Compliments, Comments and Complaints policy

As well as service requests, there are certain other matters that we will not accept as a complaint. This is either because they fall outside of the scope of this policy, or because there are other, more suitable processes for dealing with them.

These include matters where a separate appeals procedure exists or a legal remedy is open to you, either through the Council’s internal review or appeal processes or by a statutory right of appeal to an independent tribunal or court, such as:

• Homelessness decisions and housing application assessments
• Parking appeals / Penalty Charge Notice challenges
• Council Tax support and Housing Benefit decisions
• School admission or exclusion appeals, or appeals regarding Special Educational Needs provision
• Disabled Blue Badge application decisions
• Planning decisions, including consent, refusals and enforcement decisions (However, we may consider complaints regarding whether proper processes or policies were followed when making such decisions)
• Regulatory matters, such as Licensing appeals, and appeals against statutory notices such as Noise or Environmental Health notices
• Matters which are subject to an Insurance claim, including how a claim has been dealt with or the outcome (Decisions on the outcome of an insurance claim are made by the Council’s insurer, not the council)

Other matters which are outside the scope of the Council’s Complaints policy to address include:

• Matters of law or central Government policy, e.g. Council Tax legislation
• Matters where the customer or the Council have already started legal proceedings, such as where details of the Claim Form or Particulars of Claim have been filed at court
• Matters where there is ongoing action being taken by either the Council or another party and considering the complaint might prejudice such action
• Matters which are currently subject to an appeal or have already been subject to an appeal and decided by a court or independent tribunal
• Complaints about policies, procedures or budgetary decisions made by the Council, unless you are directly impacted by them, or they raise wider public interest issues. (However, we may consider complaints regarding whether proper processes or policies were followed when making policy decisions)
• Complaints that have already been investigated at all stages of the Complaints policy and concluded that the Council were not at fault, or which have already been addressed by an Ombudsman ruling
• Complaints relating to matters that occurred more than 12 months before the date of the complaint (unless the Council considers that there are exceptional reasons to accept the complaint)
• Complaints relating to requests for information under Freedom of Information (FOI), Environment Information Regulations (EIR), Environmental Impact Assessments or Data Protection legislation, including data breaches. These should be reported to the Information Commissioner
• Complaints about schools and colleges. These have their own complaints procedures. Complaints about a school or a member of school staff should usually be addressed to the Head Teacher, or if about the Head Teacher to the Chair of Governors
• Complaints relating to recruitment and selection to a vacancy within Coventry City Council. These should be raised via completion of a Recruitment and Selection Complaints questionnaire
• Employee complaints about personnel matters including pay, pensions, disciplinary or grievance matters. These are dealt with under the Council's Human Resources policies and procedures
• Complaints about Councillors. If you believe that a Councillor has broken the Council's Code of Conduct you should complete a Councillor complaint form which will be sent to the Council's Monitoring Officer
• Complaints regarding hate crime incidents not related to Council services or the conduct of Council employees. A hate crime incident is any incident which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by prejudice against someone's sex, racial heritage, religion, disability or sexual orientation. These should be reported to the Police, or to the Council’s Community Safety team via Hate crime – Coventry City Council or by calling 024 7683 2118
• Unreasonably persistent, habitual or vexatious complaints (see section 18)

This list is a guide and is not exhaustive. There may be other issues that the Council are unable to investigate because there is a more appropriate body or process. In such circumstance, we will advise you of the appropriate process and procedure.

Where we decide that there is a valid reason not to accept a matter as a complaint, we will write to you (either by email or letter) to explain why we consider the matter is not suitable for the complaints process and advise you of the exclusion that applies. We will also explain your right to approach the Ombudsman regarding our decision if you choose to.