Reporting of complaints, comments and compliments

Unacceptable actions by complainants

There may be circumstances where a complainant persists in pursuing a complaint (or series of complaints) when North Lanarkshire Council has taken all the reasonable actions in response. 

In such cases continuing correspondence should be checked to ensure that it does not contain new issues which merit a response.  A review of the complainant's case should be carried out and the matter drawn to the attention of the relevant Head of Service or  Executive Director whereby the appropriate course of action will be agreed.  This may include:-

• informing the complainant that no further action can be  taken by the authority in response to their complaint and advising them that only new or substantive issues will receive further response
• nominating a single point of contact for any further communication

Persistent complainers should also be informed of how they can progress their complaint further (eg through the Local Government Ombudsman).

Violent or abusive behaviour towards our staff will not be tolerated.  Please refer to the Authorities policies and reporting guidelines relating to Health and Safety and Violence at work for more information.

Complaints crossing more than one public body or organisation

If a complaint relates to a partner organisation the complaint will be recorded and forwarded to the relevant contact and the customer informed of the action.

Where a third party supplies services on our behalf, the supplier will deal with complaints through its own complaints procedure. 

Publicity and information

There will be one standard North Lanarkshire Council complaint leaflet and poster to publicise the complaints procedure.  Services will not develop their own publicity material.

We will publicise the complaints, comments and compliments procedure using leaflets, posters, the council's website and the plasma screen network in public areas.  Posters advertising the complaints, comments and compliments procedure will be displayed at all public reception points.  All publicity materials for the procedure will be presented in plain English and available, on request, in minority languages, audiotape and braille. 

Reporting of complaints, comments and compliments

The Corporate Service Improvement Team will prepare quarterly reports for the Corporate Management Team detailing:-

•   volume of new complaints; comments and compliments
•  status of complaints at each stage
•   compliance with customer standards

Feedback on the complaints procedure will be gathered via a rolling survey of closed complaints.

Details of service improvements made as a result of customer feedback will be gathered by the Corporate Service Improvement Team and will be publicised on the council's website and in the North Lanarkshire News.

Services will continue to report on complaints through the Performance Portfolios.

The complaints, comments and compliments policy will be reviewed on an annual basis or when statutory requirements change to ensure its ongoing relevance.

[Back to Start] [Forward to next section]