How Your Choice (Barnet) handles complaints

We know that things can occasionally go wrong. We welcome feedback as a valuable opportunity to learn from mistakes and make improvements for the future, and on being made aware of an issue we expect our staff to listen and put things right quickly and informally if they can, at the first point of contact.

If we cannot resolve your issue when you first report it to us, or if you still wish to make a complaint, we will deal with it under our formal complaints process. Our complaints process has two stages.

We want to make it easy for you to complain when you need to. We accept complaints verbally or in writing, including by email, through our Contact Us form on our website, through our social media accounts, by telephone, in person, or by letter.

You can read our Complaints and Compliments Policy here: Complaints and Compliments Policy. Our policy gives you more information including who can complain, and any exceptions to our policy where a matter will not be considered under the complaints process.

You can also download our Complaints Leaflet, an Easy Read document about Complaints and Concerns and an Easy Read document about Compliments

Stage 1

We will send you an acknowledgment of your complaint within five working days of receiving it. This acknowledgement will include information about who is dealing with your complaint and how you can contact them if you need to.

We try to reply to Stage 1 complaints as soon as possible and in any event within 10 working days of acknowledging them, but if we need more time to investigate, we will tell you why and how long it will take.

Stage 2

If you are not satisfied that all or part of your complaint has been resolved, you should contact us and advise that you wish to escalate to Stage 2 of the complaints process, stating the reasons for your request. We ask that you request to escalate your complaint within 6 months of the Stage 1 response, but we consider the circumstances surrounding each individual case.

We will consider your request and determine if your complaint is eligible to be escalated to Stage 2. Within 5 working days of receiving your request we will either write to you to acknowledge your Stage 2 complaint, or if we determine it is not eligible, we will write to you to explain the reasons for our decision, and we will tell you what your options are.

At Stage 2, your complaint will be investigated by a more senior officer who has not previously been involved in the complaint investigation.

We try to reply to Stage 2 complaints as soon as possible and in any event within 20 working days of acknowledging them, but if we need more time to investigate we will tell you why and how long it will take.

Following completion of our process

If you are not satisfied with our response after Stage 2, or if we refuse your request to escalate the complaint following Stage 1, you can approach the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to review your complaint. It investigates matters fairly and impartially and is free to use.

When we send you our Stage 2 response or if we refuse your request to escalate the complaint to Stage 2, we will tell you about your right to approach the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

Contact details

Your Choice (Barnet)

Email: info@yourchoicebarnet.org

Write to: The Complaints and Information Team, Your Choice (Barnet), 3rd Floor, 2 Bristol Avenue, London, NW9 4EW

Telephone: 020 8080 6587

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

Website: www.lgo.org.uk/how-to-complain

Email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk

Telephone: 0300 061 0614

Address: PO Box 4771, Coventry, CV4 0EH

Support in making a complaint

Customers may need support to make their complaint, or may like to seek independent advice. Whist we cannot guarantee they will be able to offer support, and other specialist organisations may also be available, the organisations below may be able to help:

Citizen’s Advice

Mind

  • Mind in Barnet provides an advocacy service for Barnet residents aged 18 and over, excluding those who are entitled to the services of an IMHA under the Mental Health Act. It also provides advocacy to anyone over the age of 18 experiencing Mental Health Problems, Autistic Spectrum Disorders or Asperger’s and learning disabilities, and advocacy for anyone between the ages of 18 and 50 experiencing Acquired Brain Injury, Sensory Impairment and Communication Difficulties.
  • Telephone: 020 8906 7500
  • Email: advocacy@mindinbarnet.org.uk
  • Opening times: Monday – Friday 9.00am – 5.00pm

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) Complaint-Handling Code

Your Choice (Barnet) is required to handle complaints in line with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, which you can read on its website.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman suggests that local authorities complete and publish an annual self-assessment of their compliance with the Complaint Handling Code and an annual performance report. The London Borough of Barnet is the accountable authority for these complaints, and in future will manage annual reporting, inclusive of Your Choice (Barnet)’s performance regarding these services. In the interim, Your Choice (Barnet) has as a good practice approach produced a high-level Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report for 2023/24 on complaints about homelessness services and social housing allocations. You can read Your Choice (Barnet) Board’s response to the Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report 2023/24 here.

Your Choice (Barnet) has also completed a self-assessment of compliance with the Complaint Handling Code. We have found that, other than a small number of standards where compliance will be led by the London Borough of Barnet, we are compliant with the Code. The self-assessment was reviewed and ratified by the Your Choice.

Compliments

If you are happy with the service you have received, and would like to give a compliment to an individual employee, team, or the organisation, please Contact Us. We welcome compliments as an opportunity to acknowledge when our employees have made a difference, and we use them to identify good practice and learning to improve our services.