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Tips on Making Complaints About Council Leisure Facilities Don't underestimate your ability to make a difference. Many organisations get away with shoddy practice because they count on people not complaining, or doing so ineffectively, or giving up before the job is completed. Many things are listed below but you don't have to use all of them. Choose what seems right for you and the time you can spare. Record Keeping Keep records of what you witnessed, names of others who witnessed plus the time, date and location. If you use a PC keep a log so that, if needed, you can copy and paste from it at a later stage. Notes made as soon as possible carry more weight. For some serious matters it might be worth including when you made the record. Keep copies of all correspondence. In two leisure centres I have experienced "Customer Comment Cards" going astray. Don't assume what you write on them will be used as it should. Involving Others Ask other users about their perceptions and experiences. If possible, get other people to make complaints or to sign a joint letter or petition. A proportion of people will be disinterested. Some believe nothing will change. Others may be suspicious - is there some other agenda behind your activity? Others want a "quiet life" and may even have got used to the conditions you find unacceptable. Accept that no campaign has 100% support and that most change happens because a few people persist. You may have more credibility if you can show that there is a groundswell of opinion but individuals who gather and present facts can also be effective. If you want to set up an organisation, however informal, give people a "banner" they can rally round., a simple statement that makes clear the goals. E.g. "Scumleigh Leisure Action Group - working for a cleaner centre and proper maintenance". Who To Contact First try speaking to a duty or centre manager. What may be obvious to you is not necessarily obvious to the management because running a leisure centre involves many tasks. But if you suspect nothing will change because of a verbal approach then log with whom you spoke, the issues raised and what she or he said would happen and by when. Follow up verbal reports with written ones. Email is great because it means you have a record of what you sent and enables you to copy easily replies to others. Ask reception for the centre's email address. If your council uses a contractor at least one council officer will have responsibility for monitoring the contract. Ring up and find out who this person is, their telephone number, address and email. In the first instance copy complaints to the council officer "for information" unless serous, in which case it is reasonable to ask for immediate action. For persistent failings email the officer with a copy to the leisure centre, asking the officer to respond as the centre has not dealt with the issue. Involve our leisure contractor's head office or, if they have one, a regional manager. Ask reception for details or search the Internet. Councillors get many demands made on them so should not be your first point of contact, except perhaps for raising the issue if you meet them at their surgery or a council event. However, if you feel the response from council officers is unsatisfactory, advise your councillor. Most council websites list councillors and their email addresses. Or ask the town hall for contact details. Evidence of Poor Cleaning Establish when the main cleaning is meant to take place and what this entails. If you can visit the centre shortly after this time you will have better evidence that the routines are not taking place or being done to a poor standard. Try to establish if the cleaner did come in that day. If you want physical evidence take a packet of white tissues with you and a number of clear plastic bags, preferably self sealing ones. If a surface is clean then the tissue will not be soiled by contact with it. If the tissue is badly soiled then bag it up and add a slip of paper recording when and where. E.g. "1/1/05 7.05 am Men's wetside changing room - front edge of the top of locker 313." If you bring a pair of tweezers you might find it easier to pick up items like clumps of hair that have accumulated in a gulley.. As the day goes even the best of, say, a a thorough early morning clean, will be undone. But the centre still has a responsibility to remove the worst of the litter and obvious dirt. In well managed centres toilets are cleaned at intervals and checks made that supplies of soap, paper etc are adequate. Using the Council's Complaint System Another approach if you feel a council officers have not responded appropriately is to lodge a formal complaint. For example, you could complain that the contract is not being adequately monitored. Many councils have a three stage process, with unresolved complaints being escalated eventually to the Chief Executive. You could write directly to the Chief Executive of the council with your complaint. If you do it would probably be delegated to the department responsible for leisure where, perhaps, it will be taken more seriously, because the CE's office has been involved. Involve our leisure contractor's head office or, if they have one, a regional manager. Ask at reception for details or search the Internet. Information Held by the Council Ask your council what leisure contract monitoring takes place, how this is recorded and reported to senior officers and councillors. Ask for copies of reports. Use the Freedom of Information Act if needed. Your council will have web pages on this or you can telephone and ask for information to be sent to you. The details for the scheme can appear off-putting but in fact it is simple to make a request via the council's main contact email address. See sample request below. You don't have to make an FOI request using a web page, which some councils appear to suggest is the way to do it. If you do use a web page to make the request, copy the text of the request and the date of it for your record.. Be aware that the council is required to inform the leisure contractor of relevant FOI requests. There are other council functions that might be involved or approached using FOI. .If your concerns include health & safety, such as lifeguarding or hazards, contact your council's Health and Safety Officer. If public health is at risk, e.g. poor hygiene, contact Environmental Health. For terms and conditions of membership that seem unreasonable, contact Trading Standards. Childcare such as crèches and holiday schemes comes under OFSTED, who inspect facilities and standards of care. Reports are freely available from OFSTED's website. Meetings When there are valid complaints those responsible often ask for meetings, sometimes to help and sometimes to try to stall. Advantages might be the chance to ask a series of questions. One disadvantage over correspondence is that you probably won't have a record of the meeting. One possibility is for you to read back what you understand has been agreed and ask the company or council representatives to agree and / or follow up promptly with an email stating what you believe was agreed. If you have other complainants or an independent observer (e.g. a minister of religion or a retired councillor)) the meeting could be more effective for you. If offered a meeting ask what is it's purpose / the agenda, who will attend, what record will be kept and by whom. Avoid meetings where the purpose seems vague. The purpose might simply be for the manager involved to say, for example to councillors, that she or he has had a meeting with you. Nor do you want to sit through a meeting where most of the time is taken up by others talking about their achievements or difficulties. What you want is to know how the improvements needed will be attained. Avoiding Repercussions Stick to the facts and avoid accusations and emotive language. Anything that others view as over-the-top could serve to discredit you or the complaint. The real gains are likely to come from persistence rather than an outburst of anger, however justified. And customers seen to be abusive to staff have been banned from leisure centres. Many leisure staff want to do a better job but are overworked and stressed by too many demands and not enough resources. Adding to their stress is neither fair nor effective. If you think public servants should be courteous then they deserve the same from the public. Be cautious about using what you have not witnessed directly. If referring to hearsay information make this clear. Better still, ask the source to sign a letter or statement about what she or he witnessed. Both individuals and organisations can take legal action to protect their reputation. If writing or speaking avoid claims that you cannot produce good evidence for. In England and Wales the courts assume that an attack on a reputation is unwarranted and untrue unless the defendant can show otherwise. The defence of fair comment on a matter of public interest is limited to where the factual basis of the comment are seen to be true. If you suspect rather than know something make this clear. Avoid attributing motives for behaviour but you might state how events raise doubts about motives or competence. Using Local Media Local papers and possibly radio stations may know of other complaints. Some local papers have websites where you can search archives but a journalist who has been around a while might know things that were not used. Some local papers may depend on the council or leisure centre for advertising and therefore less willing to run stories and letters because of this. For general advice on local media see http://www.citizenship.org.uk/data/files/sheets10_13-104255.pdf Sports Clubs and User Groups Find out which local sports clubs and groups use your centre and make enquiries with them about their experience of the centre. Ask reception for a schedule of activities. This might tell you names of clubs, schools and disabled groups using the centre. You may find users are reluctant to be seen to publicly criticise a centre for fear of repercussions. If they won't go public, are they prepared to speak to a councillor? Two Don'ts Unless you have permission do not take photographs inside leisure facilities, especially changing areas or where children gather. If you are prepared to keep a camera handy and want to take a photo, ask for permission and for a member of staff to accompany you. If permission is refused, ask the reason and note it down. Avoid letting original documents out of your hands - provide copies. Please let me have any other tips you think could help others - vilefirm"AT"btinternet.com (please replace "AT" with @ - this is done to reduce spam) Other Sources of Information on Making http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/complaints/best_practice.shtml Sample Freedom of Information Request by Email From:
Ira Teuser Sent: 11 November 2006
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Performance management reports on the contracting company I do not seek copies of any papers that are already available via the Council's website, though it may be helpful to be directed towards relevant papers. I do not wish to create unnecessary
work so if there is a range of documents, please contact me to review the
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