Complain or Comment

How to make a complaint - On-line comments / complaints form

Leicestershire County Council provides a wide range of services to nearly 600,000 local people. Impacting on almost every aspect of life, these services include education, social care, roads, libraries and museums.

We always strive to provide services which are responsive and combine quality with value for money but can only achieve this if we listen to the views of local people who use them.

The County Council is keen to receive your comments on services generally, not just in relation to complaints. We would welcome any views you have about our services, for example, if you feel a service is working particularly well we would like to know this.

If something needs repairing or attending to, such as a defective street light, you should not need to make an official complaint – just tell us about it.

However, as with all providers of services occasionally things do not go to plan. To deal with this we have developed a procedure for handling complaints that is simple, speedy, flexible and regularly monitored.

If you consider that you have cause for complaint, please read on . . .

If you feel that you have not received the standard of service you expect or that we may not be providing an adequate service in a particular area, it is best to try and resolve the issue with the department responsible. All you need to do is contact the department concerned, by letter, telephone, email, as a personal caller or by filling in the on-line form.

Details of departments are listed below. Most complaints are dealt with this way.

For complaints about schools and community colleges please see the section on this website "If you wish to complain - advice for parents".  If you have any queries, telephone our freephone no. 0800 096 8116.

If your complaint relates to admission of your child to school and the school which has been allocated to you, you should contact school admissions/appeals.

If you wish to complain about the way the Social Care services have been delivered to you or to a person who is a relative or for whom you provide care, you should contact Complaints Procedure – Social Care.

If you wish to contact a County Councillor to seek their advice or support or to raise issues about County Council policy, then you should contact Councillors – Contact Details.

If your query relates to obtaining information under the Freedom of Information Act or Data Protection Act, you should contact Freedom of Information Act or Data Protection Act.

If your complaint is about any other County Council service, please see our Complaints Procedure - Council Services.

If your complaint does not fall within any of the above areas, you may make a complaint under the County Council Corporate Complaints process.  To do this, simply fill in the form.  You can submit this over the internet or download it and send us a copy.

Whilst the Complaints Procedure is there to try to ensure that the County Council does respond to genuine concerns about its services, there are some circumstances in which it will not be available.  For example, if the issue is being considered by a Court or Tribunal, if Court proceedings have been threatened or if the case is being considered by the Local Government Ombudsman.  The County Council will also not consider complaints which are malicious, derogatory, racist, include threatening or offensive remarks or relate to actions which took place more than a year before the complaint, where there is no reason for the delay.

Complaints will usually be dealt with by the Department responsible for the service in question.  The Complaints Procedure is managed by the Chief Executive’s Department.

If after all of these steps you are still not satisfied you can ask for your complaint to be looked at by the Local Government Ombudsman. This is a free, confidential service but complaints must be put in writing.

The Ombudsman is totally independent of the County Council but likes to see that you have tried to resolve your dissatisfaction with the Council before contacting him.

Contact: Local Government Ombudsman, The Oaks, Westwood Way, Westwood Business Park, Coventry CV4 8JB. Telephone 0845 602 1983

The Complaints, Comments and Commendation procedure will help us maintain and improve the high standard of services we provide to local people.

FREEPHONE: 0800 0968 116 or 0116 232 3232

If you require this information in an alternative format e.g large type, please ring 0116 305 6242 or e-mail: pressoffice@leics.gov.uk