Complaints, Suggestions & Compliments

Cheshire East Borough Council is committed to delivering the highest possible quality and level of service to people living in, working in or visiting the Borough.

This means providing services that meet the needs of local people and refining these services as needs change. An essential part of this process is providing opportunities for people to share their views and for the Council to demonstrate that these views are listened to and, wherever possible, translated into service improvement. Such improvement may be the delivery of simpler, more accessible services, or services that are delivered more cost effectively.

Cheshire East Council welcomes your feedback

This may be a complaint when we have got something wrong, suggestions about how we could improve or even a comment to say that we have done that important bit extra to help.

We know that when people contact us about a problem they sometimes have other related issues that are delivered by other community organisations. As we move through this year and into next we hope to be able to help with these related issues as well. Our ultimate aim is to deliver a wide range of community services at any of our Customer Service Points.

Complaints about Council services are taken seriously

On occasions we will get things wrong and if so we will admit it, say sorry and quickly put the matter right. We will do this not just by addressing the symptoms, but by rectifying the root cause. Our aim is to prevent the problem happening again. In fact we aim to improve our reputation by dealing with complaints in an approachable and efficient way.

Our Complaints, Suggestions & Compliments Policy (PDF, 66.5KB) provides full details of our commitment to listening to our customers and the process involved in providing feedback to us. Alternatively click on one or more of the menu items below.

• What is a complaint?
• How do I make contact to complain, make a suggestion or provide a compliment?
• What happens next?
• What about complaints about Adult and Children Social Care?
• Contacting the Local Government Ombudsman

All Cheshire East Borough Council staff are expected to be positive about, and encourage customer feedback and are expected to enhance the image and reputation of the Council in the way they respond to Complaints, Suggestions and Compliments.

Please provide feedback to us about the quality of our services, including your experience in terms of the Council delivering on the above promise

Erika Wenzel
Chief Executive

What is a complaint?

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about the council’s action or lack of action or about the standard of a service. The action could have been taken, or the service provided, by the council itself, or by a body acting on behalf of the council.

Examples include:

• Failure to consider relevant matters in coming to a decision
• Failure to implement a decision
• The behaviour or perceived behaviour of individual employees
• Delays in responding to matters
• Failure to provide a service that should be provided
• Failure to fulfil statutory responsibilities
• Discrimination

Complaints About Social Care Services for Adults or Children

If your complaint is about social care services it will be dealt with under separate procedures:-

• Making a complaint about children's social care services
• Making a complaint about adult social care services