Corporate complaints

The council has a corporate complaints policy in place to ensure there is a consistent approach to complaints across the council and that all complaints are treated seriously and sympathetically and resolved at the earliest possible stage.  

Our three stage complaints procedure

Stage 1 - Make a complaint about the service you are unhappy with

Make a complaint via the online complaints form, email complaints@southwark.gov.uk, call the customer service centre on 020 7525 0042 or visit a one stop shop.

Your complaint will be acknowledged within two working days, fully investigated by the business unit, and you will receive a full written response within 15 working days.

We hope that you will be satisfied with our initial response to your complaint, but  if you remain unhappy you can take the matter further.

Stage 2 - Complain direct to the corporate complaints unit who will investigate independently

If you're unhappy with the stage one response you received, you can contact the Corporate Complaints Unit with a summary of your dissatisfaction with the stage one response you received.

The stage two team within the unit will then look at how your complaint was dealt with at the initial stage and carry out a further full investigation on behalf of the relevant head of service.

Your complaint will be acknowledged within two working days and the team has up to 20 working days to respond to you. In some cases this may take longer and if so you will be informed via post if there are any delays in investigating your complaint.

Once the investigation is complete you will receive a full written response, with the option to progress your complaint further if you are unsatisfied with the response.

To contact the Corporate Complaints Unit, email CCU@southwark.gov.uk, telephone 0207 525 2209, or write to Corporate Complaints, PO BOX 64529, London, SE1P 5LX.

Stage 3 - Complain further to the corporate complaints unit who will investigate directly on behalf of the chief executive

If you are still unhappy after receiving your stage two response, you can request a final review of your complaint by contacting the Corporate Complaints Unit (using the same contact methods given above as for when making a stage two complaint).

Summarise your reasons for dissatisfaction with the stage two response, and the stage three team within the unit will independently review your complaint and a full investigation will be carried out on behalf of the chief executive.

Your complaint will be acknowledged within two working days, and you can expect to receive a full written response within 25 working days. If there are any delays you will be contacted and notified of when you can expect to receive a response by.

This is the final stage of the complaints procedure.

Taking matters further

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your complaint upon completion of the stage three investigation, you can contact the local government ombudsman.

This is a free, independent service that investigates complaints against councils. You can complain to the ombudsman at any time but they will only usually investigate if you have already been through our own complaints procedure.