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At Fareham Borough Council we aim to always provide high quality service.
However, we recognise that things don't always go to plan, and there may be times when we don't live up to your expectations.
If this happens, we want you to tell us and we will do our very best to put things right as quickly as possible. We want to learn from any problems to help us create an environment of continuous improvement.
If you are visiting this page because you feel that the Council has done something wrong, or failed to do something you expected it to, this guide is to help you to tell us why you are not satisfied and to explain how we will deal with your complaint.
This guide applies to most complaints, but there are some complaints which will be treated in a different way. If this is the case, we will let you know.
If you have any questions, we have some Frequently Asked Questions which may help you.
We will fully investigate every complaint and, even if your complaint relates to a particular policy decision and we are not necessarily able to change things, we will explain the situation to you.
Stage 1 complaints will be investigated by a relevant officer within the service area relating to your complaint.
We have options for you submitting your complaint to us.
You can complete an online complaints form. Once you have sent this, it will automatically be received by the Complaints team who will be in further contact with you.
If you choose to print off a form 
(390 KB), you can submit this to the Council by scanning it and emailing it to complaints@fareham.gov.uk, or by posting it to:
Complaints Administration
Fareham Borough Council
Civic Offices
Civic Way
Fareham
PO16 7AZ
Your complaint will be acknowledged within 5 working days of the date it is received and the Council will have up to 10 working days thereafter to issue you with a final response.
In exceptional circumstances, particularly if a complaint is complex, it may take more than 10 working days to resolve matters for you, however we will contact you to let you know why and our anticipated response timeframe.
If you are unhappy with our response at Stage 1, you can request that your complaint is reviewed under stage 2 of our process.
Stage 2 complaints are usually dealt with by a senior Manager or Head of Service who will review the stage 1 handling of your complaint to confirm that the correct procedures and processes have been adhered to.
Again, your stage 2 request will be acknowledged within 5 working days of the date it is received and the Council will have up to 20 working days to issue you with a final response.
In exceptional circumstances, particularly if a complaint is complex, it may take more than 20 working days to resolve matters for you, however we will contact you to let you know why and our anticipated response timeframe.
All formal complaints made to members will be handled in the same way as other complaints and passed to the Complaints administration team to acknowledge it and initiate a response under stage 1.
The Councillor who receives the formal complaint will take no further part in the matter complained about or discuss the complaint with the customer until the complaint process has been exhausted.
Complaints made about Councillors are investigated by the Council's Monitoring Officer, and do not fall into our Complaints Policy.
Complaints made about dissatisfaction of handling of Freedom of Information and/or Environmental Information Regulations will be dealt with under Internal Review by the Council's Information Governance Team and do not fall into our Complaints policy.
Complaints made about any data protection matter will be investigated by the Council's Data Protection Officer or Information Governance Manager and do not fall into our Complaints policy.
If you are still unhappy with our response to your complaint, depending on the nature of your complaint, you can ask the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman or the Housing Ombudsman Service for an independent review. They both offer a free independent service, but before they look at your complaint, they will want to know that you have been through both stages of our complaints process.
A factsheet is available on the Housing Ombudsman webpage 
setting out the social housing complaint categories that should be referred to either the Housing Ombudsman or the Local Government Social Care Ombudsman.
The quickest way to complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is to complete an online complaint form. You can also complain by telephone.
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Contact details are:
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
Tel: 0300 061 0614
Text 'call back' to: 0762 481 1595
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Online complaint form
The quickest way to complain to the Housing Ombudsman is to complete an online complaint form.
Housing Ombudsman Service (for issues relating to Local Authority Housing only) contact details are:
Housing Ombudsman Online complaint form
If you wish to make a complaint by post, you can telephone the Housing Ombudsman Service on 0300 111 3000 and they can post you a complaint form.
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