Complaints

Want to make a complaint?

STAR is committed to providing the best possible standard of service to the organisations with whom we work and the business and VCSE sectors we deal with in all of our activities. However, we realise that sometimes things don’t go in accordance with expectations, and you will wish to contact us in order for us to put things right.

A response may be prepared jointly from STAR and the organisation(s) we are working with.

Legal challenge of procurement activity

Complaints with the intention of stopping any procurement activity or the award of a contract that is subject to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 or The Concession Contract Regulations 2016, must be conducted in the manner provided for within the respective legislation. You should seek your own legal advice before proceeding.

Complaints that are not captured by the legislation above will be addressed in accordance with the below.

Complaints related to bribery and fraud

To make a complaint relating to fraud or corruption by a member of STAR, the complaint should follow Trafford Councils confidential reporting code.

You can make your complaint:

Your complaint should include:

  • Your details, company name, contact details, etc;
  • STARs unique reference (and a Chest ref. if this relates to a procurement exercise);• Title of the procurement exercise / other activity / contract / SLA, etc;
  • Details of the complaint or issue;

The complaints procedure

Stage 1

  • You should receive a response to your complaint within 20 working days from the day we receive it.
  • If there are any delays we will contact you with updates on the progress of our investigations.
  • If it is not possible to resolve your complaint at stage 1 you may request for your complaint to progress to Stage 2, explaining why you are unsatisfied with the outcome.

Stage 2

  • You should receive a response within 10 working days of progressing to Stage 2.
  • If there are any delays we will contact you with updates on the progress of our investigations.
  • If it is not possible to resolve your complaint at stage 2 you may request for your complaint to progress to Stage 3, explaining why you are unsatisfied with the outcome of stage 1 & 2.

Stage 3

  • You should receive a response within 10 working days of progressing to Stage 3.
  • If there are any delays we will contact you with updates on the progress of our investigations.

Still not happy with the response after stage 3?

In the event you remain unsatisfied with the STAR response, you may wish to raise your complaint direct with the relevant organisation to which the activity in question relates.