Dear Sir or Madam,

I am requesting the total number of complaints made to Camden
Council since 2003, concerning dis-satisfaction with how Camden
Council Complaints Officers have dealt with initial complaints.

Yours faithfully,

T. Morgan

Dear Mr Morgan

Please find attached our acknowledgement of your request.

Yours sincerely

James Sneddon

Corporate Records Manager

Records management & information access

Organisation development

London Borough of Camden
Phone: 020 7974 2269

Fax: 020 7974 6192

This e-mail may contain information which is confidential, legally privileged and/or copyright protected. This e-mail is intended for the addressee only. If you receive this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from your computer

Dear T Morgan

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request to Camden (RFI/03353).

Please find attached your acknowledgment letter.

Please contact me if you have any problems opening the attachments.

Judy Gough

Records and Information Officer

Organisation Development

Telephone: 020 7974 4987

Fax: 020 7974 6192

[email address]

London Borough of Camden

3-5 Cressy Road

London NW3 2ND

This e-mail may contain information which is confidential, legally privileged and/or copyright protected. This e-mail is intended for the addressee only. If you receive this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from your computer

Dear Tracey Morgan

I refer to your FOI enquiry

Strictly the information you ask would not be kept in relation to the
specific way you have asked your question
This is because complaints officers do not 'deal' with initial
complaints in the way you appear to suggest. The Stage 1 (initial)
complaints would only be logged on to the database by a complaint
officer - the investigation would be for an appropriate manager in the
service department and so dissatisfaction with the complaint officer who
simply registered the complaint would not arise (or be recorded) and it
would be dissatisfaction with the way the manager dealt with the initial
complaint not the complaint officer that you might find more useful

Bearing that in mind, would you be able to refine your request by what
you take to be 'disatisfaction'? If by that you mean how many customers
were dissatisfied with the outcome of their initial complaint and went
on appeal to stage 2 or higher, the information would be fairly readily
available in the Council's Annual Reports on its complaint procedures
for 2003/2004 onwards. Otherwise if you mean a more limited question
about how the Stage 1 officer handled the complaint rather than the
outcome, that could be covered by the limited amount of customer
feedback received by way of people returning a satisfaction survey form
each year (only about 15% of people return the forms). What information
is readily available there is also summarised in the Annual Reports
together with the results of other surveys such as the Camden Annual
residents survey. Would you like me to send you a copy of the Annual
reports for 2003 onwards by 'hard copy' to your home address and then
you could get back to me if you wanted any further information?

Yours sincerely

Peter Swingler
Head of Central Complaints Unit
LB of Camden
29/7/08

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Swingler,

Thank you for your response.

What I am requesting are complaints made about how investigating
officers handled the complaints that were passed onto them from
complaints officers.

Obviously if complaints are not resolved to the satisfaction of the
complainant at stage one they can progress to stage two or go
straight onto you. As you know complaints should ideally be
resolved at stage one.

What I am requesting is not complaints about the outcome of stage
one complaints, but complaints about dis-satisfaction with how
investigating officers were perceived as showing bias, denying a
problem existed, giving misleading information or denying
responsiblity.

Yours sincerely,

Tracy Morgan

Dear Mr Swingler,

Thank you for your response.

You will be aware that complaints made to the council about
services or about voluntary groups who provide serices from public
funding the council gives them, should ideally be resolved at stage
one. I understand that your central unit has a 10% target for
receiving complaints which should mean that 90% of all complaints
to be dealt with to the complainants satisfaction at stage 1 and
two.

The information I am after is how many complaints have been made
(and recorded) since 2003 to camden council regarding how an inital
complaint was investigated by the investigating officer.

By this I mean that the complaintaint had felt that the
investigating officer had not investigated the complaint fairly or
independently - regardless of the outcome.

My request also includes coomplaints made regarding complaint
officers not allowing a complaint, and complaints officers giving
out incorrect information to the complainaint.

Yours sincerely, Tracy Morgan

Dear T Morgan

Please find attached the reply to your Freedom of Information request to
Camden RFI/03353.

Please contact me if you have any difficulties in opening the
attachment.

Judy Gough

Records and Information Officer

Organisation Development

Telephone: 020 7974 4987

Fax: 020 7974 6192

[email address]

London Borough of Camden

3-5 Cressy Road

London NW3 2ND

This e-mail may contain information which is confidential, legally privileged and/or copyright protected. This e-mail is intended for the addressee only. If you receive this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from your computer

Dear Gough Judy,

Thank you for the information supplied.

Yours sincerely,

Tracy Morgan