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Oldham Council values the importance of customer complaints, suggestions and compliments. We welcome this as valuable feedback about the services we provide and will use this information to help drive forward service improvements.
This procedure outlines the Council’s process for dealing with complaints, suggestions and compliments and sets out what you, as a customer can expect when making a submission regarding a Council Service.
Any member of the public or their representatives, staff, businesses, public and voluntary bodies can make a complaint about the Council.
A complaint is a way of telling the Council you are not happy with a service and gives us the opportunity to put things right. We record and report customer complaints in line with our legal responsibility. Complaints can include a lack of response, discourtesy, failure to meet deadlines, etc.
Suggestions provide ideas on how we can improve a service, save money or provide information to you. We welcome any suggestions on how we can improve any aspects of our services to you.
Compliments let us know when you are happy with our services and help us identify what we are doing well and how we could use this in other services.
You can make a complaint, suggestion, compliment or service request to the Council in a variety of ways:
Complete the contact form available on line;
Complete a Customer Response Form available from Civic buildings or by request;
Complete a Customer Response Form in the Council’s newspaper, the Oldhamer;
State the issue in person, in writing, over the phone, via e-mail or fax and you are not able to do this yourself, you can ask a relative, friend, neighbour or Elected Representative.
The Council aims to provide a fair, consistent and structured process to deal with complaints. We want to learn from the complaints made to us and for that purpose complaints are monitored. A summary of complaints is provided to Management Teams, the Council’s Standards Committee and to Cabinet.
Complaints are dealt with in a three-step approach:
Stage 1: these complaints are answered by front line staff, supervisors and managers. Complaints should be acknowledged within five working days and responded to within 15 working days. If the matter is complex, you will be kept informed of progress.
Stage 2: if you are unhappy with the response you received at Stage 1, you have the right to have the complaint reviewed by a Senior Officer, within the department which initially investigated the complaint. They will investigate the handling of the complaint. You should receive a response within 20 working days.
Stage 3: If you are still not satisfied with the response of the Senior Officer at Stage 2, the complaint will be referred to the Chief Executive. They will refer the matter to an independent Senior Officer within the Council to investigate. You should receive a response within 20 working days. Although if the matter is complex, this may need to be extended (after consultation with you).
If you are still unhappy with the way the Council has handled your complaint, you may contact the Local Government Ombudsman to investigate the matter.
Local Government Ombudsman
Beverley House
17 Shipton Road
York, YO30 5FZ
Tel: 01904 380200 or 0845 602 1983
Fax: 01904 380269
Website: www.lgo.gov.uk
Please note that the Ombudsman will expect you to have given the Council a chance to sort the complaint locally before getting involved.
We intend, where possible, to allow a complaint to be dealt with under this procedure. The only exceptions relate to statutory and legal limitations such as:
A Town and Country Planning Appeal against a refusal of Planning Permission;
A complaint where the customer has commenced legal proceedings or has taken court action but not cases where a customer has simply threatened to start legal proceedings against the Council;
A complaint has already been heard by a court or tribunal, including the Revenue Services Review Board appeal mechanism;
A complaint about Social Services Provision covered by statutory procedures, (i.e. Section 7B of the Local Authority Social Services Act, 1970 as amended by Section 50 of the National Health Service and Community Care Act,1990);
A school admission or exclusion appeal;
A staff complaint about a personnel matter, including appointments, dismissals, pay, pensions and discipline (but not from staff as service users);
A complaint about a penalty charge notice by the Parking Control Service (except administrative issues) and the recovery process thereafter; or
A complaint against the refusal of disabled badges for parking exemption.
In these instances, you will be informed as to the Appeal Process.
We want to deal fairly and honestly with complaints and ensure that other service users, officers or the Council as a whole do not suffer from people making vexatious complaints. The Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services) will write to aggressive complainants to inform them that their behaviour is considered to be unacceptable. Council staff will not tolerate aggressive behaviour, bad language, racist, sexist and discriminatory comments.
We understand it could be difficult for you to make a complaint if you feel it would result in a poorer service or you would feel threatened. Please be assured that we treat all complaints in the strictest confidence and that it is your right to complain. If you do not provide us with a contact name or address it will not be possible for us to get back to you with the outcome of the investigation.
We aim to handle all complaints fairly and honestly regardless of who makes the complaint. We treat all members of the community equitably and will not show bias to any particular individual or group. English is our principal language, however, we will provide information in other formats and languages if appropriate on request.
The Council’s full Complaint Procedure can be found below.