All formal complaints will be acknowledged in writing within 5 working days of receipt and assigned to an investigating officer. A complaint case reference number and a response date for the complaint will be included in the acknowledgement. The investigating officer will investigate the matter and provide a formal, written response within 10 working days of the complaint being logged. In some circumstances in order to provide you with a full response, we may need additional time to complete our investigation. In such cases, the investigating officer will contact you directly to agree an extension and confirm a new response date.
Should you remain dissatisfied with the outcome – you can request to escalate your complaint to Stage 2 of our internal process.
Stage 2 complaints will be assigned to a senior member of staff. As with a Stage 1 formal complaint, your complaint will be formally acknowledged within 5 working days of receipt and responded to, in writing within 20 working days of the complaint being logged. As above the response date may be extended should further time be needed to complete our investigations and the investigating officer will contact you directly to agree this extension.
If You Remain Dissatisfied
If you believe that we haven't dealt with your complaint adequately, or we have not resolved the problem you raised, you may wish to ask for further assistance. You can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service who offer a free impartial service. The Housing Ombudsman will only consider your complaint once you have completed our internal process. However, you can contact the Housing Ombudsman at any point during the complaints process for their guidance and advice:
You can contact the Housing Ombudsman on 0300 111 3000 or by emailing info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk.
If the complaint is not related to tenancy management, and depending on how care is funded, complaints can then be referred to the appropriate external authorities:
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) – If your care is funded under NHS Continuing Health https://www.ombudsman.org.uk.
If your care is funded or arranged by a Local Authority; you can make a complaint directly to that Local Authority if you prefer to do so. If you're dissatisfied with the outcome of that complaint you can contact the Local Governance and Social Care Ombudsman https://www.Igo.org.uk, or telephone 0300 061 0614.
Where necessary the Ombudsman will work together to resolve your complaint.
