Customer comment, compliment or complaint
Customer feedback procedure
We want to hear your views about our services. What you tell us helps us to improve our services.
Use the form to make a comment, a compliment, or a complaint about the services we provide.
Feedback that is dealt with differently:
- Adult social care complaints
- Children and young people social care complaints
- Young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
- Care leaver complaints
- Councillor complaints
- Issues with a separate appeals process or that are currently subject to insurance or legal proceedings
For schools we have a separate complaints procedure, please contact us for further information.
Full details can be found in the Customer Feedback Policy.
Compliants about social housing
If you are living in a property managed by Derby Homes and you are unhappy with any service you’ve received, you should make a complaint directly to Derby Homes. Their complaints process meets the requirements detailed in the Complaints Handling Code 2024 published by the Housing Ombudsman.
Making a comment, compliment or complaint
Comment – use the form to tell us about something we have not had a chance to put right or if you have a suggestion based on your own experience in dealing with a service.
Compliment – use this form when you have experienced a great service or you feel a member of staff has gone above and beyond and deserves recognition for their efforts.
Complaint – use this form to submit a formal complaint about a service we have attempted to put right but have not been able to. There is more information within the form that explains what you can and cannot make a formal complaint about.
Online
The easiest way to make a complaint is online.
Post
Alternatively, you can complete the Have your say form and return it in the post to Derby City Council, Council House, Corporation Street, Derby, DE1 2FS. There is also an Have your say form - easy read version available.
Paper complaints forms are also available in our reception area.
Telephone
You can telephone 01332 640000.
In person
You can also visit our offices where one of our customer service advisors can assist you to complete the online feedback form.
Dealing with complaints
Stage 1: Investigation
When we receive your formal complaint, we will ask the department to investigate your complaint. We aim to provide a full response within ten working days, or 20 if your complaint relates to social care or services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Stage 2: Appeal
If you are unhappy with the response, you can write and tell us why you are dissatisfied with the investigation and ask us to reconsider.
We will then ask a manager who has not been involved in your complaint to review it to make sure that the initial investigation was carried out properly and effectively. We aim to provide a full response within 20 working days.
Please note, there is no stage 2 appeal for adult social care complaints; customers unhappy with our stage one response for an adult social care complaint will be directed to the Local Government Ombudsman, in line with the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service complaints (England) Regulations 2009.
Stage 3: Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
If you have been through all stages of our complaints process, you can ask the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to consider your complaint.
The Ombudsman has issued a Complaint Handling Code which sets out advice and guidance for councils on how to handle complaints. You can find more information about this on the Ombudsman’s website.
The Ombudsman investigates complaints in a fair and independent way - it does not take sides. It is a free service.
The Ombudsman expects you to have given us chance to deal with your complaint, before you contact them.
About the Ombudsman
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman looks at individual complaints about councils and some other organisations providing local public services. It also investigates complaints about all adult social care providers (including care homes and home care agencies) for people who self-fund their care. There are some limits on what the Ombudsman can look at. For example, the Ombudsman may not consider your complaint if you have not been significantly personally affected by the issue you are raising, or if you have a right of appeal to a court or tribunal.
Contact the Ombudsman:
- Website: www.lgo.org.uk
- Telephone: 0300 061 0614
Unreasonable and unacceptable complaint behaviour
When we consider someone's behaviour to be abusive, persistent or unreasonable, we will explain why and ask them to change it. We will also warn them that, if the behaviour continues, we will take action to limit their contact with our offices.
We may then take one or more steps to manage our interactions with the complainant:
- Help the complainant find a suitable independent person to assist them in making and pursuing their complaint, where the complainant has different needs (or needs a reasonable adjustment).
- Limit communication with the complainant to one format (such as letter or telephone) and to a named point of contact.
- Suspend (either temporarily or permanently) the investigation and all contact with the complainant whilst we seek guidance from the Legal Department or the Ombudsman.
- Confirm in writing that the investigation is complete and that further communications with respect to the matter will be acknowledged but not answered.
- Refuse to register and process further complaints about the same matter.
A complainant who has been treated as having behaved unreasonably may make a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman, if they believe the Council's actions were not proportionate or were unfair. Please refer to section 6 of the Customer Feedback Policy for more information.
The steps to deal with unreasonable complaints will not have any negative effect on any other interactions the complainant may have with the Council. It does not exclude them from providing genuine feedback about other issues.