Our promise to you

Surrey County Council listens to the people who live, work and travel in Surrey – to inform our policies, to improve our services and to improve the environment. We have set out below our commitment to you and our requests of you.

We will:

• make it easy for you to contact us by the method you prefer
• deal with you politely and with respect
• respond to your letters and e-mails promptly and in plain English
• provide clear information and advice about our services
• resolve your enquiry first time or, if this is not possible, keep you informed of our progress
• explain our decisions and the reasons for them
• admit when things go wrong and do our best to put them right
• ask for and listen to your views on our services and use them to inform changes and improvements
• treat you as an individual.

We ask you to:

• tell us when things go wrong, and tell us when you receive outstanding service from us so that we can learn from your experience
• treat us politely and with respect.

Our current standards

If you contact us by letter, we will:

• respond to you within five working days, or sooner if possible. If not,
• send you an acknowledgment with details of who is dealing with the matter and how long they will need to respond fully.

If you contact us by e-mail or "Contact us" on-line, we will:

• respond to you within five working days. If not
• send you an acknowledgment with details of who is dealing with the matter and how long they will need to respond fully.

If you contact us by telephone, we will:

• answer your call within 20 seconds or let you leave a message and/or provide an alternative contact.

If you visit our website, we will:

• make it easy to use
• give you information on Council services and policies, and
• clearly explain how to access and use the services.

If you visit us, we will:

• see you at the appointed time or, if we are delayed, explain why and keep you informed
• aim to see you within 15 minutes if you have no appointment, or offer you an alternative time
• provide a clean, tidy and comfortable waiting area and, wherever possible, a space for you to see us in private, and facilities for young children.

If you need one of our home based services, we will:

• agree a time with you in advance
• show you our identity card before coming in (our staff will expect you to check)
• tell you as soon as possible if we are delayed or have to postpone or cancel a meeting.

And, we will:

• regularly check how well we meet our promise and our standards so that our service to you continues to improve.

As part of this commitment, we openly share our comments, compliment and complaints procedure.

For information regarding contact with county councillors please see the information provided by the council's Standards Committee.