Feedback - complaints and compliments

How do I provide feedback about council services? 

Feedback is a valuable, powerful tool that enables us to understand what we’re doing well and what can be improved.

Please note: all feedback is processed during normal working hours from Monday to Friday. If your feedback is urgent use the 'contact us' section of this website. 

Other ways to get in touch

• Fill in a feedback form at any customer service centre, leisure centre or library
• Via your councillor
• Via the member of staff you have been in contact with
• By calling our contact centre on (01482) 393939 between 7:30am and 6.00pm

Or you can write to us

For all council services except adult’s and children’s social care

Feedback team
East Riding Of Yorkshire Council 
County Hall
Cross Street
Beverley
HU17 9BA

For adult’s and children’s social care feedback

Customer relations team (adult's and children's social care)
East Riding Of Yorkshire Council
County Hall
Cross Street
Beverley
HU17 9BA.

What happens once I have submitted my feedback? 

All feedback will be processed and acknowledged within two working days.

When a new complaint is received it will be logged at Stage 1 and assigned to an investigating officer for the relevant service area. Your complaint will then be investigated and you will receive a response within 10 working days.

Unfortunately, some complaints cannot be resolved within 10 working days, if this is the case we will contact you and let you know when you can expect a response.

Adult’s and children's social care feedback

If you submit feedback about adult's and children's social care it will be looked into by an investigating officer and dealt with in an agreed timescale, following discussions with yourself and the investigating officer.

Read more about children's social care feedback.

Council's complaint and feedback policy (pdf 153kb)

Further information about feedback received by the council, including adult's and children's social care can be found in our annual reports:

Feedback Annual Report 2020-21 (pdf 596kb)

Adult Services Annual Feedback Report 2019-20 (pdf 962kb)

Children's Services Annual Feedback Report 2019 -20 (pdf 381kb)

What if I am not happy with the response I receive to my complaint?

If you are not happy with the response to your complaint you can request for it to be escalated to Stage 2. You must do this within 90 days of receiving your response. An escalated response is normally looked at by an executive director. Your escalation will be processed and acknowledged within two working days. Once your escalated complaint has been investigated you will receive a response within 10 working days.

If your complaint cannot be resolved within 10 working days, we will let you know when you can expect a response.

What happens if I'm still not happy with your response?

If after receiving your response to your escalated complaint you are still not happy, you can take your complaint to the independent Ombudsman who will review your complaint free of charge. The nature of your original complaint will depend on which ombudsman you refer your complaint to. The Ombudsman may not be able to assist with some complaints, we will though make it clear what options you have as part of our stage 2 complaint responses.

The Ombudsman will want to see that every effort has been made to resolve the complaint locally before investigating.

If you are a housing tenant and remain dissatisfied after receiving your response to your escalated complaint, you can refer the matter to either a designated person or the Housing Ombudsman.  

Referring an eligible complaint to a designated person means that you can send your complaint to your local councillor, your MP or the local Tenants’ Panel.  At this stage, your complaint will be reviewed, and a decision will be taken on whether the complaint can be resolved to the satisfaction of both the tenant and the council.  Your designated person has the power to refer the complaint to the Ombudsman if they feel this is the most appropriate channel. 

You may decide not to refer your complaint to the Tenant Complaints Panel and refer your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman instead. However, complaints cannot be sent to the Ombudsman until eight weeks after receiving your final response from the council.

Which Ombudsman? 

In most cases, it will be the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman that you need to take your complaint to. If however, the original complaint is relating to housing you may need to refer it to the Housing Ombudsman. 

You can ask the relevant Ombudsman to independently investigate, depending on the nature of your complaint: 

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

Complaints relating to the following issues will be handled by the Local Government Ombudsman:

• Planning
• Some housing issues
• Social care
• Some education and schools issues
• Children’s services
• Housing benefit
• Council tax
• Transport and highways
• Environment and waste
• Neighbour nuisance and antisocial behaviour

Get in touch with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman via their website.

Housing Ombudsman

Complaints relating to the following issues will be handled by the Housing Ombudsman:

• Leasehold Services – sale and repair of leasehold properties, mortgage rescue schemes
  
• Moving to a property – transfers, mutual exchanges, type of tenancy offered
  
• Rents and service charges
  
• Occupancy rights – conditions of tenancy, succession/assignment (passing on your tenancy), possession proceedings
  
• Property condition – repairs, empty properties, planned maintenance
  
• Tenant behaviour – anti-social behaviour, noise nuisance, harassment
  
• Estate management – use and maintenance of communal areas, grounds maintenance, parking
  
• Complaint handling
  
• Compensation – home loss or disturbance, improvements, damage or discretionary payments.
  

Get in touch with the Housing Ombudsman via their website.

For further information on how the East Riding of Yorkshire Council complies with the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code, you can view the Self-Assessment.

Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code - Compliance Self-Assessment (pdf 113kb)

Pensions Ombudsman

Complaints relating to the way pension schemes are run will be handled by the Pensions Ombudsman:

• taking too long to do something without good reason
• failing to do something they should have
• not following their own rules or the law
• breaking a promise
• giving incorrect or misleading information
• not making a decision in the right way

Get in touch with the Pensions Ombudsman via their website.

Can I leave informal feedback? 

Yes, you can leave informal feedback with the services who you have been dealing with by speaking to them directly. The council receives high volumes of informal feedback, including compliments which are never formally recorded but are dealt with at the point of contact. We want to receive informal feedback as it still helps to meet our commitment to high-quality customer service.

Housing services

If you are dissatisfied with a service you have received from housing services (such as a problem with housing allocations, repairs or maintenance) you should contact your area housing management officer on (01482) 396301. 

In most cases, they will be able to resolve the problem for you.

Can I leave feedback about a school? 

The council does not normally deal with feedback about schools.

Read more about how school concerns and complaints are handled.

Find location and contact details for schools.

Can I 'Ask the Leader' of the council a question?

If you have an idea of how things could be done better, or if you want to express your views on one of the major issues of the day, please contact the leader of the council, Councillor Owen. 

Once you have submitted your 'Ask the Leader' question or comment, it will be processed and acknowledged within two working days. Requests are normally responded to within 10 working days.

Please note: 'Ask the Leader' requests can only be submitted by people who live in the East Riding.

What can I do if I find something on the council's website which I think is defamatory?

A statement is only defamatory if its publication has caused or is likely to cause serious harm to the reputation of the complainant (you). In the case of a body which trades for profit, harm is not 'serious' unless it has caused or is likely to cause, serious financial loss. 

If you find something on the council website which you think is defamatory you can report it online:

Report defamatory material on the council's website 

If you want to complain about more than one statement you can put all the details on the same form.

How we process the complaint 

Within 48 hours of completing the form, you will receive an email to confirm we have received your notice of complaint and that we have contacted the person who posted the defamatory material.

This person then has five days to respond to the notice of complaint. On receiving the response the council will notify you of the outcome within 48 hours.

If the poster does not want the defamatory material removed we will inform you of this and provide you with their name and postal address (if they have consented) so that you can contact them directly. If they do not consent to their details being shared you will need to consider what further action you wish to take, including whether to seek a court order for disclosure. You may wish to take legal advice before taking any further steps.

If the material is removed and is then reposted, you will need to report it using the form above. To help us deal with the issue you need to inform us of your previous notice of complaint, ideally quoting the reference number you will have received previously.

Further information

Read more about the Defamation Act 2013 on the government's Legislation website.