What is a complaint?

A complaint is when you're unhappy with something. It may be something we may have done or said, the way that we may have acted, or with a decision we've made. When you make a complaint we'd like you to help us look into what you think has gone wrong, why, and how we can learn from it.

When you make a complaint we'll:

• always treat your complaint seriously and with great importance.
• always make contact with you. A member of our Customer Resolution team will try to contact you within three to five working days. It sometimes may be longer, but we'll always contact you.
• talk to you about it. Find out what's happened, why it's made you unhappy and what you'd like to see happen or changed as a result of your complaint.
• ask someone from the service to look into your concerns and provide you with a response.

We ask you to:

• take time to think about the complaint you wish to make and the outcome you'd like. It might be helpful to make some notes about the key points you wish to raise and the examples you have to support what's happened.
• work with us to investigate your complaint. This may mean meeting with us, talking to us and sharing documents to support your complaint.
• make sure you tell us everything that you wish to make a complaint about. It may be too late to add more information after we've agreed your complaint with you.
• treat us with respect and dignity.

Customer complaints are really important to us and provide us with an opportunity to learn from and improve our services to you.

What is a compliment?

A compliment is when you're happy with something. This may be something that we may have done or said, the way that we have acted, or with a decision we've made. Your compliments will be shared with the service, and if it's about a person we'll ask their manager to let them know. We'll always try to contact you to thank you for the compliment you've made.

How to make a complaint or a compliment about a council service

If you've a complaint or a suggestion it’s often easier to sort it out by talking to somebody in the service first. If you’ve done this already, and are still not happy, you can ask us to look into the matter in more detail and give you a written response. 

The quickest way to tell us about it is online, by filling in our compliments and complaints form below. You can use it to tell us about any council service. 

If your complaint is about a potential breach of your personal data, you should report a personal data breach to us.

Complaints about a councillor

You're entitled to expect the highest standards of conduct from all members of the council. If you're unhappy with the actions of a councillor you can make a complaint.

The Members Code of Conduct outlines the expectations of councillors and appendix 3 shows how members' code of conduct concerns and complaints will be considered. It's important to note that there are some types of complaint which won't be considered under this procedure.

The quickest way to tell us about your complaint is by completing our online "make a complaint about a councillor" form below. If your complaint is about a council service, please use our "complaint or compliment about a council service" form instead.

Other complaints 

If your complaint is about a potential breach of your personal data, you should report a personal data breach to us.

If your complaint is about a school or Berneslai Homes you can:

• read more about school complaints here
• make a complaint to Berneslai Homes

If you're worried about the welfare or safety of a vulnerable child or adult or you're concerned about public safety, please use one of the links below. These will give you details on how you can report your concerns.

It's important that you take this action to make sure that the right service is informed of your concern.

• Children’s Social Care Services
• Adult Social Care Services
• Public safety concerns

You can find out how to make a complaint about other services and organisations here: 

• OFSTED for schools, nurseries and childminders
• Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman for complaints about the council 
• Barnsley Hospital
• NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board for GPs, dentists, pharmacists and optometrists
• Care Quality Commission (CQC) for care homes and other registered care providers

Other ways to contact us

You can also make a complaint or a compliment by: 

• telephoning 01226 773555 between Monday and Friday 9am to 5pm.
• writing to us at Customer Resolution Team, PO Box 634, Barnsley, S70 9GG. Please mark your envelope TO BE OPENED BY ADDRESSEE ONLY.

What happens next 

A member of the Customer Resolution Team will look at what you've sent to us. We'll then contact you to tell you what we'll do next.

If the action we take is different to what you've reported (e.g. a complaint) we'll let you know why. This can happen when we can deal with your complaint in another, more suitable way. For example -  if you're asking us to take some action, we may send this on to the service responsible so they can address the matter directly. 

We'll try to contact you within three to five working days after accepting your contact as a complaint. It sometimes may be longer, but we'll always contact you.

If you want to talk to us about how we've handled your contact please let the Customer Resolution Team know as soon as possible.

If you'd like to know more about what will happen when you make a complaint, view our complaints procedure. 

For children's social care complaints we follow a different procedure that you can read about here. 

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman 

If you're not happy with how we’ve dealt with your complaint you can take it further. You have the right to ask the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to look into the matter for you. 

Read more about what the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman will do and how to get in touch with them.