Formal complaints
The fastest way to make a formal complaint is using our online complaints form.
We will acknowledge your complaint in 2 working days and aim to provide you with a full response within 20 working days.
Councillors and MPs
Your councillors and Members of Parliament are also here to serve you and can help with complaints about the borough. You can contact them if you have a local issue that you want to bring to their attention.
If you wish to complain that the Mayor, a councillor or a co-opted member has failed to comply with the Code of Conduct for Members complete the conduct complaint form.
We can make reasonable adjustments to assist you if you have a disability that prevents you from completing the online form. Please let us know if this is the case.
Email: monitoring.officer@towerhamlets.gov.uk
Tel: 020 7364 4801.
Complaints about children’s services
For complaints about Children’s Service, such as child social care and child protection, use our online children's social care complaints form.
If you’d prefer to make your complaint in writing, contact:
Freepost Plus
RRBZ-UCYT-ZLRX
Complaining as a young person in care or care leaver
If you are a young person in care or a care leave, we can help you make your complaint. We will put you in touch with a children’s advocate who will help you have your say and get things sorted.
To access this help, contact Angie Treby at Action for Children, Tower Hamlets Children's Rights Service:
Tel: 020 8221 8200
Email: Angie.Treby@childrenssociety.org.uk
Mobile: 07958 234 612
The Children’s Society
Stratford House
21-23 Broadway
Stratford
London
E15 4BQ
Education complaints
Specific Schools
Complaints about a specific school should addressed to the head teacher of the school first. They should make every effort to resolve the matter. If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you can make your complaint known to the chair of governors. If you are not satisfied with the chair’s response, you can follow it up with a complaint direct to the Department for Education.
You can also write to them
Department of Education
Piccadilly Gate
Store Street
Manchester
M1 2 WD
Tel: 0370 000 2288
Typetalk: 18001 0370 000 2288
General education complaints
Education complaints that are not about specific schools for issues may include:
These can be submitted via our general complaints form. You can upload and attach documents to the online form if needed.
Adult Social Care complaints
If you have a complaint about Adults Social Care, please complete adult social care complaints form.
A senior manager in the service will investigate the complaint and send a response to the resident, usually within 20 working days.
There is only one stage for complaints against Adults Social Care. If a resident is still unhappy, they can contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
The council does not accept complaints against the Primary Care Trust, acute services in hospitals or practitioners like GPs and dentists. Residents must raise these complaints with the relevant NHS organisation.
Compliments
We are always delighted to hear that our staff are doing a great job. We make sure they know when someone is pleased, as this motivates them and makes their hard work worthwhile.
We also have a staff recognition scheme, where you can put forward staff for an award. The forms for doing this are available in libraries, in Idea stores and in council offices.
If you would like to pay us a compliment about any of our services, please complete the online compliments form.
General comments
If you have a comment that is neither a complaint, nor a compliment, we still want to hear it. To let us know your thoughts, just complete the online comments form.
We will let you know we’ve received your comment within 2 working days. We will also tell you who is dealing with it and when you can expect to receive a reply, if it is going to be longer than five days. We aim to provide a full response in less than 10 working days – and more quickly if the matter is really urgent.