Why we're consulting

We won't always get it right...

When a Council service, experience or decision doesn’t meet your expectations, we want to know so we can understand the issue and work with you to find a resolution. A Complaints Handling Policy outlines council’s approach to managing complaints and aims to improve the experience of making a complaint through a fair, consistent and transparent process – from first contact with us to a timely resolution.

This isn’t a new policy; we already have one that was adopted in November 2021. Regularly reviewing and updating policies helps make sure they do what they are supposed to do - that is, to meet community expectations and stay compliant with legislation, standards and good governance practices.

Changes to the new version of the draft Complaints Handling Policy include:

• Provisions for complaints relating to child safety, ensuring that Council fulfils our obligations to meeting Child Safe Standards.
• More inclusive complaint channels to ensure those who may face barriers to using more traditional channels can be informed and access complaint channels.
• An expanded list of external review bodies, now including Child Safety complaint types.
• Requirement for relevant staff to be trained in Child Safe Standards and obligations.

The policy provides an avenue for the community to provide feedback on a range of issues that affect them with complaints submitted on council’s website, email, post, over the phone and in person. Additional tools are also available to support those who may face barriers accessing these communication methods – this includes translation and interpreting services and tools for those with hearing or speech difficulties.

The policy is heavily informed by a range of legislation, standards, related policies and charters and the Victorian Ombudsman’s Good Practice Guide: Complaint handling for Victorian public sector organisations 2^nd edition, April 2025.

Please review our draft Complaints Handling Policy and provide your feedback.

Background

Council is required under section 107 of the Local Government Act 2020 to adopt a Complaint Handling Policy and this revised policy will continue to ensure compliance with the legislation but more importantly, will provide the framework for a fair, consistent and transparent complaints handling process.

Council recognises that the community has a right to complain where service delivery does not meet reasonable expectations. Effective complaint handling offers many practical benefits. Information gathered from complaints help to provide a solution to a complainant, helps maintain positive relations with the community, evaluate and improve programs and services, and inform decisions about future services. Analysis of complaints can provide a useful tool in continuous improvement.