Kirklees' complaints procedure

• We want to hear your views
• How to make a complaint
• How will we deal with your complaint?
• If you are still not happy

We want to hear your views

We want to hear your views about the services we provide. Although we work hard to give you the best possible service we realise that things sometimes go wrong and that we can make mistakes. We need to know when this happens so we can put things right and learn to do things differently in future. We see your comments and complaints as an opportunity to help us improve the services we provide.

If you have any complaints about the council please let us know. We would also like to hear your comments or compliments.

You can make a complaint in the way that best suits you- in person, by phone, by letter or by email. You can also use the online form on our website to make complaints, comments and compliments.

If you can’t complain yourself ask someone to do it for you, such as a relative, friend or neighbour.

How we deal with your complaint

There are three stages to our complaints procedure but we hope that most problems can be resolved quickly at the first stage.

Stage 1

Contact the person or office who provides the service you are unhappy with. They are in the best position to put things right quickly. If you are not sure which service to contact please get in touch with the Customer and Exchequer Service by emailing customer.standards@kirklees.gov.uk who will forward your complaint to the appropriate service. See the list of complaint contact officers for each service.

 If you are not sure which service to contact please contact:
 

We will deal with your complaint fairly and as informally as possible. Many problems can be put right straight away - if this is not possible we aim to reply within 6 working days. If we cannot reply within 6 days we will tell you why and let you know when you an expect us to contact you again.

Stage 2

If you are unhappy with the way we handled your complaint tell the person you have dealt with that you wish to have the complaint looked at by the head of that council service.

The head of service will arrange for your complaint to be investigated and we will aim to give you a written reply within 15 working days. If we need longer to look at your complaint we will let you know.

Stage 3

If you are still unhappy about the way in which we have handled your complaint you can ask the council's Corporate Customer Standards Officer (CCSO) to review it. The CCSO will contact you and tell you how long it will take to deal with your request. The CCSO will write to you after carrying out the review.

If you are still not happy

If you are still not happy after we have investigated and reviewed your complaint then you can contact the Local Government Ombudsman and ask them to investigate.

How to contact them

• Local Government Ombudsman letter (PDF: 60Kb)
• Complaints statistics for 2011/2012 (PDF: 42Kb)