Sunday 23 October 2011
Complaints at Brent Council
This story, about the very low number of complaints at Brent Council, deserves more publicity. Officers have worked hard over some years to improve the handling of complaints, and to sort out any issues identified. We should also remember that this improvement has come at a time of record pressure on budgets.
5 comments:
Well you wont be able to say that next year cllr Powney.
Will you?
Is that because Brent is better at handling complaints? Or better at making residents feel there's no point complaining because they're not going to be listened to anyway. I made two complaints recently and have not received a detailed response to either of them or other correspondence however I am hopeful that I will do so within 28 days which I hope you agree is a reasonable timescale.
It's disappointing that the auto-reply you get from the online complaints system doesn't actually link to to Brent's complaints policy (Do I need to raise a complaint to fix that?) It turns out that Brent has a good complaints procedure. It promises an acknowledgment within 5 days (which I assume is guaranteed because the system auto-replies) and a response from the relevant manager in 15 working days.
I count down the days to a response to my first two complaints. I do hope they take my complaint about library staff damaging IT equipment seriously and the response is not biased by their knowledge that I am involved in the Save Preston Library campaign as that has really nothing to do with my complaint. Indeed one member of the campaign was rather unhappy that I even set foot in Kingsbury library, but I've always been a pragmatist.
There are several reasons why this is hogwash. Brent citizens do not feel able to complain, and when they do the complaints are not registered. Telephone calls are never returned, and when you try to call the council you are merely offered platitudes such as the tiresome 'we'll see what we can do' and how your call is taken seriously. I think that the forthcoming closure of six Brent libraries has shown that people are complaining in a different manner.
For anyone else's information, the relevant peices on how to complain and what the procedure is on Brent's website are:
http://www.brent.gov.uk/complaints.nsf/Corporate%20Complaints/LBB-1
and
http://www.brent.gov.uk/complaints.nsf/pages/LBB-4
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