First look at your complaint (Intake stage)

When you send us a complaint, we start by checking a few important things. This helps us make sure we can give you the right support from the start. We check that you have:

• contacted the right organisation to look into your complaint
• given us the information we need to understand your concerns
• complained directly to the organisation first and given it a fair chance to respond
• permission to complain on someone’s behalf, if that applies

We may get in touch with you to confirm some details or ask you for some extra information, like the copy of the council’s final response or evidence you can complain on behalf of someone else.

What happens at the end of this stage

In most cases, at the end of this stage we will do one of the following:

• pass your complaint onto our Assessment Team to look into it further
• tell you we cannot look into your complaint right now until the organisation has had a fair chance to respond
• explain that we cannot look at your complaint and who may be better to help

Read our current waiting times to find out how long this stage usually takes.

Deciding whether to investigate

If we pass your complaint to our Assessment Team, an investigator will look at whether we can, and whether we should, look into your complaint in more detail.

Visit What we can and cannot look at for more information on how we decide whether to investigate complaints.

At this stage, we may get in touch with you to ask for more details. But we may also have enough information to decide what to do without needing to contact you again.

What happens at the end of this stage

In most cases, at the end of this stage we will do one of the following:

• pass your complaint to our Investigation Team to take a closer look at what happened
• close your complaint without needing to do a more detailed investigation if the organisation agrees to (or has) put things right for you, and we think it is a fair offer
• decide we cannot or should not investigate your complaint and send you a final decision explaining why

At the moment our Assessment Team is busy working on a large number of cases. Please read our current waiting times to find out how long the Assessment stage usually takes.

Investigating your complaint (Investigation stage)

If we pass your complaint onto our Investigation Team, once one of our investigators takes on your case they will get in touch to let you know what will happen. 

During an investigation we will often:

• ask you for more information
• ask the organisation involved for their account of what happened

We remain completely independent throughout. We don’t take sides; we look carefully at the information from both you and the organisation before we decide what is the best achievable outcome.

You will have a chance to have your say on our findings about your complaint. We will share with you a draft decision and give you chance to comment on it before making a final decision.

What happens at the end of this stage

In most cases, at the end of this stage we will decide one of the following:

• the organisation was at fault and this had a significant impact on you. Here we will make recommendations for how the organisation should put things right  
• the organisation was at fault and has already done enough to put things right 
• the organisation was at fault but this did not have a significant impact on you that requires recommendations
• The organisation was not at fault

Our decisions are final, but you can read about what to do if you disagree with our decision on your complaint.

We publish most of our decisions on our website around six weeks after they are completed. We don’t use real names so you won’t be at risk of being identified.

Please read our current waiting times to find out how long the Investigation stage usually takes.

If you need help using our service

We want everyone to be able to use our service. We will do our best to communicate with you in the way you have asked us to, but please keep in mind we always use public money carefully. You can read more in Reasonable adjustments - how we support you.

<go back to the steps to making a complaint