Complaints we cannot deal with

There are some complaints that we cannot investigate. These include: 

• when there are legal proceedings taking place, or relating to matters of law or central government policy
• employee/personnel matters
• where there is an alternative appeal process before a court or tribunal – for example for planning permission, school admissions, housing benefit, penalty charge notices
• insurance claims
• data protection breaches and freedom of information/environmental information requests
• complaints relating to child protection conferences 
• complaints about adults or children and young people’s social care (these are dealt with under separate statutory procedures)
• complaints about council services made through elected members (these are handled as member enquiries)
• complaints about councillors – these are handled separately by the Monitoring Officer and Standards Committee
• complaints made outside of the complaints timeframe or for matters beyond our control

See our draft resident feedback policy (pdf, 8 page(s), 178.63 KB) for the full list of complaints we cannot investigate.

If we think we cannot investigate your complaint, we will tell you the reasons why.

You have the right to challenge our decision not to investigate your complaint by contacting the relevant Ombudsman. Where appropriate, the Ombudsman may instruct us to accept your complaint.