Comments, compliments and complaints

Make us aware of the problem by reporting a:

• pothole or a highway problem
• faulty or broken street light
• gully or drain issue

You can also make a highways claim if a defect on the highway caused vehicle or personal damage.

Make us aware of the problem by:

• reporting a missed bin
• requesting a new or replacement  bin
• replacing a missing or damaged garden waste sticker
• reporting Fly-tipping
• reporting an issue with grass cutting, trees, hedges and weeds
• reporting litter or requesting street cleaning
• reporting graffiti

We work with different partners to help us deliver waste and environmental services in certain areas. In the first instance we may ask the provider of the service to address your report and we will monitor their response.

Make us aware of the problem by:

• reporting a repair for a council house
• requesting an update on a repair for a council house
• request a change of appointment for a repair

To get the best results from AI while keeping your complaint clear and personal:

• focus your prompts on what happened and how it affected you
• check any AI text to make sure it reflects your experience and is accurate
• don’t ask AI to add legal language or laws to make it sound more formal - AI can include incorrect or outdated legal details and may make your complaint too long or complicated, which can slow down our response

You should remove any personal information that could identify you, such as your full name, address, DOB or NHS number, and use placeholders instead while you are drafting the complaint, such as [the worker] or [my advocate]. You can then add your personal details directly to the complaint form without having to share it with the AI tool.

The AI prompts below may help you to fill out our complaint form. A prompt is a question or instruction that you type into an AI tool to tell it what you want help with. 

Prompt 1: I need to clearly explain what happened on [date] when [describe the situation]. Here are the details: [provide all the facts and circumstances]. Help me organise these into a clear structure that shows what happened and how the issue can be addressed.

Prompt 2: Help me describe what happened in simple, clear language: [describe each issue in detail, including who was involved, what they said or did, and when it happened]. Help me express this clearly while keeping it in my own voice.

Prompt 3: Help me explain how this affected my daily life and how it made me feel. Here's what happened to me: [describe specific impacts on your health, work, family, finances or emotions. Explain how long problems lasted, what you couldn’t do and any on-going effects]. Make sure each impact is connected to what went wrong.

Prompt 4: Rewrite the text below as a clear, polite complaint. Use only the information I have provided. Do not add or invent new facts. Be concise and professional, but not too formal. Include a closing paragraph suggesting how I would like the complaint to be resolved.

You can also make a complaint by calling or writing to us. If you choose to write a letter, please make sure you leave your contact details alongside the complaint.

By phone:
Our lines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm 

• 0300 126 3000

By post:
Compliments, Comments and Complaints Team
Municipal Offices
Bowling Green Road
Kettering
NN15 7Q

Complaint (Stage 1)

We will investigate what happened, see if there is anything we can do to resolve it and improve our service for others.

• You will receive an acknowledgment for your complaint
• It will be sent to the service you are complaining about within 5 working days of receipt. They may ask for further information
• We will provide a written response within 10 working days - if it will take longer, we will contact you, explain why and give you a revised date

Make a formal complaint

Escalation (Stage 2)

If you're not satisfied with our response, you can ask for a review.

• You will receive an acknowledgment for your complaint
• It will be sent to the service you are complaining about within 5 working days of receipt. They may ask for further information. Ombudsman Services details will be provided with the acknowledgment
• We will provide a written response within 20 working days - if it will take longer, we will contact you, explain why and give you a revised date

Escalate a complaint

If you are still unhappy

You have the right to ask the appropriate ombudsman to investigate complaints within 12 months. They won't usually consider a complaint until we have had a chance to resolve the matter through our own procedure.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigates complaints for most services. Their contact details are:

• Local Government Ombudsman website
• Telephone: 0300 061 0614 

Landlord services have their own ombudsman - the Housing Ombudsman Service.

• Contact the Housing Ombudsman

These policies don't apply to apply to complaints about:

• Councillor conduct
• decisions that are subject to an appeals
• making an insurance claim
• other matters outlined in section 2.3 of our comments, compliments and complaints policy

Policies and procedures

• North Northamptonshire Council Customer Compliments Comments and Complaints Policy
• Adult Social Care complaints process
• Children and young peoples services statutory complaints procedure
• Housing Landlord Services customer complaints policy

Reports

The Housing Ombudsman also requires us to complete a Complaints and Service Improvement Report every year as well as a self assessment for Complaint Handling Code.

This policy identifies customer behaviours which are unacceptable and sets out actions we will take to protect staff, councillors, contractors and others providing services on our behalf.

1.0 Introduction

The council helps thousands of customers every year and welcomes customers’ comments and suggestions, they are key in helping the council develop and improve the services it provides. The council’s service provision will be guided by its values:

• Customer-focused
• Respectful
• Efficient
• Supportive
• Trustworthy

The council recognises that in times of distress, customers accessing services may act out of character. The council is committed to dealing with customers fairly, impartially and empathetically. Occasionally some customers may behave in a manner that is unacceptable or unreasonable. Threatening, bullying, discriminatory or abusive behaviours are not acceptable and may require customer contact to be managed or stopped to protect our officers, councillors, contractors and others providing services on the council’s behalf. Similarly, contacts of excessive frequency, repetition, duration or content which unreasonably hinder the council’s ability to deliver services may require managing.

2.0 Scope

North Northamptonshire Council’s customers are the people who contact the council and use our services and who are affected by the work we do. The council works to ensure that services remain accessible to all customers.

This policy identifies customer behaviours which are unacceptable and sets out actions that the council will take to manage those behaviours in order to protect staff, councillors, contractors and others providing services on the council’s behalf and to ensure council business is not impeded.

This policy does not supersede policies in place for specific areas of the council or for agencies operating on behalf of the council.

3.0 Behaviours assessed as unacceptable

3.1 Abusive, offensive or threatening behaviour

Persons providing council services have the right not to suffer abusive, offensive or threatening behaviour even when a customer is distressed. Some examples (not an exhaustive list) of behaviours assessed as being unacceptable include:

• abusive, foul or offensive language
• name calling
• shouting
• remarks of a sexual nature
• racist language
• misogynistic language
• discriminatory remarks due to sexuality or trans gender status
• offensive gestures
• verbal or physical threats
• physical violence such as punching, kicking, spitting
• attempted physical violence
• bullying or intimidating behaviour
• using, brandishing or throwing weapons or other objects with the intention of inflicting physical or psychological harm
• using or threatening to use an animal to inflict physical or psychological harm, this includes failure to control an animal from inflicting harm
• harassment, including stalking
• publishing unacceptable information on social media, websites, newspapers, etc.

3.2 Unreasonable and unacceptable demands on services

Expectations from a customer may be viewed as unreasonable or the level of demand from a customer may be deemed unacceptable. This could include the number of contacts made in relation to an issue or issues. In some cases, this may be unintentional and what is deemed to be unacceptable will depend on individual circumstances surrounding the behaviour or issue. The council may view these types of behaviours to be unacceptable if they impact significantly on workloads or the capacity to deliver services by taking up excessive amounts of time, thus disadvantaging other customers. Some examples of unreasonable or unacceptable demands may include:

• demanding a response within an unreasonable timescale
• insistence on dealing with a specific member of staff
• same or similar requests to several members of staff
• refusal to end a telephone call or insistence on speaking with a person who is unavailable or not the appropriate person for example, the Chief Executive
• requiring responses to malicious correspondence

3.3 Unacceptable persistent contact

Where persistent contact becomes unreasonable, or if communications become forceful or unreasonably demanding, persistence may be considered harassment.

Some examples of unacceptable persistent contact may include:

• excessive contact and communications beyond requirements
• refusal to accept a decision where due process (appeal or complaint) has been completed
• refusal to follow the explained process to pursue an issue or concern
• continuing contact about the same issue(s) without presenting new information
• using other names to continue to try to access officers or councillors about the same issues

3.4 Unacceptable public expression of views or acts of civil disobedience while on council premises

The council is committed to delivering excellent services to all its customers and this includes ensuring that our environment is safe and welcoming which requires cooperation from visitors. Customers should be able to express their views and opinions in a lawful manner without resort to unacceptable behaviours or actions that affect employees, councillors or other visitors. The council will take necessary action to remove from its property and prevent a person from entering its property if the following types of unacceptable behaviours of these types are used:

• Use of intimidating, threatening, discriminatory or foul language towards staff, councillors, volunteers, customers or visitors
• Harassment or bullying of staff, councillors, volunteers, customers or visitors
• Disorderly conduct such as causing disturbances, shouting or any other type of activity which prevents or hinders day to day business of the council
• Congregating in the building or blocking access points and thoroughfares and preventing and hindering day to day business of the council
• Entering or attempting to enter non public areas of its building
• Recording or photographing people without giving appropriate notice
• Damaging, defacing or otherwise spoiling council property
• Failure to leave the premises when instructed to do so by council employees

4.0 How unacceptable behaviour will be managed

4.1 Face to face contact

If a customer presents unacceptable behaviour during a face to face contact the person dealing with the customer has the right to ask them to stop and the right to ask them to leave the premises if the unacceptable behaviour continues.

Customers may be asked to leave if they do not adequately supervise children or other adults accompanying them, where the behaviour of the children or other adults results in damage to council premises, disruption to council business or adversely affects other visitors. Customers may be asked to leave if they bring animals, other than those who guide or assist, into council premises.

Following an initial incident of unacceptable behaviour, a warning notice may be issued to the customer explaining why the behaviour caused concern and what sanction the council may make if the behaviour is presented again. The Assistant Director or a delegated senior manager of the service will be responsible for the issuance of the warning notice and notification to the customer.

If a behaviour is so extreme it poses an immediate threat, the council will report the matter to the police and may apply sanction immediately.

4.2 Telephone contact

If a customer presents unacceptable behaviour during a telephone contact the person dealing with the customer has the right to ask them to stop and will advise the customer that the call will be ended if the unacceptable behaviour continues. The person dealing with the customer has the right to terminate the telephone contact if the unacceptable behaviour continues and will do so in a polite way.

There may be occasions where the person dealing with the customer is unable to interrupt the conversation to give a warning about the behaviour and in these cases the person dealing with the contact has the right to end the call immediately.

Following an initial incident of unacceptable behaviour, a warning notice may be issued to the customer explaining why the behaviour caused concern and what sanction the council may make if the behaviour is presented again. The Assistant Director or a delegated senior manager of the service will be responsible for the issuance of the warning notice and notification to the customer.

If a behaviour is so extreme it poses an immediate threat, the council will report the matter to the police and may apply sanction immediately.

4.3 Written correspondence, including e-mails

If correspondence received by the council expresses unacceptable behaviour the council has the right to refuse to process it. The council will advise the customer that their correspondence is not acceptable and will ask them to stop the behaviour or the council will cease to respond to communications. If the behaviour is not stopped the council will not respond to further communications and may take further action.

Following an initial incident of unacceptable behaviour, a warning notice may be issued to the customer explaining why the behaviour caused concern and what sanction the council may make if the behaviour is presented again. The Assistant Director or a delegated senior manager of the service will be responsible for the issuance of the warning notice and notification to the customer.

If a behaviour is so extreme it poses an immediate threat, the council will report the matter to the police and may apply sanction immediately.

5.0 Managing persistent unacceptable behaviour

5.1 When sanction will be applied

If there are further demonstrations of unacceptable behaviour within a 12-month period of a warning notice being issued to a customer, the council may impose sanction for customer. This applies even where the behaviour occurs whilst accessing a different service from the one which issued the original warning notice.

5.2 Types of Sanction that may be applied

1. Contact restricted to a specific format
2. Contact restricted to a specific date and time
3. Contact restricted to an appropriate named person only
4. Contact restricted to a specified time limit
5. Contact restricted to being made via a designated third party
6. Contact disregarded if it raises no new issues
7. Contact blocked or redirected
8. Customer barred from entering council premises

5.3 Determining sanction types and period

The Assistant Director or a delegated senior manager of the service applying sanction will determine the sanction and period and notify this to the customer. A combination of sanction may be applied where required. The period shall be proportionate to the nature of the unacceptable behaviour.

Further demonstrations of unacceptable behaviour within the period may attract further sanctions to be determined by the Assistant Director or delegated senior manager of the affected service(s). The Assistant director or delegated senior manager of the service will determine whether the subsequent sanctions will run concurrently or consecutively to the original. The decision will be proportionate to the nature of the unacceptable behaviour and the history of previous sanctions. The Assistant Director or delegated senior manager of the service will notify the customer of the type of sanction applied and the period.

If a person’s unacceptable behaviour with one service leads to issue of warning or sanction, this could affect access to other services the council provides.

5.4 Enforcement action

Where it is applicable or warranted, enforcement action may be taken in accordance with the North Northamptonshire Council Enforcement Policy Schedule: Community Safety in respect of Anti-Social Behaviour.

6.0 Proportionality

The council will endeavour to ensure that any action taken under this policy is proportionate to and balanced against the risks. The council will take account of the individual circumstances of each case when considering the application of a sanction. This includes the seriousness of the offence, history, confidence in management, the consequences of non-compliance and the likely effectiveness of the various sanctions.

7.0 Vulnerability

Vulnerability is defined as a person who, by characteristics and circumstances, is unable to act or respond appropriately.

The council recognises that vulnerability can come in many forms, and it can also be multi layered. Vulnerability can also be temporary, permanent, or come in a series of episodes and anyone at any time could potentially be identified as vulnerable.

If a person demonstrating unacceptable behaviour does not have capacity to fully understand or control their actions, the principles of this procedure will still apply however, services should always follow any enhanced or professional guidance for managing risk within their work activities.

8.0 Appeals process

Customers who have had a warning or sanction issued under this policy have the right to challenge a decision through the council’s complaints process. The right will not exist where this policy has been applied because of behaviour so extreme it has posed an immediate risk.

9.0 Equalities

This policy is compliant with the NNC Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy and supports the council’s equality strategy; Equality Screening Assessment completed.

This policy is compliant with writing for inclusion guidance to support accessibility and inclusion.