12. Stage 2
The complaint will be acknowledged at stage 2 by the council’s complaints team within 5 working days.
The complainant will be encouraged to detail the reasons why they believe their complaint has not been resolved in order that the stage 2 investigation can be focused on the specific outstanding elements of the complaint. However, we will not unreasonably refuse to progress a complaint if this information has not been provided and will take reasonable steps to understand why a complainant remains unhappy. We will not refuse to escalate a complaint unless we have valid reasons for doing so and will clearly explain these reasons.
Complaints at this stage will be investigated by an appropriate officer, usually the Director responsible for the service area. A response will be prepared and sent to the complainant within 20 working days of acknowledgement, where this is practical, but where this is not possible due to the complexity of the matter to which the complaint relates or other exceptional or unforeseen circumstances, we will make this known to the complainant and provide an indicative timescale when a full response will be provided. This correspondence will include contact details for the relevant Ombudsman. When a response is provided, this will be the council’s final response.
The stage 2 response will include:
- A definition and description of the matters considered
- The decision on the complaint
- The reasons for any decision made
- Details or any remedy offered to put things right
- Details and timescale for any outstanding actions
- Details of how to escalate the complaint to the appropriate Ombudsman if the individual is not satisfied.