Single Point of Contact (SPOC) guidance
Where the issuing of informal or written warnings have not led to the desired change in complainant behaviour, it may be appropriate to appoint a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) to manage all contact and communication with the complainant.
A SPOC will usually be an appropriate Manager in the affected service, but this may be delegated to another appropriate senior officer at their discretion. Where cross-service impacts have been identified it may be appropriate for the SPOC to be within the Service Recovery Team.
The SPOC arrangements will be as follows:
- the Council will nominate one officer to be the SPOC for the complainant
- the Council will ensure that a deputy is also identified for when the SPOC is absent for leave, sickness, training, etc.
- the Council will provide the complainant with the SPOC’s name and nominated contact details. This may include restricting the complainant to use of a generic email address or a specified telephone number only
- it may also be necessary for the Council to divert any other emails received from the complainant’s known email address(es) to the SPOC, and / or any telephone calls received from the complainant’s known number(s).
- the SPOC will review all such contacts received from the complainant to identify those which require action or a response. They will forward these to the relevant service or officer to action or to draft a response for the SPOC to issue on their behalf
- the normal timescales for responding to individual enquiries and service requests will apply to responses to be issued by the SPOC
- where other officers receive any emails or physical mail from the complainant (in breach of the restrictions) these must be forwarded to the SPOC. This is to cover any cases of technical or administrative error, or the use of a different and/or previously unidentified email address by the complainant, so that further measures may be taken to manage future contact
