Compliments, Comments and Complaints Policy

Introduction

Eastleigh Borough Council (the Council) is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity and accessible services. The Council will be providing the best service it can.

Complaints will be viewed positively and are regarded as an opportunity to put things right. This policy and our procedures will ensure fair and proportionate resolution for customers at the earliest stage. They are designed to be easy to use and understand. They are to be used when customers want to let us know when we are doing well, to make a suggestion or comment and to raise a complaint.

Copies of this policy will be made available on request, see our contact page for how to get in touch. The policy is also published on our website. If you require a copy of this policy in a different language or a different format, for example, large print, please contact us.

This policy reflects the Ombudsman’s Dispute Resolution Principles of Being Fair, Transparent, Putting Things Right and Learning from Outcomes.

Information about compliments, comments and complaints will be reported annually to the Council’s Policy and Performance Scrutiny Panel for scrutiny and challenge and published on our website.

On occasion, in order to fully investigate your complaint, it may be necessary to seek information from a third party acting on our behalf, or a contractor acting on our behalf,  undertaking official council business. If this is the case, the particulars of this policy will still apply,  and Eastleigh Borough Council will still manage the process and provide a response.

We will comply with the Housing Ombudsman code of conduct The Complaint Handling Code | Housing Ombudsman Service, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s Complaint Handing Code The Complaint Handling Code | Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, the Property Redress Scheme Property Redress Scheme | Consumers and the New Home Quality Code New Home Quality Code | New Homes Ombudsman Service

Eastleigh Borough Council are a Registered Developer with the New Homes Quality Board.

eastbrooke homes® is a marketing name for specific housing sales and services from Eastleigh Borough Council.

We understand that customers may wish to share their experiences of using our services, give feedback and/or want to tell us when they think we are doing something particularly well. Visit our website to give a compliment.

A service request is a request that Eastleigh Borough Council provides or improves a service, fixes a problem when reported or reconsiders a decision. Service requests are typically raised when you first contact the Council with your query or concern and in most cases will resolve your concern as well as normally being a quicker process. Examples of service requests could be:

  • A request to collect a missed bin
  • A request for a new repair to be completed
  • Reporting a repair
  • Snagging report

Requests for service will be recorded, monitored and reviewed to ensure they are actioned appropriately.

Should a resident express dissatisfaction about our approach to resolving their service request or the outcome, they will be given the opportunity to make a complaint. However, a complaint is not dependent on a service request being raised first and there may be circumstances where it is appropriate to raise a complaint in the first instance.

Raising a complaint will not prevent, stall or impact any actions needed to resolve the issues raised in the service request.

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of or failure to deliver a Council service or product, (whether that service is provided directly by the Council or by a contractor or partner), actions or lack of action by the organisation, not adhering to the relevant codes of practice, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual or group of individuals.

Complainants do not have to use the word “complaint” for their concerns to be treated as such.

This policy applies to:

  • Residents and customers of Eastleigh Borough Council.
  • Home buyers and Private Rented Sector customers
  • Social housing tenants of Eastleigh Borough Council and its associated services.
  • Private rented sector housing tenants of Aspect (Eastleigh) Limited.

This policy and our procedures will cover complaints about any form of service dissatisfaction or maladministration that cannot be resolved by a service request, if you consider we have failed:

  • to treat you with courtesy or respect
  • to provide a service to which you are entitled
  • to provide information/correct information
  • to follow procedures
  • in our standard of work
  • to take the appropriate actions
  • to provide accurate advice or information, including our website content or accessibility to our website
  • to deliver without necessary or reasonable delays
  • to adhere to our rules and regulations
  • to treat you fairly and promptly
  • in the behaviour of our staff
  • in other matters, such as equality issues causing unfairness, barriers or accessibility to services

Requests for service are not covered under this policy, although it may become a complaint if we fail to meet our service standards after receiving the initial request/enquiry.

Certain types of issues or ways of reporting things fall outside of our Complaints process because there are more appropriate and quicker procedures in place to deal with them, such as service requests. Some examples of these are:

Should a complaint not be accepted we will ensure the resident or customer receives an explanation, clearly setting out the reasons why the matter is not suitable for our complaints process. We will inform residents and customers of their right to take this decision to the relevant Ombudsman.

Where something has gone wrong, we will acknowledge this and set out the actions we have already taken, or intend to take, to put things right. These can include:

  • Apologising
  • Acknowledging where things have gone wrong
  • Providing an explanation, assistance or reasons
  • Taking action if there has been delay
  • Reconsidering or changing a decision
  • Amending a record or adding a correction or addendum
  • Providing a financial remedy
  • Changing policies, procedures or practices

Any remedy offered will reflect the impact on you as a result of any fault identified.

The remedy offer will clearly set out what will happen and by when, in agreement with you where appropriate. Any remedy proposed will be followed through to completion.

If a proposed remedy cannot be delivered, you will be informed of the reasons for this, provided with details of any alternative remedy and reminded of your right to complain to the Ombudsman,

We will take account of the good practice guides issued by the relevant Ombudsman when deciding on appropriate remedies.

The following matters will not normally be considered as a complaint:

  • Where a court has made, is making or is about to make a determination on the specifics of a complaint or matters that are subject to litigation and/or have already been before a court/tribunal.
  • Matters for which statutory appeal bodies or tribunals have been established - e.g., parking fines and matters that have been through the judicial review process.
  • Complaints where investigation(s) into the subject matter have previously taken place and have been concluded.
  • Issues raised via surveys and customer feedback requests.
  • Complaints from one resident about another. If appropriate, these will be dealt with through our housing anti-social behaviour policy, but a complaint will be accepted should a resident be dissatisfied with how their case was handled.
  • Matters already being dealt with by an Ombudsman service.
  • Issues dealt with by another authority, such as Hampshire County Council.
  • Liability or personal injury claims.
  • A request for an appeal or review of a statutory decision.
  • Complaints received more than 12 months after the event/concern/issue took place, or after 12 months of becoming aware of the event/concern/issue. For property sales24 months of legal completion. Discretion may be applied in exceptional circumstances for complaints received outside of these timescales and will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. An example of an exceptional circumstance would be prolonged hospitalisation.

Anonymous complaints will not normally be investigated. Complaints relating to vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly and people with learning disabilities or mental illnesses will be considered and investigated if there are safeguarding issues.

We accept complaints from:

  • Residents and customers of Eastleigh Borough Council
  • Customers of eastbrooke homes
  • Tenants of Aspect (Eastleigh) Ltd
  • Anyone visiting or working in the Borough
  • Anyone acting on behalf of an individual or group of individuals, provided they have written consent to do so, including MPs, Councillors, Advice Agencies and other advocacy groups. Any complaints received by a third party or representative will be handled in line with this policy.

You can raise a comment, compliment or complaint:

  • On-line via your My Eastleigh account
  • On-line via your My Eastbrooke account
  • By email [email protected]
  • In writing to Eastleigh Borough Council, Eastleigh House, Upper Market Street, Eastleigh SO50 9YN
  • By telephone 02380 688 000
  • In person to an officer of the council

Before the complaint process begins, we will establish/discuss with you if your concern can be resolved with a Service Request. This is sometimes known as Local Resolution. In many cases, concerns can be resolved at first point of contact and are often quicker than following the complaint process.

If you have been unable to resolve your concern with a service request, you can follow the complaints process as set out below.

For Council services and all rental tenant complaints, our complaints procedure has two stages. When you raise a complaint at either stage, you will be given a case reference number. If you have purchased your home from us and your complaint is about the sale process or the property, there is one stage. You will also receive a case reference number.

All timescales quoted are from the time the complaint is received, or from the date a response/update is sent.

Stage One – Council Services and Rental Tenants:

  • You will be given a case reference number when you make a complaint.
  • We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days. We will set out our understanding of the complaint and the outcomes you are seeking, as well as the parts we are and aren’t responsible for.
  • We will inform you which ombudsman is responsible for reviewing and handling the matters raised.
  • If we are unsure about any aspect of the complaint, we will ask you for clarification.
  • Your complaint will be investigated and responded to in writing within ten working days (after acknowledgement), so not normally longer than 15 working days from when your complaint is received.
  • We will address all points raised in your complaint and provide clear reasons for any decisions, referring to the relevant policy, law and good practice where appropriate.
  • Should we need an extension to this timescale due to the complexity of the complaint, we will inform you of this as soon as possible. You will be provided with an explanation for the delay, the date you will receive a response (which will usually be no more than a further 10 working days) and contact details for the relevant Ombudsman. We will provide updates during the process, and we will agree the frequency and timing of these with you when we make you aware of the extension.
  • In exceptional circumstances it may be necessary to extend the timescales beyond the additional 10 working days. If this happens, we will inform you as soon as we become aware. We will set out the reasons for the additional delay and provide an expected timescale for completion. We will provide updates during the process, and we will agree the frequency and timing of these with you when we make you aware of the additional extension.
  • If you raise any additional complaints during the investigation, these will be incorporated into the stage one response if they are relevant, and the stage one response has not been issued. Where the stage one response has been issued, or it would unreasonably delay the response, the complaint will be logged as a new complaint at stage 1 of the process.
  • A response to your complaint will be sent when it is known. Any required corrective actions will not delay the complaint response.
  • If there are outstanding actions when the complaint is closed, updates will be sent to you during the process. If actions are likely to take some time, we will specify the frequency of contact/update when we make you aware of the actions required.
  • If any new and unrelated issues are raised after a response has been sent at this stage, it will be treated as a new complaint and logged at stage one of the process.

Stage Two – Council Services and Rental Tenants:

  • Should you feel that your complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction at stage one, you can request it to be progressed to stage two. You do not have to specify a reason for requesting your complaint to be escalated to stage two.
  • Once received, we may contact you to establish further information on which elements of the complaint you remain unsatisfied about.
  • You will be given a case reference number when you submit your complaint.
  • You will receive an acknowledgement within five working days of your escalation request being received. We will set out our understanding of the complaint and the outcomes you are seeking, as well as the parts we are and aren’t responsible for.
  • If we are unsure about any aspect of the complaint, we will ask you for clarification.
  • Your complaint will be investigated by a different council officer to stage one, and you will receive a final written response within 20 working days of your stage two complaint being acknowledged, so not normally longer than 25 working days from when your stage two complaint was received. We will address all points raised in your complaint and provide clear reasons for any decisions, referring to the relevant policy, law and good practice where appropriate.
  • Should we need an extension to this timescale due to the complexity of the complaint, we will inform you of this as soon as possible. You will be provided with an explanation for the delay, the date you will receive a response (which will be no more than a further 20 working days) and contact details for the relevant Ombudsman. We will provide updates during the process, and we will agree the frequency and timing of these with you when we make you aware of the extension.
  • In exceptional circumstances it may be necessary to extend the timescales beyond the additional 20 working days. If this happens, we will inform you as soon as we become aware. We will set out the reasons for the additional delay and provide an expected timescale for completion. We will provide updates during the process, and we will agree the frequency and timing of these with you when we make you aware of the additional extension.
  • We will only escalate a complaint to stage two once it has completed stage one and at the request of the customer.
  • If you raise any additional complaints during the investigation, these will be incorporated into the stage two response if they are relevant, and the stage two response has not been issued. Where the stage two response has been issued, or it would unreasonably delay the response, the complaint will be logged as a new complaint at stage one of the process. A response to your complaint will be sent when it is known. Any required corrective actions will not delay the complaint response.
  • If there are outstanding actions when the complaint is closed, updates will be sent to you during the process. If actions are likely to take some time, we will specify the frequency of contact/update when we make you aware of the actions required.
  • If any new and unrelated issues are raised after a response has been sent at this stage, it will be treated as a new complaint and logged at stage one of the process.

Homes sales and purchased properties only:

We will acknowledge all complaints within five calendar days of the complaint initiation date. The complaint initiation date (CID) is the first working day after a complaint is received. Thus, if a complaint is received on a Monday, the CID is the following Tuesday. If a complaint is received on a Saturday, the CID will be the following Monday (excluding public holidays).

We will investigate your concerns and send a response which details our proposed pathway to resolution within ten calendar days of the complaint initiation date. This will explain how we plan to resolve the issue, along with the steps and anticipated timescales.

We will send a full complaint assessment response no later than thirty calendar days. If the complaint has been resolved, this will confirm what steps were taken. If a solution is still underway, the response will detail what has caused the delay, and an anticipated date for resolution.

In the unlikely event that the complaint remains unresolved after 56 calendar days of the complaint initiation date, we will send a further response to provide information on what has caused the delay, what are the next steps and the anticipated date for resolution. We will also keep you updated no less than every thirty days until the matter is resolved.

When our investigations and response are complete, we will close the complaint. Our final response will include the following:

  • The complaint stage (if applicable)
  • Our understanding of the complaint
  • The decision on the complaint
  • The reasons for any decisions made
  • The details of any remedy offered to put things right
  • Details of any outstanding actions
  • Details of how to escalate the matter to the Ombudsman if you remain dissatisfied

When a complaint has gone through the Council’s complaints procedure and has been closed, we will not enter into further correspondence about the complaint, and any further correspondence received on the same subject will be read and placed on file but will receive no acknowledgement or response.

If you remain dissatisfied with our final response, you may be able to escalate to an ombudsman. Below are the Ombudsman relevant to this policy.

  • The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman – for complaints relating to Council services or members of staff
  • The Housing Ombudsman – for complaints relating to Social Housing
  • The Property Redress Scheme – for complaints relating to Private Rental Services
  • The New Homes Ombudsman Service – for complaints relating to the Property Sales process or the property.

All Ombudsman will usually expect you to have taken your complaint through all stages of our complaints procedure before they accept a case for investigation. However, you may contact them at any point before or during the process to seek advice. For Council Services and Rental Properties (all tenures), in accordance with the Ombudsman’s guidance, if a complaint does not fall under a statutory service or process, there may be occasions when our stage one response is our final response. If this occurs, we will inform you of your rights and direct you to the relevant Ombudsman.

For property sales, it is within the New Homes Ombudsman Service’s discretion to decide if or when to accept a complaint, in accordance with the scheme rules. The New Homes Ombudsman Service can accept complaints that have arisen within two years of legal completion. After this, disputes within the structural warranty period may be referred to the New Homes Warranty Provider, NHBC, if relevant. Using our complaints process, the Independent Dispute Resolution Scheme or New Homes Ombudsman Service does not affect your normal legal rights.

If you decide to take your complaint to an Ombudsman due to a delay, they will assess whether they believe the reasons for the delay are reasonable and whether to take your complaint forward.

You can contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman by:

  • Call 0300 061 0614 to speak with a complaint advisor
  • Text "call back" to 07624 811595 to receive a call from a complaint advisor
  • Write to PO Box 4771, Coventry, CV4 0EH

You can contact the Housing Ombudsman by:

You can contact the Property Redress Scheme by:

You can contact the New Homes Ombudsman Service by:

More information about the Ombudsman services can be found by selecting one of the images below.

                        

We are committed to positively promoting equality of opportunity and have due regard to our duties under the Equality Act 2010. We seek to do this via our Equalities Policy and Action Plan. If required, during the complaints process, we will make reasonable adjustments where possible, and a record of these adjustments will be kept.

In a small number of cases customers sometimes pursue their complaints in a way that can impede the investigation of their complaint, and their behaviour can become unacceptable, for example, abusive, offensive and threatening or unreasonably persistent. This behaviour is unacceptable and inhibits our staff’s ability to do their work and provide services to others. In these cases, we may decide to take action to restrict the contact that person has with the Council. Any such action will be taken in accordance with our Customer Behaviour Policy.

We keep all information confidential, particularly names and addresses that can identify a complainant, site or complaint. However, we may be obliged to disclose some information under certain statutory provisions. Please view our Privacy Policy and our Retention and Disposal Schedule for more information.

We are committed to protecting and respecting the privacy of personal data. As a registered Data Controller (Reg. no. Z7118863) it complies with the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 (GDPR).

More information on how the Council collects, uses and keeps your personal information, and how it protects privacy can be found in our Record of Processing Activity (ROPA).

This corporate privacy notice provides general information about the council’s personal data processing activities overall. As the range of services the council provides is so varied, it has also produced individual privacy notices for each service area, to explain specifically how data will be used within each service.