Comments, Compliments & Complaints

How to report a problem and who to contact with comments, compliments or complaints about council services.

The Council provides a wide range of services for people who live and work in Tamworth and for visitors to the town. Your feedback is very important to us, it helps us to improve the services we provide to better meet the needs of our customers. As part of this, we encourage feedback when we have done something well, or when you think we have done something wrong. Further detailed information is available in our Comments, compliments and complaints policy.

Comments

We listen and learn from comments and suggestions as well as compliments and complaints. Comments about how we can alter or improve can lead to a change in process, policy, actions, activity, or literature and material. We think we're doing things right, so unless you tell us we may carry on doing the same. What you tell us can really make a difference, we can't change everything, but what we can - we will. Please use our Comments, Compliments and Complaints form to make your suggestions.

Compliments

We aim to provide you with an excellent service. If you have any compliment you wish to make, please use our Comments, Compliments and Complaints form. For example, your compliment could be about our services, about customer care, about recent events organised by the Council, about the Tamworth environment or about Council staff. 

Complaints

Many queries can be dealt with without going through the complaints procedure such as general service requests like reporting a street issue. Before making a complaint, have you contacted the service in question to resolve your issue? Click here to see what you can report online. By using the correct form to contact us, your enquiry will go to the right people, and we'll be able to deal with your concern more efficiently.

What is a complaint?
A complaint is defined as an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions, or lack of action by the organisation, and/or the landlord, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting a resident or group of residents.

How can you make a complaint?

To make a complaint you can:

We accept complaints from third parties who have the customers permission to act on their behalf in making the complaint. (This can be from any person, for example a relative, friend, councillor, MP)

What happens when I make a complaint?

Stage 1 - We try to resolve issues quickly and will try to resolve things informally whenever possible. When we receive your complaint we will review, acknowledge, define, and log the complaint within 5 working days.

If the communication received is considered a service request, the IGT will:

  • record the details
  • advise the customer that their communication is considered a service request and
  • pass it to the relevant service area for action through their normal processes.
  • Monitor the request through to completion

If the communication received is considered a complaint, the Information Governance team will:

Pass to the designated officer where all the issues raised in the complaint will be addressed and, where considered possible, the designated officer may resolve the complaint by phone or in person promptly in line with policy and the complaint handling codes, which will be followed up in writing. We aim to provide a full response to your complaint within 10 working days.

If they need more information from you, they will contact you to get a clearer understanding of your concerns. We will provide a full response and explain any changes which may result from your complaint. We will also tell you how to take the matter further if you're not happy with our response.

Stage 2 - If you're unhappy after you've received the full response at stage one, please tell us straight away or within one month.

We'll acknowledge this within 5 working days and the complaint will be directed to someone senior to the officer who responded at stage one. We aim to provide a full response to your complaint within 20 working days.

If you still remain dissatisfied with our response, you can then complain to the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman or the Housing Ombudsman.

While most complaints fall under the jurisdiction of the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO), some issues may need to be referred to the Housing Ombudsman or may require joint consideration by both Ombudsman. We will inform you which Ombudsman to contact when you receive our final Stage 2 response.

Summaries of the complaints each Ombudsman deal with are found on their webpages:

Housing Complaints ONLY

You can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service at any point during the complaint process. It cannot investigate your complaint whilst your complaint is going through our internal complaints procedure however the Ombudsman may be able to help you and your landlord reach a resolution.

Further detailed information is available in our Comments, compliments and complaints policy.

The Housing Ombudsman Complaints Handling Code outlines how we, as a social housing landlord, should address complaints from our tenants and leaseholders. The code became statutory on 1 April 2024, meaning that social landlords are obliged by law to follow its requirements .

This Code, periodically reviewed by the Housing Ombudsman, ensures that we handle complaints in a fair, efficient, and effective manner.

What does that mean for Tamworth Borough Council?
As part of the Code, the Council is required to produce and publish an Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report, which included a self-assessment form against the code. 

What does this mean for you?
The Council has reviewed its complaints policy and procedures and where areas of improvement have been recognised, or where current areas can be strengthened, these are being acted upon. The guidance includes an annual self-assessment against the code to ensure complaint handling remains in line with its requirements and the results are published.

The Council’s Response to the Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report and Self-Assessment can be found in the Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report.

Managing Unreasonable Customer Behaviour

Tamworth Borough Council is committed to serving, being impartial and providing a high-quality service to all of its customers and dealing with customers in ways that are open, fair, and proportionate.

The contact that customers have with the Council is not normally limited or restricted, but some customers will act in a way that is unacceptable by making unreasonable and disproportionate contact or demands or behave inappropriately. It is understood that people may act out of character in times of trouble or distress.

As a council we do not view behaviour as unacceptable just because a claimant is forceful or determined, however the actions of complainants who are angry, demanding, or persistent may result in unreasonable demands on the Council and unacceptable behaviour towards the Council’s staff.

The Managing Unreasonable Customer Behaviour policy helps staff and complainants to understand clearly:

  • what is expected of them,
  • what options for action are available and
  • who can authorise these actions.

The policy should be read in conjunction with any other relevant Council policies relating to exclusion of services and employee health and safety.

Examples of unreasonable actions and behaviours

These are some of the actions and behaviours (this is not an exhaustive list):

  • Refusing to specify the grounds of a complaint, enquiry, or request for service despite offers of assistance.
  • Refusing to co-operate with an investigation or delivery of a service.
  • Refusing to accept that certain issues are not within the scope of the Council.
  • Insisting that a service, process, officer, procedure or policy etc. is dealt with in ways that are not in line with specified process and policy.
  • Making unjustified complaints about staff who are trying to deal with the issues and then seeking/demanding that the officer is replaced.
  • Changing the basis of the complaint or enquiry as the investigation proceeds.
  • Denying or changing statements made at an earlier stage.
  • Introducing trivial or irrelevant new information.
  • Raising numerous, detailed but unimportant questions; insisting that they are answered.
  • Covertly recording meetings and conversations.
  • Submitting falsified documents from themselves or others.
  • Adopting a 'scatter gun' approach: pursuing parallel complaints or enquiries on the same issue.
  • Making excessive demands on the time and resources of staff with lengthy telephone calls, emails to numerous council staff, or detailed letters/emails every few days, and expecting immediate responses.
  • Submitting repeat complaints/enquiries with minor additions/variations that the customer insists make these 'new' complaints/enquiries.
  • Refusing to accept the decision; repeatedly arguing points with no new evidence.
  • Being offensive, using offensive language, making sexual or racist comments.

Appeals against decisions made under the Managing Unreasonable Customer Behaviour policy.

Complainants will be informed in writing of the Council’s decision resulting from application of this policy and procedure. The response should detail information on how to appeal any decisions.

The Information Governance Manager (Monitoring Officer) will investigate and present the findings of the appeal to the relevant Assistant Director within 6 weeks of the request.

The Information Governance Manger (Monitoring Officer) will write to the complainant with their decision which will be final.

Complainants who are dealt with under this policy and procedure will be given information on their right to contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman if they feel the Council has not acted correctly in the administration of the complaint.

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