Complaints procedure
This is the procedure for complaints about a KCC service, other
than schools
or Adult Care Services or
Children's Social Services, which have separate complaints
procedures.
Step one
Please start by raising the issue with the person you have been
dealing with at the county council, or their immediate manager.
Most problems can be resolved this way.
Step two
If you feel you need to pursue your complaint further, then
please contact the managing director of the service you have been
dealing with.
If you put your complaint in a letter or email, or send it
online, you can expect to receive an acknowledgement within three
days and a full reply normally within four weeks. If your complaint
raises complex issues that cannot be answered within four weeks, we
will keep you informed of progress at four-weekly intervals until
we are able to respond fully to your complaint.
If you phone or visit one of our offices with your complaint,
our staff will try to help you by answering your query or taking
down details so that it can be investigated.
They will telephone or write to you to tell you the outcome of
the investigation as soon as they can.
Your local county councillor may be able to help resolve
your complaint by pursuing it on your behalf with the relevant corporate director.
Step three
If you are still not satisfied after all these steps have been
taken, you have the right to take your complaint to the Local
Government Ombudsman (except for a complaint about Freedom of
Information).
The Local Government Ombudsman is an independent and impartial
person, appointed by central government to investigate complaints
of maladministration by local authorities.
A leaflet explaining how to complain to the Local Government
Ombudsman is available from:
Freedom of information
If your complaint is about KCC's response to a request for
information under the Freedom of Information
Act or related legislation, you should, in the first instance,
send full details of your complaint to the Head of Paid
Service (at Sessions House, County Hall, Maidstone, Kent ME14
1XQ) and ask him to arrange an internal review.
If you are still unhappy following an independent review, you
can raise the matter with the Information Commissioner. Advice on
the Information Commissioner's role is available by
telephone/typetalk 01625 545745, e-mailing the Information
Commissioner mail@ico.gsi.gov.uk or visiting
the Information Commission website.
Complaints Equality Impact Assessment
Our Customer Impact Assessment (CIA) is a way of finding out how
our complaints policy affects different groups of people. A policy
might have adverse consequences, or result in direct or indirect
discrimination, for particular groups, and an CIA enables KCC to
consider how these effects might be eliminated, minimised or
counter balanced by other measures.
Read our complaints equality impact assessment (PDF, 246k).
Compliment or comment about a
service