How we will deal with your complaint
What happens when we get your complaint
When we receive your complaint we will usually write to you to acknowledge it within five working days explaining what will happen next. If you do not hear from us within that time, please telephone our Advice Team. (We may send you an equality monitoring form to fill in at this point. For more information on our monitoring, see our FAQs. There is also further information in our Annual Report - see 'chapter 5' in the downloads box on the right.)
We will check to see if you have made a complaint to the council or care provider first and whether the body has had a reasonable chance to deal with it. Complaints usually need to go though all stages of a body's complaints procedure before we can consider them. If yours has not, we will send it to the body you are complaining about and write to you to tell you.
In other cases your complaint will be allocated to an investigator. Investigators take most decisions on the Ombudsman’s behalf. The investigator will contact you as soon as possible after receiving your complaint to find out more about it, what you are hoping to achieve and to explain what will happen next. In most cases the investigator will try to get in touch with you by telephone, so if possible please give us a contact number where you can be reached during the day.
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Checking the law
First we have to decide whether the law allows us to investigate your complaint. Usually we can make this decision quickly, but sometimes we need more information from you or the body involved.
If the law does not allow us to investigate your complaint, or if we decide that the injustice to you is only slight, we will tell you as soon as we can. We will usually give you a chance to comment before we make a final decision, unless it is clear from the start that the law does not allow us to consider your complaint.
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Informing bodies complained about
We must tell councils and care providers about all complaints made against them, even if we decide not to investigate. We will send a copy of your complaint and our decision letter to the council or care provider. We may send the body copies of any documents you provide in support of your complaint. But in doing these things, we will maintain your privacy as far as possible. However, we will pass on your personal details, such as your name and address, if this is necessary in order for us to investigate your complaint. We cannot agree not to pass on your details unless you can provide a strong reason for us not to do so - for example, if you are threatened with domestic violence and want to ensure your current address is kept confidential.
We cannot stop a council or care provider taking action while we investigate your complaint.
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What happens if we can investigate your complaint
We will investigate your complaint as far as we think we have to, so that we can reach a fair decision.
The first step is usually to send your complaint to the council or care provider and ask for its comments and any other information we need. We may also need to:
- get further information from you, the body complained about, or other people
- examine the body’s files
- meet you, council officers, care provider staff, or other people, or
- visit the site if the complaint is about land or buildings, or about a care home.
The Ombudsman has the legal power to get evidence from the body and other people.
During the investigation we will give you a chance to comment on what the body has said about your complaint. When we think we have looked at enough information to be able to come to a fair decision, we will usually write to you to tell you what our decision is likely to be. At this stage we will give you a chance to comment or provide any further information you want us to consider.
When we have made a final decision we will write to you and explain the reasons – we will also send a copy of our letter to the council or care provider.
Please note that we will not routinely acknowledge correspondence from you.
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How long it will take
We will make a decision on your complaint as quickly as we can. In about half of cases we make a decision in three months. But it may take some months to collect enough information to reach a fair decision. In a few cases, for example where the complaint is particularly complex, it can take longer, sometimes up to a year. The investigator will keep you informed of progress.
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Date Updated: 20/10/11