Customer feedback

Our complaints policy has recently been updated

Please note that, following updated guidance from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, our Complaint Handling Policy has recently been updated. These changes come into effect from 1 January 2026. For the latest information on how we handle complaints please see our new Complaint Handling Policy. 

Our Customer Promise

Our Customer Promise has been developed with staff and customers to set out realistic and achievable customer service standards, which are underpinned by a clear set of customer values. 

Our Customer Values

We will:

Be responsive and consistent - listen and understand your needs, take ownership of your enquiry, answer your query or deal with your problem as soon as possible, and keep you up to date with what we are doing.

Treat you with fairness and respect - be friendly, polite and helpful, and get you to the right person quickly, say sorry if we get things wrong and do our best to put it right.

Be transparent and accountable - use plain language when we communicate with you, provide clear, complete and accurate information about our services, be honest about what we can and can’t do, and explain our decisions.

Provide value for money services and knowledgeable staff - do what we say we will do to a high standard, make best use of our resources, including making it easier to access our information and services via online and digital channels 24 hours a day everyday of the year.

Our Customer Service Standards

By social media, email and electronic forms on the website

  • Your enquiry via social media, email or electronic form will be directed to the right team within one working day.

  • We will send an acknowledgement so you know we’ve received your message (this might be an automatic response) and will reply within 10 working days.

  • If we can’t resolve everything we will write within 10 working days to let you know what we will do next and when you can expect a full reply.

On the phone

  • We will answer the phone promptly, either personally or using an answerphone service. If we are exceptionally busy it may take us longer than usual to answer your call. Where possible, we will tell you of the wait time.

  • We will greet you with the name of the person you are speaking to and the name of the service so you know you’ve reached the right place.

  • If we need to transfer you to someone else, we’ll explain why and give you their name and their telephone number.

  • If you leave an answerphone message, we will respond to you to let you know we’ve received your message.

By letter

  • We will reply within 10 working days. If we can’t resolve everything we will write to let you know we have received your letter and let you know what we will do next and when you can expect a full reply.

Visiting us

  • Wherever possible we will make our buildings accessible to everyone.

  • We will make your visit as comfortable as possible and will provide a welcoming, clean and safe environment at our offices.

Complaints

  • If you tell us we have got something wrong we will investigate it impartially and fairly.

  • We’ll acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and will aim to complete our investigation within 10 working days.

  • Where we’ve got something wrong we will do our best to put it right and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Further information

Social media

We also have a policy for how we respond to social media.

How to contact us

You may want to speak to someone about a service you are receiving. There are details on how to contact us online, by phone or if you are visiting.

Customer feedback – your comments, compliments and complaints

Your views are important to us and we want to hear what you think about the services we deliver. Your feedback helps us to give you the best possible service.

Raise a concern about the service you've received

If something has gone wrong with the service you've received, please first contact the team delivering the service and give them your feedback. They must be given the opportunity to put things right. 

Make a complaint

After you’ve spoken to the service, if you are still unhappy follow the links below to find out how to make a complaint about the relevant service:

How to provide a compliment

You can submit a compliment to CET.compliments@eastsussex.gov.uk  

Contact the Corporate Complaints Team

You can submit your complaint using one of the methods below. We will acknowledge we have received your complaint within five working days.

Submit your complaint online

Email: Corporate complaints

Phone: 01273 482 913. Lines are open Monday to Thursday, 8.30am to 5pm, and Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm

In writing:
Customer Services Team
East Sussex County Council
West D
County Hall
St Anne’s Crescent
Lewes
East Sussex
BN7 1UE

In person:
You can visit us at County Hall if you make an appointment. 

Our complaints process and policy

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman provides Local Authorities with the Complaint Handling Code which informs our complaints process.

We may not handle all feedback we receive as a complaint. We will follow the steps below to ensure your feedback is handled most appropriately to get a resolution as quickly as possible.  

  1. We will ask the team providing the service to investigate your concerns, if you have not discussed this with them before. 
  2. If the service are not able to resolve your concerns we will acknowledge your complaint within five working days.
  3. We will send you a response within 10 working days of acknowledging your complaint.
  4. If you’re not happy with our initial investigation, another member of staff will review the response and look into the points you tell us have not been resolved.

Sometimes it can take longer to resolve issues. If that happens, we’ll explain why and how long it is likely to take to complete our investigation. 

Find out more about how to make a complaint, or read more about the process in our Complaint Handling Policy.

If you remain unhappy following the outcome of your complaint you can contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and ask them to investigate our response. 

If your complaint is about an apprenticeship programme that is being delivered directly by ESCC via the in-house Apprenticeship and Qualifications Team (AQT), please read the ESCC AQT complaints policy.

Impartial help with making complaints

Citizens Advice offers an impartial service and can advise you if you need any help with making a complaint against us. To find out more, please contact your local Citizens Advice.

Unreasonable customer behaviour

On occasion, some people’s behaviour towards our staff can get out of hand and has an impact on their well-being and on our work.

The aim of our policy on unreasonable customer behaviour is to set out to staff and customers how we will handle the rare situations when customers behave unreasonably in their contacts with us. An easy read version [22.4 MB] [pdf] of this policy is also available.

Please also see the County Council's policy about how we use social media. This details how we expect customers to communicate with us reasonably and respectfully when using social media

Accessibility

Please let us know if there are any adjustments we can make for you in order to receive information from us or enable you to contact us.

If you need a copy of any of the information above in a different format such as large print, coloured background, Braille or in a different language then please contact us and we will be happy to help.