Our Procedure

Your correspondence, compliments and complaints

We aim to provide services of the highest standard. We are constantly looking for ways to improve and develop. Your correspondence, compliments and complaints can help us to do this.

How do I make a compliment or complaint?

There are various ways of telling us what you think about our services.

• You can fill in our online form.
• You can e-mail your compliments or complaints to 3cs@fenland.gov.uk.
• You can make a compliment or complaint in person by phoning 01354 654321.
• You can make a compliment or complaint by filling in one of the forms that are available, or by letter. You can hand these into any of the Customer First shops, or you can post your compliment or complaint using the prepaid envelope provided, addressed to 3Cs Manager, Fenland Hall, County Road, March, PE15 8NQ.
• You can visit one of our ‘Fenland @ your service’ shops and speak to an advisor.

Your local councillor

You may like to make your complaint through your local councillor, who will then make sure the complaint is passed to the 3Cs manager. The compliment or complaint will then be dealt with by the normal procedure. For details of your local councillor, please visit our website at http://www.fenland.gov.uk or call 01354 654321.

Getting help to make your compliment or complaint

If you would like advice or help filling in all, or part of, the compliments and complaints forms, any member of our staff will be pleased to help. Of course, if you prefer, you may ask a friend, relative, your local councillor or any advisory organisation to help.

What is a compliment and what will happen?

If you have been very satisfied with the service that you have received, please let us know by paying a compliment. For example, you may want to thank a member of staff who has been very helpful or you may consider that the service that you have received has been exceptionally good. We can use compliments from customers to improve what we do. We will acknowledge your complaint and pass your thanks onto the member of staff or team involved.

What is a complaint and what will happen?

We will record your comments as a complaint if you have not been satisfied with the service that you have received. We take complaints very seriously and will make sure that we properly investigate all complaints.

Stage 1

If you are not happy with the service you have received, you should:

• fill in our online form;
• e-mail 3cs@fenland.gov.uk;
• phone 01354 654321;
• write to us; or
• visit one of the Customer First Shops. Wherever possible, we will try and deal with the problem there and then. If we cannot sort out the problem immediately, we will acknowledge we have received the complaint within five working days, investigate it and let you know the outcome. We will aim to give you a full answer within 10 working days. If we need longer, we will let you know either by e-mail, by phone or by writing to you.

Stage 2

If you are not satisfied with the response that you have received at stage 1, we will need to take the matter further by referring it to a service manager in that area. We will aim to give you a full answer within 10 working days. If we need longer, we will let you know in writing, by phone or by e-mail.

Stage 3

If you are still not satisfied with the response given at stage 2, the 3Cs manager will carry out an assessment. He or she will be independent from the service area. The findings of the assessment will then be reported to a director who will respond in full within 15 working days. If we need longer, we will let you know in writing, by phone or by e-mail.

This is the final stage of our internal complaints procedure.

 

If you want to take your complaint further

If you are not happy with the outcome of your complaint at the end of our procedure, you may want to contact the Local Government Ombudsman at the address below.

Local Government Ombudsman
The Oaks No 2
Westwood Way
Westwood Business Park
Coventry
CV4 8JB

Phone: 02416 820000

Fax: 02416 820001

Advice line: 0845 6021983

Website: http://www.lgo.org.uk

 

We will use your compliments and complaints to assess how we are performing in each service area. We will report the information we receive to the corporate management team and members every three months. It will help us improve our services. We will prepare a 3Cs report every year and make it available for public viewing.