Complaints and compliments

How to complain, what happens after you complain and how to compliment one of our services.

Feedback

As a Local Authority we do our best to provide our residents with great services, but there is always room for improvement. We value our residents’ comments and suggestions to help us provide better services for our community.

As a Local Authority you can also tell us if we are doing something well, it’s good to hear when a service has been received has meet or exceeded expectations. 

Complaints

Complaints

Report an issue for the first time

If you are reporting something for the first time, we need an opportunity to resolve it before you submit a complaint. Rather than making a complaint that can take time to progress, you can report a problem. By reporting a problem, we can begin resolving the issue immediately. You can use a report a problem to report issues such as :

  • Missed refuse collection
  • Road and pavement problems
  • Illegal front garden parking
  • And lots more as well...

Report It 

Complain about a service

Make a general complaint

Information you need to provide

We’d like to know:

  • what service are you complaining about
  • what you think the Council did wrong
  • what you think the Council should do to put things right
  • the date the problem you’re complaining about occurred or you became aware of it

Help us to help you by providing any relevant dates, names of staff and copies of relevant letters or other documents to support your complaint.

Please note that we can’t usually look at a complaint if you have left it for an unreasonable amount of time. This can vary depending on the matter, but is likely to be in the region of 6 months since knowing about the problem.

Complain form

Telephone 0208 215 3000

Email complaints@lbbd.gov.uk

Please see our complaints policy for further information. 

Vexatious and behaviour policy

Our updated policy states zero tolerance towards work-related violence and aggression, focusing on persistent, vexatious, and unreasonable behaviour in complaints and information requests, focusing on:

  • Strictly prohibiting abusive communications, emphasising professionalism and courtesy.
  • Quickly addressing misconduct like misuse of channels or staff mistreatment. 
  • Promptly responding to threatening behaviours to protect staff, potentially involving legal measures.

Our aim is to make sure staff are safe when delivering a complaints service efficiently without compromising openness to constructive feedback.

Persistent, vexatious & unreasonable behaviour complainants policy (PDF, 345.79 KB)

Complaints procedure

Find out what happens after you complain.

Complaints procedure

Resident's satisfaction form

Please complete this form to tell us how satisfied you are with our complaints process.

Annual report and self-assessment review

Compliments

Compliments

We are always happy to hear that our staff are doing a good job. We make sure they know when someone is pleased, as this makes their hard work worthwhile. We welcome your feedback including thank-yous and compliments on our services.

Compliment form

Further Information

The Borough Manifesto sets out our long-term vision for Barking and Dagenham One Borough, One Community. No-one left behind.

The Corporate Plan and Performance Framework outlines the actions we will take to make progress to achieving targets in the Borough Manifesto             

LGSCO Council Performance Data provides insight into the performance of London Borough of Barking and Dagenham dealing with LGSCO complaints.

Housing Ombudsman Report will provide information relating to the latest reports which have been published by the Housing Ombudsman including Spotlight Reports and Complaint Handling Failure Orders.

The Housing Ombudsman introduced in July 2020 a Complaint Handling Code which set out good practice that allows landlords to respond to complaints effectively and fairly. With this being strengthened in April 2024 jointly with the LGSCO. As part of this code Landlords are asked on an annual basis to review their services according to the code and to publish the outcomes. The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham have undertaken this review and have published the results.