Our complaints handling procedure
We have a two-stage procedure to deal with complaints.
Stage 1
Contact the relevant service or complete and return a complaints, comments and compliments form. A service complaints officer will deal with your complaint. We will respond within five working days and if we need longer, we will contact you and explain why and advise a new date. But no longer than ten working days in total.
Stage 2
If you are still unhappy with the Stage 1 investigation, you can contact the Departmental Complaints Officer who will initiate a full review of your complaint by a senior manager within the department. At Stage 2 the Departmental Complaints Officer will be your main point of contact. We will respond within 20 working days and if we need longer, we will contact you and explain why and advise a new date.
In certain circumstances, for example when the complaint is complex, we will treat the complaint as a Stage 2 from the outset.
If a customer remains dissatisfied with our Stage 2 response, they can refer their concerns and complaint to the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman (NIPSO). The NIPSO will assess whether there is evidence of service failure, or maladministration not identified by the service provider.
