Compliments and complaints policy

What we cannot deal with under this policy

Requests for service or information

As an example, if you request a repair to a council property or let us know that a street light is not working – these are alerting us to work that needs to be done. These requests may however become a complaint if we do not deal with them appropriately.   

Appeals procedures

If an appeals procedure applies to your complaint, we will refer you to this, and notify you of our actions at the outset.   

Appeals procedures must be completed before we can investigate any other issues you raise with us. If this is the case, we will let you know.

The following are examples of complaints where there is an appeals process and so we will not deal with them under this policy:   

• issuing of penalty charges, for example parking tickets and the recovery process
• a decision on a planning application
• a community care charge assessment
• a re-housing decision
• an eviction decision
• an offer of council accommodation
• entitlement to housing benefit or universal credit
• a decision to exclude a child from a school
• the amount of special education provision for a child
• pensions matters
• appeal against the outcome of an assessment under the Department for Transport ‘Eligible subject to further assessment’ criteria regarding the issue of a blue badge
• a decision about council tax support
• a ban from or restriction on entering council premises
• a decision about a school a child should attend. Following the outcome of a school appeal complaint by an appeals panel, complaints about the process should be sent directly to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. The ombudsman is independent of Leeds City Council and has the authority to investigate these types of complaints on your behalf.

They can be contacted as follows:   

Existing right of objection

This is where there is a more appropriate individual or organisation to deal with your complaint such as a tribunal, ombudsman or court.   

Complaints regarding issues that occurred over 12 months ago

We would not normally investigate complaints about something that happened more than a year ago, unless there are exceptional circumstances.   

Complaints about councillors or MPs

For councillors contact:   

For MPs contact:   

Allegations of fraud, theft or corruption by a member of our staff

We are committed to being open and accountable for our staff. If you have serious concerns about our staff, please come forward and let us know. All concerns will be treated in the strictest of confidence. Please write to:   

Complaints about your child’s education

Please contact your child’s school direct. You may also contact the Schools Complaint Unit at the Department of Education for advice online external link.   

Complaints about an academy should be addressed directly with the academy or you can contact the Education and Skills Funding Agency for advice external link.    

Where legal proceedings are involved

When a legal challenge is being made regarding whether a decision, action (or lack of action) is lawful. This is a separate process to the ombudsman so will not be considered under the complaint policy.   

Employment Issues

Complaints made by employees concerning their employment will be referred to Human Resources to be considered in line with internal HR procedures.   

Complaints made by job applicants who wish to complain about the recruitment and selection process will be dealt with by the relevant recruitment manager.   

Complaints about social care services

There are two acts of parliament that require local authority social care services to have a procedure for considering representations (including complaints) by an individual or anyone acting on their behalf in relation to the discharge of, or any failure to discharge, any of their social services functions.   

The two acts are:   

• The Children Act 1989 Representations Procedure (England) Regulations 2006
• The Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England)Regulations 2009

Complaints about either adult or children’s social care issues are dealt with under separate statutory timescales and are outside of this policy.   

For complaints regarding children’s services:   

For complaints regarding adult social care services:   

Complaints about Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests

These complaints will be handled by a senior officer under the same process as a stage two complaint. In cases where we decided not to provide the information to you, the officer must consider advice from the information management and governance service. The officer will notify you of the outcome of our investigation within 20 working days of receipt of your complaint.   

If we cannot respond in full within this timeframe, we will advise you why we need more time. Under legislation, we must ensure that we respond fully to you within 40 working days from receipt of your complaint.   

There is no further right of appeal to the council following this investigation. Within our response we will inform you of your right to take your complaint further if you remain dissatisfied. Our response will contain the contact details for the Information Commissioner external link. You have a further right of appeal to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights).   

Complaints about Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) requests

Under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, you can ask us to reconsider an information request. You can make representations to us in writing about this no later than 40 working days after the date you think we have failed to comply with the EIR.   

These complaints will be handled by a senior officer under the same process as a stage two complaint. We have to consider your representations and any supporting evidence produced by you, and decide if we have complied with the EIR requirements.   

The officer must consider advice from the information management and governance service. The officer will notify you of the outcome of our investigation as soon as possible, and no later than 40 working days after receipt of your complaint.   

There is no further right of appeal to the council following this investigation. Within our response we will inform you of your right to take your complaint further if you remain dissatisfied. Our response will contain the contact details for the Information Commissioner, detailed above. You have a further right of appeal to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights).   

Complaints about Data Protection (GDPR and DPA 2018)

In relation to individual rights’ requests under the GDPR the council has 1 month in which to respond although this can be extended by a further 2 months if the request is complex or we have received a number of requests from the requester. Whilst there is no statutory requirement to investigate complaints about how the council has responded to a request, we are committed to trying to resolve all such complaints. Any such complaints will be handled by a senior officer as a stage two complaint and advice must be sought from the council’s information management and governance service.

All other data protection complaints about how the council has processed personal data, or special category data, will be handled in accordance with the council’s two stage policy (stage 1 and 2) and advice must be sought from the council’s information management and governance service.   

There is no further right of appeal to the council following this investigation. You are entitled to complain to the Information Commissioner if you consider that there has been an infringement of data protection legislation. Further details can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website.   

Complaints about companies or traders that provide goods and/or services

For complaints about companies or traders that provide goods and/or services, these are handled by Trading Standards, who are part of the West Yorkshire Joint Services. They can be contacted by using the details below.   

Policy to deal with unreasonable complainants’ behaviour

We treat all complaints seriously and are committed to resolving complaints fairly. In most cases we can work with complainants to find a mutually acceptable resolution. Occasionally, when communication with a complainant becomes a problem, we may need to take appropriate action.     

This policy sets out how we will deal with cases where the actions of individuals become unacceptable because we deem them to involve the abuse of staff or of the complaint process. This policy is applied when a customer has made a formal complaint. Where customer contact is outside of the complaints policy, alternative policies can apply.     

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman defines unreasonable behaviour as:     

• Complainants who, because of the nature or frequency of their contact with an organisation, hinder the organisation’s consideration of their or other people’s complaints

If we believe your behaviour in pursuit of your complaint is unreasonable, we will inform you why we believe this to be the case and the problems it is causing. We will also set out what we propose for communication with you going forward.      

Examples of unreasonable behaviour include:     

• aggressive or abusive language
• making excessive demands for information, documents or requesting actions outside the complaint procedure
• refusing to co-operate with the procedure
• sending large volumes of correspondence or an excessive number of contacts

How we will inform you

We will write to you and inform you why we find your behaviour to be unreasonable.      

Where you have an ongoing complaint:     

• we will provide update on the status of your complaint and timescale for response
• we will outline how it is reasonable for you to make contact whilst your complaint is being investigated and the reasons for this
• we may limit the amount of contact we will consider in relation to your complaint

Where your complaint has exhausted the Council’s complaints policy:     

• we confirm that your complaint had completed the Council’s complaint policy and will direct you to appropriate routes of escalation

If unreasonable behaviour persists after the above steps are followed, this will lead to a restriction being placed on your contact with the Council.     

Details of the restriction will be confirmed in writing and will set a review period for the restriction.      

If you disagree with restrictions, we will consider your objections and review whether the restriction has been appropriately applied. If you disagree with the outcome of this review you can ask the Local Government Ombudsman and Social Care Ombudsman to consider whether our decision is reasonable.     

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