Feedback

The City aims to be helpful, efficient and to deliver your services right first time. However, we know there are times you may not be happy or you may want to make a suggestion about how we can improve. We want to correct our mistakes quickly and always seek to enhance our service delivery. As part of this your feedback - comments, complaints and suggestions - are important to us.

A comment or suggestion is… We define a comment or suggestion as a matter which proposes an improvement / change to existing services to ensure more successful delivery, or as a request for a service that is made for the first time. All comments and suggestions will be used as part of planning the improvement and delivery of your services. We will not respond to comments and suggestions unless we have your contact details and need to clarify something with you.

A complaint is… We define a complaint as “A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction by the public, however made, about the conduct, standard of service, actions or lack of action by the City of London Corporation or its staff” and we deal with complaints through a simple three-stage procedure.

Please note that this procedure is not intended for cases where the City of London has taken a decision in a proper manner but with which you disagree or where you wish to complain about other persons or organisations - unless they are working for the City of London. We will also not respond to or pursue feedback that is identified as frivolous or vexatious.

Making a concise complaint To ensure the quickest response you will need to email the relevant department’s complaint team directly. If you cannot find details for the relevant department you can contact the general complaints team who will be able to assist.  To ensure complaints are quickly identified, we would be grateful if you could state Complaint in the subject line. 

If we don't have all the information we need to deal with a complaint, we will have to contact you in order to request it. This will add to the overall time taken to resolve your complaint. Consequently, we recommend that before you make a complaint, you consider what needs to be included. Be specific and focus on the issue - what, why, when, where, who - and briefly explain all the relevant circumstances surrounding your complaint.

Stage one The best people to deal with a complaint are those who provide the service - please contact them first (details below). They will try to sort out the problem as quickly as possible - mistakes and misunderstandings can often be sorted out on the spot. Once you have made your complaint you can expect a full response within 10 working days. If we aren't able to investigate your complaint in full within this time, we will contact you to advise you of the delay and to let you know when you can expect a final response.

Stage two If you are not happy with the outcome from stage one, you can take the matter further. Please respond to the relevant department and they will arrange a review of your complaint by the Chief Officer of the department, or a nominated senior officer. Again, you can expect a full response within 10 working days, or we will contact you to advise you of the delay and to let you know when you can expect a final response.

Stage three If you are still unhappy after the stage two investigation, you can contact the general complaints team. Our final review and response will be undertaken by the Town Clerk & Chief Executive, or a senior officer acting on his/her behalf and will be a completely independent investigation of stages one and two of your complaint. In your letter you should outline why you do not feel the responses at stages one and two were satisfactory and the remedial action you wish the City of London to take. As for the previous stages you can expect a full response within 10 working days, or we will contact you to advise of the delay and to let you know when you can expect a full response.

If the stage three review doesn't resolve your complaint and you want to take it further you will need to contact the Local Government Ombudsman.

If after any stage you don't get back to us within four weeks of our response to you we will consider that you have been satisfied with the response you have received.

Other procedures

We do not use the procedure set out above to deal with all complaints. There are special arrangements and a different form for complaints about Adult Social Care services and Family and Young People's services and there is also a separate procedure for complaints about schools. Please contact the school directly if you have a complaint. We would not normally deal with a complaint under our process if it is being dealt with or was previously dealt with by legal proceedings. In addition, some complaints have their own appeals procedures - for example, disputes over parking tickets and planning applications. We will be able to advise you on the correct procedure or appeals process.

Complaints about Members

There is a separate complaints procedure in relation to Members.

The Local Government Ombudsman provides an independent service which will investigate any sort of complaint about the authority. You can complain to the Ombudsman at any time, but he will usually ask the Council to investigate the matter first if it has not already gone through our complaints procedure. A leaflet giving advice on how to complain can be downloaded from the Ombudsman's website or obtained by contacting the office (see below).

You can email or write to the Ombudsman or ring them direct.

Local Government Ombudsman

The Local Government Ombudsman PO Box 4771 Coventry CV4 0EH

Helpline 0300 061 0614 The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Website

Where else can you get help?

You may wish to ask for help at any stage from your local Ward Member or MP. The Citizens Advice Bureau has staff who can help you make the complaint. Visit the Citizens Advice Bureau website for more information.