Complaints and feedback about a council service (Gloucestershire County Council)

• Local Offer

Gloucestershire County Council welcomes all feedback.

• We aim to act quickly and efficiently to put things right if something goes wrong
• We use all customer feedback as part of our planning process to improve services to you
• We will pass compliments on to the people concerned and we will use your comments to help us improve what we do.

There are different procedures to follow for complaints about adult social care, children's social care, schools and councillors follow different procedures.  

How we deal with a complaint?

We will try to resolve things that go wrong as soon as possible.

Informal Local Resolution

Wherever possible we will try and resolve a complaint informally and at the point of service delivery. In the first instance please contact the service area you are concerned about and they will try to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible.

Stage 1 formal complaint

If we cannot resolve your complaint with informal local resolution you can make a formal complaint. We will acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days and give you the details of the team manager that will investigate your concerns. We will aim to complete this investigation within 10 working days after receiving your complaint.

We hope to resolve all complaints in this way but if you remain dissatisfied with our response you can refer your complaint to the corporate complaints team for a stage 2 review.

Stage 2 formal complaint review

For a stage 2 review you will need to contact the corporate complaints team giving clear details of which aspects of the stage 1 investigation you are dissatisfied with and the reasons for this.

The corporate complaints team will acknowledge your request within 2 working days and then respond to you within 10 working days with their decision on whether a stage 2 review is appropriate and if we proceed which senior manager will carry out the investigation.

If a stage 2 review is agreed the senior manager will review the stage 1 investigation and decide whether it addressed all aspects of your complaint. The senior manager will respond to you within 25 working days of your stage 2 review request.

If you remain dissatisfied

If you remain dissatisfied with our response you can discuss your concerns with the Local Government Ombudsman, who may decide to investigate your complaint.

For more information telephone their advice line: 0300 061 0614 website: https://www.lgo.org.uk/