Senior Complaints & Improvements Officer

Overview

We are seeking a dedicated and experienced Senior Complaints and Improvements Officer to join our team. The successful candidate will play a crucial role in managing, responding, and resolving service delivery issues resulting in complaints. This position requires a strong focus on case management and resolution, ensuring compliance with the Local Government Ombudsman Complaints Code, Buckinghamshire Complaints policies, procedures, and relevant legislation. Additionally, this position includes line management responsibilities, providing leadership and guidance to our team.

This is a secondment/fixed term contract opportunity until September 2025. We are looking to appoint at grade 7 for this role. 

About us

The Complaints and Improvements Team is part of the Information Governance and Complaints & Improvements function which sits within the Deputy Chief Executive’s Service in the Council.  The Team is responsible for the appropriate handling of Corporate and Statutory Complaints, MP Enquiries, FOI Requests, Subject Access Requests and for the correct handling of Data Protection matters.

About the role

The Senior Complaints and Improvements Officer will work collaboratively with the team and stakeholders to ensure compliance with policy, procedure, and relevant legislation. Key responsibilities include:

• Provide expert support and delivery of complaints and improvement services. 

• Offer technical expertise, mentoring, or management to officers handling corporate complaints. 

• Draft complex responses to stage 2 complaints and Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) investigations. 

• Collaboratively work with the team and stakeholders to ensure compliance with policy, procedure, and relevant legislation. 

• Respond to and action escalated complex issues. 

• Ensure complaints are responded to in a timely and appropriate manner. 

• Co-ordinate resources for the team and the allocation of work, providing training and mentoring as required. 

• Lead specialist projects or improvement programmes and contribute to the delivery of larger projects. 

• Focus on resolution and learning from complaints: Actively work on resolving issues and not just responding to complaint correspondence. Use feedback obtained to inform and improve future practices, ensuring processes are fit for purpose. 

Any-Desk:

As an ‘any-desk’ worker, you’ll need to be connected to our network to access digital folders and resources, but this can either be from home or an office location when required. You will be required to work from the office a couple of times a week, depending on your role and team requirements.

About you

You will:

• Have a strong desire to learn and understand the intricacies of complaint resolution and service improvement. 
• Possess the ability to effectively engage with others, share ideas, and work together to achieve outcomes. 
•  Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to negotiate, persuade, and build and maintain effective working relationships at all levels. 
• Skill in identifying problems and successfully negotiating solutions, with issues managed through to a satisfactory conclusion, reported and/or escalated as appropriate. The ability to challenge at all levels

Other information

For further information on this role please see the attached job summary.

We are based in the Walton St offices in Aylesbury. Working in a hybrid environment of 2 days in the office and 3 days at home.

Closing date: 14 April 2025

Interview date: 16 April 2025

Interview-type / process: In person

If you would like to have an informal conversation with the recruiting manager, please contact: Jennifer Griffin

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent convictions and conditional cautions
• All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected (i.e. that are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020 and 2023).

For further information on filtering please refer to Nacro guidance and the guidance published by the Ministry of Justice (see, in particular, the section titled ‘Exceptions Order’).

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

Our values and culture

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are – Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

By joining Buckinghamshire Council, you can expect:

a fair and inclusive culture

• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events

At Buckinghamshire Council, we know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that’s why we’re working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it’s important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

 

About the Business Unit

The Deputy Chief Executive directorate is central to Buckinghamshire Council’s journey to establish itself as one of the best councils in the country. With a clear focus on service improvement through transformation and a drive to build better relationships with the local community, the directorate is fast-paced; but extremely rewarding. Our teams are not only proactively delivering on projects and plans but also reacting to developing situations. If you are ambitious, innovative, and would relish the opportunity to influence change - a role within our service area could be your next career move.

The team includes exciting areas of work, including a brand new localities model – delivering 16 community boards across the county to make it easy for our residents to engage with us as we work together to plan for the future. Other teams include our Policy and Communications and Legal and Democratic Services teams – innovating the way we communicate with our colleagues, Members and the local community, and role-modelling best practice through policy, planning and legal services. If you think you can help us achieve our goals, and want to be a part of this exciting journey, we would love to hear from you!

We recognise and reward you

Hard work and success deserves recognition. That’s why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants, shops and auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme. In addition to the opportunity to gain membership to Costco, we have discounted gym memberships, travel discounts with Arriva and much more.

https://jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/working-buckinghamshire-council/