If something has gone wrong, let us know. We will listen, investigate, and use your feedback to improve our services.

Before you complain

Many issues can be resolved quickly by contacting the service first. This gives us the opportunity to put things right. If the issue is not resolved, you can make a complaint.

Who can complain

Anyone affected by our services can make a complaint. You do not need to live in the borough. This includes children and people acting for a business, voluntary group or charity.

Complaining for someone else

You can ask someone to complain for you. We will usually need your written permission before we can discuss your complaint with them. Different arrangements may apply if they are acting for someone who cannot complain for themselves or for someone who has died.

Anonymous complaints

We may consider anonymous complaints if they involve:

• safety concerns
• alleged corruption
• some waste issues
• other serious wrongdoing

We can only investigate if we have enough information.

Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to complain

Some people may use AI to help organise their thoughts or make things clearer. However, it can also make mistakes, add information that is not correct, or include unnecessary legal language.

If you use AI, please:

• check that what it has written is accurate
• make sure it reflects what you actually want to say or ask
• keep your correspondence clear and focused
• check any references to legislation or policies
• be careful about sharing personal or sensitive information with an AI tool

For complaints, hearing what happened, how it affected you, and what you would like us to do is more helpful than formal or legal language.

We will not treat you differently because you have used AI, and you do not need to tell us that you have used it.

If we are unsure what your main concerns are or what you would like us to do, we may contact you. We want to understand what your concerns are and respond as clearly and helpfully as we can.

Make a complaint

We need to know:

• what happened
• which service was involved
• how it affected you
• what you would like us to do

Please include any relevant dates, reference numbers, and supporting evidence.

Make a complaint

Other ways to complain

You can phone 01622 602000 or email your complaint to ComplaintsAndFOI@maidstone.gov.uk.

You can post your complaint to:

We do not normally investigate complaints made more than 12 months after you first became aware of the issue.

Accessibility support

If you need help making a complaint, tell us what support you need. We will consider reasonable changes to help you access our complaints service.

What happens next

Your complaint may be dealt with in two stages. If we need more time, we will tell you and explain why.

Stage one

The service will investigate your complaint and respond. We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days and respond within 10 working days after that.

Stage two

If you are unhappy with our stage one response, you can ask for your complaint to be reviewed.

We usually expect you to request a stage two review within 20 working days of receiving your stage one response. We can normally accept requests made within six months, but please contact us as soon as you can. Delays can make complaints more difficult to investigate.

At stage two, the Policy, Transformation and Insight team will carry out an independent investigation on behalf of the Director of Strategy, Insight and Governance. We will acknowledge your request within five working days and aim to respond within 20 working days after that.

Complaints covered by a different process

Some issues have their own legal, appeal, tribunal, arbitration, insurance, or regulatory process. These are not usually covered by this complaints procedure.

However, we may still consider a complaint about how we handled the process, for example, if there was an avoidable delay.

If your complaint is about the conduct of a borough councillor, you should contact the Monitoring Officer.

Complaints about personal information

You can complain if you think we used your personal information in a way that does not comply with data protection law.

We aim to acknowledge your complaint within five working days and respond within 20 working days of acknowledging it. If we need longer, we will tell you and explain why.

If you remain unhappy, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Putting things right

If we have made a mistake, we will consider how to put things right. Where possible, we will try to put you back in the position you would have been in if the problem had not happened.

When deciding, we may:

• apologise and correct our mistake
• improve the service
• consider a voucher or other financial compensation

Financial compensation is a last resort and is not appropriate in every case.

If you are still unhappy

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

If you have completed our complaints process and remain unhappy with the outcome, you can ask the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to consider your complaint.

The Ombudsman is independent of the council. It decides whether it can investigate a complaint and considers if we followed the correct process and acted fairly. It is not an appeal service.

To get in touch, phone 0300 061 0614 or visit the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman website.

Housing Ombudsman

If your complaint is about social housing and the council acting as your landlord, you can contact the Housing Ombudsman after completing our complaints process. You should normally refer your complaint within 12 months of receiving our final response.

To contact them, phone 0300 111 3000 or visit the Housing Ombudsman website.