Robbie Watson-Levey – Continuous Improvement

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Or not as the case may be.

The complaints and compliance department at Essex County Council is a shambles.

I truly wish I hadn’t submitted that complaint now, it was a stupid mistake, I should have known better.

I submitted a complaint regarding my child missing 4 years of school due to ECC not offering any support for my child’s SEND needs. This was on the 26th November. My complaint should have been answered on the 10th December.

On the 10th December I received this:

I replied with this:

The officers name is redacted as it’s not her fault.

My reply:

I am really upset about this, it has that air of carelessness about it.

The reply:

That is utterly ridiculous, and I believe false. Complaints teams will receive complaints with swearing in them, say an employee swears, that would be contained within the complaint.

In a complaint I made in December 2019 the complaint contained swear words, and slurs against people with a protected characteristic. There was even a threat against students with regards to a weapon. I did put those things in quotation marks because they were said by someone else, but those words, including swear words, were still in the complaint.

Didn’t get filtered.

Here is my response:

I then sent a further email, this is regarding a compliment I submitted in September 2020 about a social worker, I never had a response after I filled out the compliment form and submitted it.

Their reply:

That isn’t what they say when you fill out the compliment form.

My reply:

I am unlikely to get a response before the new year due to the delay while my complaint was in the ‘junk folder’.

I feel really demoralised to be honest.

I knew they were bad, but this is really bad, just saying things which don’t make sense, go against what is published as policy by them on the same page as the form.

I don’t know if my compliment was ever actioned, I cannot believe anything they say.

I don’t think I believe the filter story either.

I feel like they are lying to me and think i’m stupid.

What they are saying, both with regards to the filter, and why I didn’t receive a response when I submitted the compliment, doesn’t make any sense, and goes against their own policies.

I don’t think any organisation has ever made me feel as if I don’t matter as much as Essex County Council do.

They really do not care about service users and residents, the council is run for the glory of the officers.

Robbie Watson-Levey is fine with awards, both receiving and praising and commenting on any award that ECC receives, it’s 90% of his activity on Linkedin. Can’t even manage the very basics of a complaint department though.

I feel really sad and upset, I knew I shouldn’t have made a complaint and that ECC would make me feel terrible, and I was right.

I’m seriously contemplating withdrawing my complaint just because it’s a complete waste of time.