Complaints and feedback
We aim to provide a good service to everyone, but things can go wrong. If this happens, we want to know about it so that we can put it right.
Resolving a problem
If you haven't contacted the council yet, the quickest ways to resolve a problem are to:
- visit the service’s webpages to find what you need
- report a problem you’d like us to fix
- report anti-social behaviour
- phone customer services.
We’ll aim to deal with your issue within a few days.
Make a formal complaint
If you’ve contacted the council about an issue and you aren't happy with the way it was handled, you can make a formal complaint.
Adult and Children's social care have different processes for complaints than the rest of our services. Use the form to make a complaint about any of our services except Adult and Children's social care.
Complaints about Adult or Children's Social Care
If you need any support completing these forms, call us on 020 7527 2000. Lines are open Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9am to 5pm and Wednesdays from 10am to 5pm.
Complaints about schools
Schools have their own complaints procedures. If you have a complaint about a school or a member of school staff, a copy of their complaint’s procedures will be on the school website. The school policy will tell you who to contact to make a complaint - it may be the headteacher or a deputy headteacher
If you are not satisfied following their formal stage one response, the school policy will give you details of who to follow up the complaint with, including the governing body.
Complaints about councillors
For complaints about councillors, visit the Democracy website.
How we will handle your complaint
When you make a formal complaint, we will send you an acknowledgement within five working days.
We will investigate your complaint and you will receive a response within 10 working days from our acknowledgment.
If you are still unhappy, our corporate complaints team will carry out an independent review of your complaint. You may be asked for more information. We will respond to you within 20 working days from our acknowledgment.
We record information and use the feedback to help improve our services.
View the complaints policy and process.
Taking your complaint further
If you are still not satisfied with our response, you can contact an ombudsman who investigates complaints about local councils. These services are independent, impartial and free.
The ombudsman will usually only consider your complaint after you have completed all stages of our complaints process and have given us the opportunity to resolve matters for you.
- If you are a council tenant with a complaint about housing, visit the Housing Ombudsman Service website.
- For complaints about a building safety risk, contact the Building Safety Regulator.
- For complaints about other council matters, visit the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman website.