Customer Feedback Process

Hull City Council - Corporate Customer Feedback Process

Whether we’re good, bad or indifferent, we want you to tell us where we are going wrong as well as when we are doing a good job. The Council takes feedback seriously and is committed to learning from customer feedback in order to improve its services. Hull City Council also welcomes petitions under its Petitions Scheme.

You can submit your corporate feedback to us by-

Compliments

When we get a compliment we will make sure it is passed to the right people. We will tell you when we have done this.

Suggestions

We welcome your suggestions as to how we can improve the services we deliver to you. If you complain about why we do things, not what we do, we will treat this as a suggestion and not a complaint.

When you make a suggestion we will -

  • Make sure it reaches the right people to look at it
  • Tell you when it was sent to them
  • If applicable, we will provide you with a response regarding any action we may take as a result of your suggestion

Please note that we may publish compliments and suggestions in some of our publicity. We will not publish your details if you ask us not to.

Complaints

Our definition of a complaint is

“An expression of dissatisfaction about a Council Service - whether that service is provided directly by the Council or by a contractor or partner - that calls for a response.”

When dealing with your complaint we promise we will

  • Keep you informed
  • Treat you fairly
  • Look into your case fully and properly

If this is the first time you are reporting an issue to us, we may decide to treat this as a request for service or as a concern. We may also treat your complaint as a concern, if you did not personally receive a service provided by the Council. It is at the Councils discretion, how we choose to handle your feedback.

If we decide to treat your issue as a concern, it will be responded to within 10 working days. A Concern is a one stage process with no escalation option. If you are not satisfied with the response or how we have chosen to handle your issues you will be directed to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

You should make us aware of your complaint within 12 months of the incident happening or within 12 months from when you first became aware that you had reason for complaint. If your complaint is received later than this, we may not be able to be fully investigate it. The time limit may be extended at the discretion of the complaints manager where there is a very good reason for the delay. Where late complaints cannot be accepted we will tell you and explain why. If possible we may make an alternative response to help regarding any outstanding issues. We would request that you treat the Council and its employees with dignity and respect when submitting complaints and feedback. We reserve the right to cancel any complaint that contains excessive foul and abusive language.

What happens to my complaint?

Stage 1

We will let you know we have received your complaint within 3 working days and aim to send a full response within 10 working days.

If we need more time or signed permission from the complainant if you are complaining on someone else’s behalf, we will tell you when we expect we can answer in full.

The Council is committed to providing a fair and reasonable complaints service and to making it as accessible as possible. If any complainants, through the nature or frequency of their contact with the Council, behave unreasonably and hinder the consideration of their own or other people’s cases and have significant resource issues for us, the issues and appropriate access points will be considered on a case by case basis.

When you have received our response, if you are happy or if we do not hear from you within 28 days we will close the complaint

Stage 2

If you are not happy tell us why. We assess your stage 2 complaint request against the following criteria

  • Has any new information or reasons been provided as to why a Stage 2 complaint should be accepted?
  • Has the Stage 1 response answered all matters raised in the original complaint?
  • If any fault was found at Stage 1, have we put things right and apologised if appropriate?
  • Has there been any excessive time delays which were not communicated or explained to the customer?
  • Has the Corporate Feedback process been followed correctly? e.g. sending responses on the correct letter template
  • Does the Stage 1 response meet the standards expected in terms of quality?
  • Seriousness of the matter being raised.
  • Specific request from the Service Area concerned stating they wish to progress the complaint to Stage 2.

We aim to send a full response within 20 working days. If we need more time we will write to you saying when we expect we can answer in full.

When you have our full answer, if you are happy your complaint is resolved, or if we do not hear from you within 28 days, we will close the complaint.

The Council’s complaints process is now complete

Still dissatisfied after the Council’s Complaints procedure has finished?

You can contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) to ask them to review your complaint. The LGSCO investigates most complaints about the Council

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
PO Box 4771
Coventry
CV4 OEH

On occasion there are complaints the LGSCO cannot or will not be able to investigate. In such circumstances, the LGSCO will explain clearly if this is the case and the reasons why this decision has been given.

The Ombudsman will not normally consider a complaint which has not completed the Council’s complaints procedure. You can approach either Ombudsman at any time during your complaint for help and advice.

Get in touch