Appendix 5 - New ESCC complaint policy

For decision · This went to the meeting on Tue 2 Dec 2025. What was decided is in that meeting's minutes.

The policy defines a complaint as an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the council, its staff, or those acting on its behalf. p1

Under the policy, complaints would normally be accepted within 12 months of the issue occurring or of the person becoming aware of it, and complaints covered by separate statutory processes would be handled under those processes instead. p3

The main process has two stages: the council would acknowledge a complaint within five working days and aim to respond within 10 working days at Stage 1, with a Stage 2 review by a different complaint handler answered within 20 working days of acknowledgement. p14p16

People who remain unhappy after the council's response can take their complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which is independent of all government bodies. p4

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• p1East Sussex County Council Complaint Handling Policy 1. Introduction and Purpose 1.1 The purpose of this policy is to outline East Sussex County Council’s procedures for handling complaints. We aim to ensure that complaints are investigated fairly, promptly, and in a manner that promotes learning and improvement. 1.2 East Sussex County Council values the views of our customers. We are committed to dealing effectively with any concerns or complaints about our services. If we have got something wrong, we’ll apologise and try to put things right. We will listen to your concerns and ensure you have an opportunity to explain your position. We learn from complaints to help improve our services. 1.3 We will deal with your concerns in an objective, open and honest way. Any contact you have with us in the future will not be affected because you have expressed a concern or made a complaint. This includes acknowledging and taking steps to address any actual or perceived conflict of interest in the handling of your complaint that you may raise or that we may become aware of. 1.4 We define a complaint as ‘an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual or group of individuals.’ This means that we may treat correspondence not received directly by complaints handling staff as a complaint and provide a written response. 1.5 You do not need to use the word ‘complaint’ in order for your concern or issue to be treated as a complaint. A complaint can also be submitted by a third party or representative and we will handle it in line with this policy. 1.6 This policy applies to complaints regarding a service where you have not been able to resolve the issues by speaking directly with the staff providing the service.
• p32.2 This policy does not apply to complaints where there is a statutory process in place. Statutory complaints procedures for some complaints in Adult Social Care and Health and Children’s Services are set out in Appendix 1. 2.3 We will accept complaints that are made within 12 months of the issue occurring. We will also accept complaints which are made within 12 months of when you become aware of the issue. We may accept a complaint outside of this timeframe where there are good reasons to do so. 2.4 We will not investigate complaints under this policy for services or decisions made which we are not responsible for. We only deal with complaints from individuals, their families or authorised representatives about services delivered by the Council. If you complain to us about matters outside our responsibility, we will do our best to signpost you to the right organisation or authority, providing their contact details where possible. 2.5 We will not investigate any matters where there is a right of appeal to a tribunal or appeal panel to resolve your concern. We will tell you where you can appeal and we expect you to follow the procedure available to you. 2.6 We may not be able to accept your complaint where a legal or other action is ongoing. The reason for this is that a complaint may interfere with the ongoing action or legal proceedings. This is called “concurrent consideration”. We will let you know if this is the case and why we are not able to accept your complaint. Once the legal or other action has ended, you may submit your complaint again and we will check if we can accept your complaint. 2.7 If you make a new complaint through another staff member or route and we are already handling a similar matter for you, we will not create a new complaint. We will let you know that we are already dealing with the matter. 2.8 Complaints about staff conduct are not dealt with by complaints handling staff directly.
• p4There are separate HR processes covering staff performance and conduct. 2.9 Where a complaint contains issues relating to staff conduct, we will then pass details of the part of the complaint about staff conduct to the relevant line manager for their information and action as appropriate. Depending on the nature of the complaint, we may also pass details to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) or Persons in Position of Trust (PIPOT). The LADO oversees allegations about adults who work or volunteer with children. The PIPOT oversees allegations or concerns about individuals who work or volunteer with adults at risk. 2.10 For reasons of employer and employee confidentiality, feedback on staff conduct complaints will generally not be provided. However, you can be assured that all complaints are taken seriously, and the relevant action taken. 2.11 If you raise other issues as part of any conduct complaint, a response will be provided to these issues. 2.12 Complaints about Child Protection (CP) Conferences in East Sussex are governed by the Pan-Sussex Child Protection and Safeguarding Procedures Manual . This is a shared set of procedures used throughout East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton & Hove. Full details of this process are set out in the Pan-Sussex Complaints Process , but the key information is provided in Appendix 3. Any changes made to the Pan-Sussex Complaints Process will override information here. 2.13 In most cases, if we tell you that we will not accept your complaint, we will explain that you can escalate it to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. The Ombudsman is independent of all government bodies and can investigate the handling of your complaint by the Council. If you remain unhappy following our response, you can contact the Ombudsman to make a complaint to them. Normally, they will only investigate your case after you've given us the chance to investigate it.
• p14This includes children and young people. We will check that you have consent or another lawful basis from the person you are representing to consider your complaint and share personal and sensitive information about them with you. Our response to you will only include information that relates to you and your involvement with the Council unless we receive a valid consent form. More details about consent are explained in Appendix 4. 6.5 We will acknowledge receiving your complaint within five working days. If we cannot accept your complaint, we will tell you at this stage and explain the reason for this. 6.6 If it is not possible to acknowledge that we have accepted your complaint within five working days, we will let you know. We will explain why, and when you can expect to know whether we can respond to your complaint. We may request further information from you to help us understand your complaint. 6.7 We will review the available evidence. This could include case files, notes of conversations, letters, and emails. We may also talk to the staff about your complaint. We will look at our policies and guidance and any legal entitlement if relevant. 6.8 If during the investigation, we become aware of circumstances that could lead to a safeguarding risk, we will take advice. We may suspend the complaint until this risk has reduced. We will tell you of this unless doing so would add to the risk identified. 6.9 In some cases, we may suggest a meeting with a service manager to discuss your concerns or another method to try to resolve any disagreements. 6.10 We will aim to send you a written response within 10 working days of your complaint being acknowledged. 6.11 If you add to your complaint, we will add the new issues into the response if we are able to. If this would delay the process or they are unrelated to the complaint already being considered, we will consider the new issues as a new complaint.
• p16Stage 2 6.15 If you are unhappy with the Stage 1 response, you can escalate the complaint to Stage 2. 6.16 We will acknowledge your request to escalate a complaint to Stage 2 within five working days. The acknowledgement will summarise our understanding of any outstanding issues and the outcomes you are seeking. If this is not clear we will ask you for clarification. 6.17 Your complaint will be handled by a different complaint handler at Stage 2. 6.18 We will respond to your complaint within 20 working days of the complaint being acknowledged. 6.19 If your complaint is complex we will let you know that we need more time. We will explain the reasons for this and give you details of the Ombudsman. 6.20 The Stage 2 response will set out: the complaint stage; our understanding of the complaint; the decision on the complaint; the reasons for any decisions made; the details of any remedy offered to put things right; details of any outstanding actions; and details of how to escalate the matter to the Ombudsman if you remain dissatisfied.