Corporate complaints policy

1. Introduction

Norwich City Council’s aim is to deliver excellent services to our customers, ensuring that they meet the needs of everyone, taking account of age, gender, ethnicity, lifestyle, and disability. However, we recognise that there are times when we do not meet the expected level of service and where this is the case, it is important that we provide customers with a simple and accessible way to report this and that the complaints are resolved promptly, politely, and fairly.

Norwich City Council takes all complaints seriously and every complaint is seen as an opportunity for us to put things right, improve our services, and to provide vital intelligence on our performance, culture, and reputation.

This Policy outlines how we will resolve complaints and adhere to the expectations of the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code and Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code.

Both Ombudsmen provide a free, independent, and impartial complaints service and complainants can contact them at any time throughout the complaint process for support in helping to resolve any dispute.

As part of our regular correspondence with residents we will:

Publicise this Policy, the Housing Ombudsman Complaints Handling Code and the Housing Ombudsman Scheme in leaflets, posters, newsletters and online.
Provide contact information for both Ombudsmen.

The terms ‘you’ and ‘your’ in this Policy means the customer. The terms ‘we,’ ‘our’ and ‘us’ means Norwich City Council.

2. What is a complaint?

‘A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting a resident or group of residents.’

A complaint is when our service has failed and when you tell us you are unhappy with it, you do not have to use the word ‘complaint’ for it to be treated as such.

If you make a complaint about an issue that we do not consider a complaint under our complaints policy, we will treat it as a different type of enquiry or request instead.

3. What is a service request?

A service request is a standard request for action that can usually be resolved through normal service delivery processes. It is a way for a you to get something put right.

Service requests include things such as:

We will ensure that a resolution to a service request is not stalled or delayed if a complaint is raised.

4. What can you complain about?

You can complain about our standard of service, actions, or lack of action by Norwich City Council or anyone working for us (e.g. contractors) within 12 months of the issue happening or of you becoming aware of the issue.

You can complain to us if you think we have:

done something wrong
behaved unfairly or not politely
not carried out a service to an agreed standard
not responded to your request for service within our stated timescale
not followed our own policies, rules or procedures

There is a different process if you wish to complain about councillors. Please see Member's Code of conduct.

We may accept older complaints at the discretion of the manager responsible for the service e.g., there are exceptional reasons as to why the complaint could not be raised/corresponded to within the timeframes mentioned.

5. Exclusions

Norwich City Council values the importance of complaints to help us to get things right for our customers.

Norwich City Council will not accept a complaint if it falls within the following criteria:

Service requests (refer to section 3 “What is a service request”)
A request for information
The issue occurred more than 12 months ago, unless you are reporting it immediately upon becoming aware of the issue.
If the complaint has been accepted for investigation by the Local Government or Housing Ombudsman
If it is a complaint about a Councillor, it should be considered under the Council’s process for handling councillor complaints. See the Member’s Code of conduct.
The issue is not about the council, our contractors, or a service we provide.
Matters that have previously been considered under the complaints policy.
Legal proceedings have started. This is defined as details of the claim, such as the Claim Form and Particulars of Claim, having been filed at court.
Matters for which there is an existing right of appeal or legal remedy, these types of matters are dealt with according to the specific nature of the appeal:
- Parking ticket dispute
- Planning application appeal
- Licensing application appeal
- Housing benefit appeal
- Choice-based lettings appeal
- Council Tax reduction appeal

This complaints policy does not cover matters relating to alleged breaches of conduct by council officers or employees. Such matters are addressed through internal procedures, including but not limited to:

Staff disciplinary processes
Grievance procedures
Whistleblowing policy

If a complaint is received that relates to staff behaviour or conduct, it will be referred to the appropriate internal team for consideration under the relevant HR policy. The complainant will be informed of this referral and advised of any next steps, where appropriate.

If we do not accept your complaint, we will provide a detailed explanation setting out the reasons why the matter is not suitable for the complaints process and the rights you have to take that decision to the appropriate Ombudsman.

6. Who can make a complaint?

Anyone can make a complaint about the services we, or anyone working for us (e.g., contractors), provide.

If you prefer, you can authorise someone else to make a complaint on your behalf i.e., an ‘advocate.’ This could be a friend/relative or representative from an external organisation (such as Citizen Advice Bureau). If you authorise an advocate to act on your behalf, you must inform us in writing.

We understand that if you need to make a complaint, it is because you may be feeling frustrated or angry. However, we expect people to behave reasonably and in an appropriate way when making a complaint. It is unacceptable for anyone making a complaint to be abusive, harass our employees or communicate in an inappropriate way.

In the case of unacceptable behaviour and unreasonable persistent complaints from residents and/or their representatives when pursuing a complaint the following policy will be applied unreasonably persistent complaints/complainants.

7. How to make a complaint

Norwich City Council website Online form
Email: listening@norwich.gov.uk
Phone: 0344 980 3333
Post: Norwich City Council, City Hall, Norwich, NR2 1NH
Text Relay (for people who are hearing impaired): 18001 0344 980 3333

The Council does not currently accept complaints via social media as it is more effective for us to assist you via email or our online form. Anyone seeking to raise complaints on social media will be directed to our website. How to make a complaint.

8. Equality Act 2010

Norwich City Council will take into account your communication preferences and make reasonable adjustments in line with the Equality Act 2010. View the Council’s full equality policy.

We offer our policies in accessible formats. If you need help, we work with INTRAN, a free interpretation and translation service. They can provide interpreters or translators to anyone using our services.

9. Responsibilities

Details of who is responsible for delivering this policy.

All employees

Dealing with any dissatisfied customer where they are able to do so at the first point of contact.

If unable to resolve a customer’s issue, then escalate the complaint to the Service area manager in line with this policy and our complaints procedure.

Managers

Managing all customer stage 1 complaints in line with this policy including, acknowledging, investigating, communicating, and resolving complaints.

Overall decision for discretion to be applied to complaints including refusals to investigate.

Heads of service

Managing all customer stage 2 complaints in line with this policy including, acknowledging, investigating, communicating, and resolving complaints.

Overall decision for discretion to be applied to complaints including refusals to investigate.

Directors

Managing all Ombudsman escalations in line with this policy and as directed by the Ombudsman.

Customer experience lead

Day to day monitoring to confirm compliance with this policy. Monitoring performance indicators and management information, reporting performance to key stakeholders.

Point of contact for the Housing Ombudsman and Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman to ensure consistency of service.

10. Complaint process

Norwich City Council operates a two-stage complaints process. We will endeavour to resolve the complaint to the resident’s satisfaction at stage one, however in the event this cannot be achieved, we will progress the complaint to stage two following an escalation request from you.

A complaint response will be provided when an answer is known, not only when all actions have been completed. We will track outstanding actions and provide regular updates to you until completion. This applies to both stages of our complaints policy.

You will will be informed of your right to contact the Housing Ombudsman Service if the extension timescales exceed those stated by the Code.

You can contact the Ombudsman Service at any point throughout your complaint for advice. They will not investigate your complaint until you have completed our two-stage complaint process.

10.1 Stage 1

We will log and acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days from the date of receipt and appoint a service area manager to review it.

We will ask for clarification at the acknowledgement stage if any aspect of the complaint is unclear.

We will include a complaint definition, setting out our understanding of the complaint, the outcomes you are seeking and which aspects of the complaint we are/are not responsible for.

We will aim to give you a full response within 10 working days of the complaint being acknowldged.

If further information or clarification is needed to enable investigation of the complaint, we would contact you for this information by either phone or face to face. If you choose not to engage with us or you are unable to provide further information, we will take proactive steps to try and obtain the necessary details to complete the investigation. Where it is not possible to obtain the additional information required, we will proceed with the investigation using the information that is available.

If more time is needed to investigate, an explanation will be provided to you. If this should exceed 10 days, we will endeavour to agree this with you and we will agree suitable intervals for updates on the complaint with you. If you are not in agreement, we will provide the contact details for the relevant Ombudsman so that you can challenge our plan for the proposed timeliness of our response.

The response will address all points raised in the complaint and will confirm:

the complaint stage
the complaint definition
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 stage two if you are not satisfied with the outcome

Any additional complaints raised during the investigation will be incorporated into the stage one response if not issued or logged as a new complaint.

A complaint can be escalated to stage 2 of the process if you remain dissatisfied with the response at stage 1. You do not need to provide a reason for the escalation.

10.2 Stage 2

We will only escalate a request to stage two once it has completed stage one and once an escalation request has been received. You will have 15 working days from receipt of the stage one response in which to request an escalation.

On receipt of an escalation request, we will acknowledge your escalation within 5 working days.

We will ask for clarification at the acknowledgement stage if any aspect of the complaint is unclear.

We will include a complaint definition, setting out our understanding of the complaint, the outcomes you are seeking and which aspects of the complaint we are/are not responsible for.

We will appoint a different complaint handler to the person who considered the complaint at stage 1, and this will be the relevant Head of Service.

If we decline an escalation, we will advise in writing the reasons for this and confirm your right to approach the relevant Ombudsman about the decision. The reasons are outlined in section 5 above.

We will aim to respond to the complaint within 20 working days of acknowledging the escalation request. The response will clearly address all points raised in the complaint and will confirm:

the complaint stage
the complaint definition
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 are dissatisfied with the outcome

If more time is needed to investigate, an explanation will be provided to you. Should this exceed 20 working days, we will endeavour to agree this with you. If you are not in agreement, we will provide the contact details for the relevant Ombudsman so that you can challenge our plan for the proposed timeliness of our response.

11. Unhappy with our decision?

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint, you can contact the relevant Ombudsman, details of how to do this will be provided in your Stage 2 response. The Ombudsman will only accept complaints that have followed both stages of our complaints resolution process. Once the Ombudsman has reviewed your case, their decision is final. (Contact Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman or Housing Ombudsman).

12. Putting things right

Through our stage one and stage two responses, we will acknowledge when something has gone wrong and will set out prompt and proportionate actions to put things right. This includes:

Acknowledging the issue and providing a clear explanation of what went wrong.
Apologising sincerely for any service failure, delay, or inconvenience caused.
Explaining the impact on the complainant and how we intend to resolve any outstanding issues.
Taking corrective action, such as completing repairs, updating records, or changing decisions.
Providing financial redress, where appropriate, in line with Ombudsman guidance.
Learning from the complaint, including reviewing procedures, policies, and making service improvements.

Where a remedy is offered, this remedy will be achievable, will be fair, and will reflect the extent of any service failures and the level of detriment caused to the you as a result. What will happen and by when will be detailed and will be followed through to completion.

We will consider a range of remedies depending on the nature and impact of the issue. These may include:

A formal apology
Practical actions (e.g. repairs, redecoration, or service reinstatement)
Reimbursement of costs incurred due to service failure
Discretionary compensation for distress, inconvenience, or time and trouble
Statutory compensation (e.g. home loss or disturbance payments)

All remedies will be tailored to the circumstances of the complaint and reflect the level of detriment experienced.

You will not be required to submit a separate claim for compensation if it forms part of a complaint. Financial remedies will be considered as part of the complaint resolution process, not in addition to it.

Where compensation is awarded, we will confirm the amount, method of payment, and any conditions. If compensation is not awarded, we will explain why and advise you of the right to escalate the complaint.

We will ensure our approach to offsetting compensation against rent arrears or other debts is fair and in line with the Ombudsman’s guidance. You will be kept informed throughout the process, and any outstanding actions will be tracked and completed promptly.

13. Learning from complaints

We want to learn from complaints as this helps us improve our services. Once your complaint has been closed, we may contact you to ask for your views on the handling and outcome of your complaint.

We will conduct analysis on complaints received, identifying trends, and learning to continuously drive improvements.

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