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Unreasonable, unreasonably persistent and vexatious complaints procedure and guidance 2. Defining unreasonable, unreasonably persistent and vexatious complaint behaviour

2.1The Council wants to deal with complainants in a way which is open, fair and proportionate while ensuring that other service users, officers and the Council as a whole suffer no detriment.
2.2All complainants have the right to have their concerns investigated in line with the relevant complaint’s procedure – either the Council’s corporate complaints procedure, or in the case of Adults and Children’s Social Care complaints, the appropriate statutory process, when appropriate.
2.3It should be noted that raising a complaint about a Council service does not in itself constitute unreasonably persistent behaviour and neither do complainants who escalate through all stages of the relevant complaints procedure or those who express criticism about the complaints process itself.
2.4In most cases, dealing with complaints is a straightforward process which is resolved via the appropriate procedure; in a minority of cases people pursue their complaints in a way that is unreasonable. The complainant may behave unacceptably or be unreasonably persistent or vexatious in the way they pursue their complaint. This can impede investigating their complaint (or complaints by others) and can have significant resource issues for the Council. This behaviour may occur at any time before, during or after a complaint has been investigated. This behaviour can also have a significant detrimental impact upon those dealing with such complaints and the council has a duty to safeguard the wellbeing of its employees.
2.5Sanctions may be specific to a single issue, with no restrictions placed on the complainant’s access to other Council services or to raise other issues with the service concerned, including making formal complaints about new or unrelated issues.
2.6In other cases, a complainant may exhibit unreasonable, unreasonably persistent or vexatious behaviour in respect of a range of services or functions, in which case restrictions may need to relate to, for example, the whole of a directorate, a specific range of services, or to the Council generally.
2.7

The Council follows the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s (LGSCO) definition and the identified characteristics for unreasonable or unreasonably persistent complainants: 

“Unreasonable and unreasonably persistent complainants are those complainants who, because of the nature or frequency of their contacts with an organisation, hinder the organisation’s consideration of their, or other people’s, complaints”.

2.8

Examples of unreasonably persistent behaviour which fall under this definition are set out in the LGSCO guidance and include:

  • Refusing to specify the grounds of a complaint, despite offers of help or assistance from the Council.
  • Refusing to cooperate with the complaints investigation process.
  • Refusing to accept that certain issues are not within the scope of a complaints procedure.
  • Insisting on the complaint being dealt with in ways which are incompatible with the adopted complaints procedure or with good practice.
  • Making unjustified complaints about staff who are trying to deal with the issues, and seeking to have them replaced.
  • Changing the basis of the complaint as the investigation proceeds.
  • Denying or changing statements he or she made at an earlier stage.
  • Introducing trivial or irrelevant new information at a later stage.
  • Raising many detailed but unimportant questions, and insisting they are all answered.
  • Submitting falsified documents from themselves or others.
  • Adopting a 'scatter gun' approach: pursuing parallel complaints on the same issue through a variety of routes e.g. Member of Parliament, Councillor(s), local police, solicitors, the Ombudsman.
  • Making excessive demands on the time and resources of staff with lengthy phone calls, emails to numerous council staff, or detailed letters every few days, and expecting immediate responses.
  • Submitting repeat complaints with minor additions/variations that the complainant insists make these 'new' complaints.
  • Refusing to accept the decision; repeatedly arguing points with no new evidence. 

Note that the list above is not exhaustive, nor does one single characteristic on its own imply that the person will be considered as being in this category.

2.9

Other examples not specifically referenced by the Ombudsman are:

  • Attempting to use the complaints procedure to pursue a personal vendetta against an employee or team.
  • Refusing to accept information provided, not confirming why or how the information provided is unsatisfactory.
  • Raising at a late stage in the process, significant new information which was in the customer's possession when he or she first submitted a complaint
  • Lodging large numbers of complaints in batches via the CRM system over a period of time, resulting in multiple related complaints being at different stages of a complaints procedure and refusing to consider consolidation of these to facilitate an effective and timely resolution.
  • Refusing to accept that not all issues are within the remit of a complaints procedure or demanding outcomes which the complaints procedure cannot in itself provide such as changes to council records, the overturning of court decisions, the dismissal or criminal prosecution of staff.
  • Electronically recording meetings, telephone calls and conversations without the prior knowledge and consent of the other persons involved.
2.10

The Council will also take steps to protect all staff from members of the public who are behaving in a way which is considered abusive and/or vexatious. This may include physical or verbal abuse and could include the following (again, this list is not exhaustive):

  • Speaking to a member of staff in a derogatory manner which causes offence.
  • Swearing, either verbally or in writing despite being asked to refrain from using such language.
  • Using threatening language towards Council staff which provokes fear.
  • Using social media in an inappropriate way to publicise complaint issues or to post aggressive, threatening or inappropriate messages about their complaint or about Council staff.
  • Attempting to make contact with Council officers outside of the work context, for example via social media or face to face.