Your feedback is very important to us and it helps us to improve the services we provide to better meet the needs of our customers.

At Doncaster Council we work extremely hard to provide you with the services you need along with the customer service you expect. As part of this we encourage feedback from our customers when you feel we have done something wrong, or when you think we have done something well.

Exemptions to our complaints procedure

Service requests

Please note; if you would like to tell us about something you need the Council to do, for example:

• report potholes in the road
• a missed bin collection
• anti-social behaviour
• neighbour disputes.
• fly tipping
• request for vegetation maintenance.

The above are requests for a service. Further information can be found on the report it pages.

Other organisations

If your feedback is about a service provided by St Leger Homes of Doncaster please access their website. The following Complaints web page will take you to their Complaints Policy and to performance information contained within the Annual Complaint and Service Improvement Report 23/24, and the governing body’s response to the Report. It will also take you to the outcome of a self-assessment against a revised Housing Ombudsman Complaint Code, which was introduced in April 2024.  

If your feedback is about social care and safeguarding to children, young people and families please see the following page: Tell us your views on Children's Services

If your feedback is about a leisure centre please use the Doncaster Culture and Leisure Trust website.

Complaints about a Councillor 

If you are unhappy about the way a Councillor of Doncaster Council or any Parish Council in the Doncaster area has behaved, you can make a complaint to the Council's Monitoring Officer. For further information please visit the

• How to Complain about a Councillor webpage

Making a complaint or compliment

Complaints

For all general complaints please complete our online complaints form:

• online complaints form

If your complaint is about children’s social care, please complete our online feedback form: 

• online feedback form

If you are contacting us about an existing complaint that you have not received a response to within this timescale please use our online tracker:

• online tracker

Please note you will need your reference number. 

Compliments

If you would like to compliment us on something you think we have done well please use our online compliments form:

• online compliment form

Complaints procedure

There are three stages to the Council's Complaints Procedure, which are as follows:

Stage 1 – Local Resolution

At this stage a senior officer within the service area complained about will investigate your complaint and will respond directly to you.
You can expect a full response to your Stage 1 complaint within 10 working days. However, on very rare occasions we may need longer to investigate your complaint. If we do need more time we will contact you to let you know when you can expect a response.

Stage 2 – Complaint Investigation

If you believe that your complaint has not been addressed in full or you are able to provide further evidence, you can appeal and ask for your complaint to be looked at again. Details on how to do this will be provided in your stage 1 response.
When you ask for a stage 2 investigation we will send you an acknowledgement within 3 working days.
A manager or senior officer who has not previously been involved in your complaint will be appointed to investigate the issues and respond to you directly.
You can expect a response to your stage 2 complaint within 20 working days.
However, we may need longer to investigate your stage 2 complaint. If we do need more time we will contact you to let you know when you can expect a response.

Stage 3 – Local Government Ombudsman

If you are unhappy with the stage 2 investigation result you have the right to approach the Local Government Ombudsman who are the commissioners for administration in England. You can approach the Local Government Ombudsman at any time, however, they will not usually investigate a complaint from a customer unless it has been dealt with through the Council's complaints procedure first.

The contact details for the Local Government Ombudsman are:
The Local Government Ombudsman
PO Box 4771,
Coventry,
CV4 0EH
Tel: 0300 061 0614
Fax: 024 7682 0001  
The option to approach the Local Government Ombudsman is the third and final stage of the Council’s complaints procedure and is the final point of contact to resolve complaints.

Response

Once you have provided us with the details of your complaint we will acknowledge this and respond to you within 10 working day

Unreasonable behaviour policy

We have an Unreasonable Behaviour Policy that provides guidance to officers to help them identify circumstances where a service user or complainant's behaviour could be classed as unreasonable and to aid their decisions in how to appropriately respond to such behaviour. 

 

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