Complaints

Overview

We are here to do our best for you, our customers, and we care deeply about serving you well.

That's why we want to hear from you when things go wrong and you aren't happy with the service we've given. We want to know so that we can try to put things right. We also want to learn from our mistakes so that we don't make those same mistakes again.

So if you are unhappy with any aspects of the Council's services we want you to tell us.

For example if:

  • you are not satisfied with the quality of services we provide
  • you have a complaint about a Council employee
  • you feel we have applied a Council policy inconsistently or unfairly

How to complain

You can make your complaint:

You can also seek help from our Customer Advocates Service to make your complaint. You can contact them on 0191 424 6028 or by emailing complaints@southtyneside.gov.uk.

Make a complaint online

You can make a complaint online:

Leave a complaint

How we will deal with your complaint

Stage 1

We want to try to deal with your complaint informally if we can. You should contact the relevant service team or ask our Customer Advocates Team to do this for you. The service manager or a senior colleague will look into the problem and let you know within 10 working days how they may be able to help.

Our focus at Stage 1 is on putting things right; you wouldn't usually receive a written response at this stage unless you ask for one. If you are still unhappy, you can ask for a formal investigation of your complaint under Stage 2 of the complaints procedure. You should do this within 28 days of receiving your response. It would be helpful to set out why you are unhappy and any issues you feel we have failed to address.

Stage 2

Your complaint will be passed to a senior manager to carry out an investigation. That person will not have had any prior involvement in investigating your complaint.

We'll send you a letter to acknowledge that your complaint has moved to Stage 2 and then send you a full response. The target response time is 15 working days. If more time is needed to complete the investigation of your complaint we'll still contact you within the 15 working days to let you know what's happening.

If you aren't happy with the response you can write to the Office of the Chief Executive within 28 days, requesting we investigate your complaint under Stage 3 (the final stage) of our complaints procedure.

Stage 3

The Chief Executive will appoint a colleague to investigate your complaint on their behalf. That officer will not have had any prior involvement in dealing with your complaint and will not be employed in the service area that is being complained about.

That person will respond to you directly with their findings. We'll send you a letter to acknowledge that your complaint has moved to Stage 3 and tell you the name of the person who will be dealing with it. We'll then send you a full response within 20 working days. If more time is needed to complete the investigation of your complaint we'll still contact you within the 20 working days to let you know what's happening.

If you aren't happy with the response you can ask the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to take up your complaint.

Equal opportunities

We are committed to treating everyone fairly and with courtesy and respect. We realise that everyone is different and that your needs might be different. However, everyone should receive the same quality of service from us.

Please let us know you need additional support to make a complaint by contacting the Customer Advocates on 0191 424 6028 or by email to customer.advocates@southtyneside.gov.uk.

Adult social care complaints and compliments

We are committed to providing high quality services for the people of South Tyneside. However, there may be times when things go wrong and you are not happy with service you have received from Adult Social Care and Commissioning. We want to hear about it as soon as possible so we can try to put things right for you and solve any concerns.

We also want to hear when things go well or if you have ideas about how we can do things better. Your comments will help us to be sure we are providing high standards of service.

Who can make a complaint

Anyone who receives a service from Adult Social Care or who may have been refused a service. You can complain yourself or someone may complain on your behalf.

If someone else makes a complaint on your behalf, we will need consent from you, or someone who has the relevant authority to act upon your behalf, before we can deal with this. We require this due to Data Protection regulations. If you do not give your consent, we will not be able to look into the complaint.

If you need any assistance in making your complaint, please get in touch. We can look at what assistance or advice we can provide.

When you make a complaint, you will be treated fairly. You will not be discriminated against either in the investigation of your complaint, or in any service you receive or request.

Complaints involving other organisations

If your service involves more than one agency, for example Health Services, we may need to involve them in the investigation.

We will let you know if we need to do this and request your consent to share the complaint with them.

What happens next

We will try to sort out your complaint as soon as possible. We will talk to you about your complaint and ask you what we can do to put things right. We will let you know how we are planning to investigate and inform you about the outcome.

Sometimes we might have to use a different way of dealing with your complaint. For instance we might have to use our Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults procedures to look into concerns when people are at risk of harm.

How to get in touch

You can contact us by telephoning, emailing or writing to the Complaints team:

Complaints
Engagement, Communications and Support Services
Town Hall and Civic Offices
Westoe Road
South Shields
NE33 2RL
Tel: 0191 424 6028
Email: complaints@southtyneside.gov.uk

If you remain unhappy

Our complaints process is one stage. However, if you are not satisfied with the response you receive, we can offer a review of your complaint to see if there is anything more than can be done before you approach the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman.  You should contact the Complaints Team to discuss this further.

If you remain dissatisfied, you can take your complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. The Ombudsman will not normally look into a complaint until the Council has had an opportunity to deal with it. However, you can contact the Ombudsman's Advice Team at any time:

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
Web: Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman
Tel: 0300 061 0614
Opening hours - Mondays and Fridays from 1pm - 4pm, and Tuesday to Thursday from 10am - 1pm (except public holidays)

Making a compliment or comment

If you are really pleased with the service you receive, we would like to hear about it. Your views are very important as they tell us if we are getting things right.

You can comment on our services, staff and how we could improve. You can also compliment us on a service you have received.

You can do this by:

Making a complaint

We may be able to deal with your complaint through initial contact from an officer or manager who works in Adult Social Care and Commissioning. They can discuss your concerns and agree a plan of action to resolve this with you. If you have already done this, or want to discuss your issue with someone else, you can contact us to make a complaint.

You can do this by:

Try to make your complaint as soon as possible after the problem occurs. We ask that complaints are made within 12 months of the event happening and complaints made after this time may be considered out of time, though they will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Full details of the Adult Social Care complaints procedure can be found in Council's Complaints Policy.

Compliment, comment or complain about child social care

If you're living away from your own family (if you're "looked after") or we are helping you and your family and you're living with them, we want to make sure we do everything in a way you like.

If you're not happy

If you are unhappy please talk about it with your foster carers, your social worker or one of the staff if you live in a children's home.

Hopefully that can get things sorted. If that doesn't work, you can use the formal complain about social care for children procedure.

If everything's going well

If you are really pleased with the service you receive, we would like to hear about it. Your views are very important as they tell us if we are getting things right.

You can comment on our services, staff and how we could improve. You can also compliment us on a service you have received.

You can do this by:

  • completing our online feedback form
  • telling the member of staff or their manager

Complaints against councillors

We have a code of conduct that sets out the standards of conduct that we expect of councillors and co-opted members of the Council.

You can read the code of conduct in the Council Constitution or email monitoring.officer@southtyneside.gov.uk for a copy.

If you consider that a councillor or co-opted member has not observed the code of conduct, you can complain to the Monitoring Officer who will decide whether the complaint should be investigated. 

To contact the Monitoring Officer: 

 

Ombudsman

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is an independent service set up by the government to investigate complaints about most council matters. You can complain to the ombudsman at any time.

Sometimes they may agree to investigate a complaint that has not been through the council's own complaints procedure, but they normally prefer that complaints do go through the council's own procedure first.

You can visit the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman website or contact the ombudsman advice line on 0300 061 0614.

Social Housing complaints

If you have completed the 2 stages of South Tyneside Council's complaints procedure but you remain unhappy with the decision, you may complain to the Housing Ombudsman Service.

If you require further information, the Housing Ombudsman Service can be contacted online or by telephone on 0300 111 3000.

Unacceptable or unreasonable behaviour

We have a zero-tolerance approach to threats, violence, aggression or unacceptable behaviour directed towards South Tyneside Council staff.

All of our staff have the right not to be subjected to aggressive, abusive or offensive language or behaviour, regardless of the circumstances.

Some examples of this behaviour include:

  • threats of physical violence
  • swearing
  • inappropriate cultural, racial or religious references; and rudeness, including derogatory remarks.

Complaints Policy

Details 

Includes information on how to make a complaint; categories of complaints; how different types of complaints are dealt with; managing unacceptable and/or unreasonable behaviour.

Complaints Policy

Published: June 2019 

South Tyneside Council Complaints Policy