Make a complaint
Before making a complaint, please check what you can't make a formal complaint about. You should also read our tips for making a complaint.
For complaints about a councillor or a school, please follow the links at the end of this page.
If you need help to make a complaint, you can appoint someone to deal with it on your behalf. If you don't have anyone to assist, we can help you find someone independent to speak for you.
If you wish to complain for another person, please read about complaints on behalf of someone else.
If you wish to make your complaint direct to a councillor, Member of Parliament (MP) or an independent ombudsman, please read our guidance on others you can turn to.
Complaints about council services
You can make a complaint by email, phone, in writing, or using social media.
We will use our complaints procedure to deal with any complaint we receive via social media. We ask that the complainant sends full details to the email address below, as this helps our Complaints team to follow the relevant complaints process. For data protection reasons, even when a complaint is made openly on social media, we send our response only to the person who made the complaint.
Our complaints processes
We want to make sure your complaint is received and acted upon by the right service.
Most complaints about our services are general complaints. We will use our general complaints process unless you are complaining about social care services or housing. Go to:
- general complaints
- adult social care complaints
- children and young people's social care complaints
- housing complaints
Complaints about data protection breaches are dealt with as a 1-stage internal process.
Complaints about responses to freedom of information requests are dealt with as a 1-stage internal process.
Complaints about councillors
Complaints about councillors are dealt with by our monitoring officer.
Complaints about schools
Complaints about primary schools, secondary schools and special schools should be directed to the school's head teacher.