot use this procedure to complain about our decisions on requests for access to information made under data protection or freedom of information legislation. You can find more information about this in our Publication Scheme on our website at www.lgo.org.uk
How can I complain?
You can complain by letter, fax, email or telephone to either the staff member who you have already been in contact with or to that person's manager. If you don't know who the manager is, you can call our switchboard on 020 7217 4620.
Alternatively, you can write to the Ombudsman of the office that you have been in contact with. See details in the `Contact us' section of our website, or see the address in the accompanying correspondence.
Do I need special help to use your service?
If you have difficulty using our service (for example, if you have a disability or English is not your first language) please let us know, so that we can discuss with you what special help we may be able to give.
Is there a time limit for complaining?
You should complain to us within three months. If you do not contact us within that time, we will normally take no action on your complaint.
However, we will consider any exceptional reasons you may give us for not meeting this time limit.
What happens to my complaint about you?
We aim to acknowledge your complaint within five working days of receiving it.
We will tell you who will be responsible for responding to your complaint.
We normally expect to respond to complaints within 20 working days of receiving them. If we cannot do so, we will let you know and explain why.
We will not normally review our decision on your case if you just express general dissatisfaction with it.
What if I disagree with your response?
After you have received our decision on your complaint there is no further internal review of the same matter. Unless you raise new issues that we consider significant, we will not respond to you further.
The Local Government Ombudsmen provide a free, independent and impartial service. We consider complaints about the administrative actions of councils and some other authorities. We cannot question what a council has done simply because someone does not agree with it. If we find something has gone wrong, such as poor service, service failure, delay or bad advice and that a person has suffered as a result the Ombudsmen aim to get it put right by recommending a suitable remedy.
September 2008
LGO 11 (03/08)