Introduction
We are committed to providing fair and courteous, high-quality customer service and continuously improving our services.
Giving us feedback and telling us when we get things wrong, helps us to rectify our mistakes, say sorry, and put things right for next time.
We will listen to your complaints, treat them seriously and learn from them.
What this policy covers
This policy explains how to raise a complaint with us, how we will manage your complaint and how to take things further if you are still dissatisfied.
It covers all complaints made to the council as set out in the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) and the Housing Ombudsman (HO) Codes of Practice on effective complaints handling.
Privacy
We have a duty to protect your personal data and keep it secure. View our Privacy Notice.
When should I submit my complaint?
You should let us know if you have a complaint as soon as possible, but ideally within 12 months of the issue occurring or you having become aware of the issue. Waiting any longer could make the situation worse or more difficult to resolve or investigate fully.
We will consider investigating a complaint that is more than 12 months old where there are exceptional circumstances and it is appropriate to do so; the circumstances of each complaint will be considered in our decision.
Can I get someone to help me make my complaint?
If you need help to make your complaint, there is support available. We just need signed written consent from you that we can discuss your complaint with the person/organisation you have nominated to do this on your behalf. We are happy to receive your complaint from:
- Friends or family members
- Professionals (for example: social workers, solicitors, doctors)
- Councillors (elected members) or Members of Parliament
- Advocacy providers deliver a range of statutory and non-statutory advocacy services to the residents of Oxfordshire
Is it a service request or a complaint?
Effective complaint handling enables individuals to be heard and understood. The starting point for this is a shared understanding of what constitutes a service request and what constitutes a complaint.
In most cases we are able to put things right through normal service delivery processes. To do this we use the definition set out in the LGSCO and HO Codes:
A service request can be defined as:
a request that the organisation provides or improves a service, fixes a problem or reconsiders a decision.
This covers minor service dissatisfaction or failures, for example a missed bin collection is dealt with directly by the relevant service team.
If you are not sure which team to contact, please use our contact us form on our website. Alternatively, you can email our customer service team at customer.service@cherwell-dc.gov.uk.
If you are unable to email us, you can call on 01295 227001 and speak to one of our customer services colleagues who will either try to resolve the matter for you while on the phone or, if it concerns a matter that they are not familiar with, they will pass your concerns to an officer who can resolve it as soon as possible.
A complaint can be defined as:
an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation/Landlord, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual/a resident or group of individuals/residents.
What is NOT a complaint?
- Issues that have a separate or statutory appeals process. Including, but not limited to:
- Appeals against Planning, Licensing or Housing decisions
- Appeals against a fixed penalty notice (FPN) for parking or dog fouling
- Appeals against Council Tax, Business Rates or Benefits decisions that are determined by the relevant Tribunal
- Matters that you may have to go to court about. Including, but not limited to:
- Council Tax, Business Rates and Benefits recovery action
- Enforcement action
- Issues regarding the conduct of the Chief Executive (but not where they are cited because of their overall responsibilities) will be referred to the Leader of the Council
- Issues concerning the conduct of a councillor (elected member)
- Separate arrangements exist for complaints alleging councillor misconduct under the Localism Act 2011. More information about complaints of councillor misconduct.
- These complaints are handled by the Monitoring Officer and should be made using the online form, or in writing to The Monitoring Officer at Cherwell District Council, 39 Castle Quay, Banbury, OX16 5FD or email standardsmonitoringofficer@cherwell-dc.gov.uk.
- Issues that are not managed by us. Including, but not limited to:
- Roads, potholes, streetlighting and roadworks – These matters are dealt with by Oxfordshire County Council
- Parks, play areas and open spaces in Cherwell - Management and maintenance of these areas depends on their location. Please report any issues to the relevant Town or Parish council for the location
- Service requests and reports. Including, but not limited to:
- Complaints about noise nuisance and antisocial behaviour
- Reporting a missed bin or fly tipping
- Report a breach of planning control
- A request for information or report of a breach under data protection legislation (including a subject access request)
- A request for information under freedom of information legislation
- Comments about council policy decisions and consultations
Feedback and comments
If you contact us about a matter that isn’t a complaint about our service or the way it has been delivered, and it doesn’t fall within any of our other policies we will note your comments and treat this as feedback.
Feedback helps us to understand more about the services we provide and the communities we serve. Even if we cannot take immediate action to change the matter you raise, your feedback can help us design and shape our future services.
Some examples of feedback and comments
- You do not agree with one of our policies – your feedback will be passed to the relevant service to be considered during the next policy review
- You think we should provide additional non-statutory services – your feedback will be passed to the relevant service for consideration
Reasons we may refuse a complaint
If you contact us about a matter that is listed above in the section What is NOT a complaint? we will direct you to the correct council service or other relevant organisation and will not treat the matter as a complaint under this policy.
Service requests and reports will be managed as a “business as usual request”.
There are also occasions where we may refuse to investigate your complaint further, including:
- Where the matter has already been investigated under another process. For example, by statutory appeal or court process.
- Where the complaint is attempting to reopen a previous complaint that has been responded to as our final position, based on the information we have.
- Where the time limit for receiving a complaint has passed.
- Where the complaint is considered to fall under our unacceptable and unreasonable behaviour policy.
- Where the complaint is anonymous.
- Where the complaint does not contain sufficient information to investigate, and you do not provide the information required when we ask for it.
Informal Resolution
Often complaints relate to oversights or human errors that can be quickly put right by contacting the service, rather than you needing to wait for the outcome of a formal investigation. Instead, our officers can correct our mistake and/or learn from them for the future.
Some examples of matter that can be resolved informally
- You have not received a response from us, but we can see from our records that one was sent – we will resend our reply.
- We have not responded to you within our promised timescales – we will either apologise for the oversight and urgently reply to your contact or explain why it has not been possible to reply as promised and agree a new target timescale.
- You are unhappy about something our staff have said and we agree it could have been said in a better way – we will apologise and advise the member of staff and/or their manager so that they can learn from it for the future. This may include further training and development for the staff member.
- We have made a typing error when corresponding with you, for example your name is incorrectly spelled – we will apologise and seek to ensure that your information is correct in the relevant system, for all future correspondence.
Requesting an informal resolution
The quickest way to resolve the matter is to contact the service or officer that was dealing with the matter directly. Alternatively, you can email our customer service team at customer.service@cherwell-dc.gov.uk.
If you are unable to email us, you can call on 01295 227001 and speak to one of our customer services colleagues who will either try to resolve the matter for you while on the phone or, if it concerns a matter that they are not familiar with, they will pass your concerns to an officer who can resolve it as soon as possible.
If we resolve the matter face-to-face or by phone, we won’t usually follow this up with a written confirmation of your discussion unless agreed between you and the officer you are speaking with.
Timescales for informal resolution
We will try wherever possible to resolve the matter as soon as we see your correspondence or speak to you and if we can’t, we will aim to respond to you within 10 working days. If this is not possible, we will let you know when you can expect a resolution.