How to make a complaint
Have you ever felt unhappy or angry with a service you've received from us? Unfortunately there are times when things go wrong, and as part of our commitment to high-quality services we are making sure that we listen to your complaints.
We define a complaint as: "A clear expression of dissatisfaction about the standard of service, action or lack of action by the council or its staff affecting an individual customer or group of customers."
All complaints are important to us because they tell us what you think of our services. We know there is always room to improve and so we are making every effort to meet our Citizen's Charter commitment - putting things right as quickly as possible.
This information is designed to help you make your complaint. It tells you who to get in touch with and what we will do to put things right (this procedure does not apply to complaints about councillors and other members of the Council for which there is a separate arrangement).
How to make a complaint 
Step 1
Wherever possible we will try to deal with your complaint at the service point involved. This may be at the local cash office, local library, the leisure centre or the Town Hall. We can usually sort out simple mistakes or misunderstandings straightaway. Don't forget that you can make your complaint in person, online, on the phone or in writing.
Please note: The complaints procedure for care services and schools are different to the rest of the Council.
Step 2
If you are unhappy with the way your complaint has been dealt with at step 1 you should contact the Director of the Department involved. The Director will look into your complaint and write to you. View a list of the names, addresses and email for Council directors.
Step 3
If you are still unhappy you can write to the Chief Executive. The Chief Executive will look at your complaint independently and make sure it is thoroughly investigated.
Chief Executive & Director of Administration
Gerald Jones
Town Hall
Wandsworth High Street
SW18 2PU
The Chief Executive will only investigate your complaint if it has already been investigated under steps 1 and 2 of the complaints procedure. Sending a complaint directly to the Chief Executive as a first point of complaint may slow down the processing of your complaint.
Our commitment
Our Citizen's Charters set out our commitment to dealing with all complaints in an efficient and understanding way. To do this we will:
- take all complaints seriously;
- deal with complaints as quickly as possible;
- send an acknowledgement letter to you within 5 working days if we cannot deal with your complaint immediately;
- send you a final written answer within 10 working days of receiving your complaint;
- keep you regularly informed if we cannot answer you in 10 working days;
- make sure you get a letter explaining the result of your complaint;
- treat you with respect;
- make sure we treat your complaint in confidence;
- look at the pattern of complaints and try to improve areas with continuing problems.
We produce an annual complaints report in which we detail the number of complaints received and how our departments performed in responding to them. You can download the report in Adobe's pdf format.
 Annual complaints report 2006/07 (555 kb)
We welcome your feedback and invite you to email any comments you may have on the report to enquiries@wandsworth.gov.uk
Download
You can download our guide to the suggestions and complaints procedures in Adobe's pdf format.
Suggestions and complaints (610 kb) |
