Senior Complaints Practice Lead

We are committed to the development of our workforce. This position is only available to applicants who already work for Surrey County Council. We thank you for your interest in our roles and would encourage you to review our vacancies which are open to all.

This role has a starting salary of £70,975 per annum, based on a 36-hour working week.

We are seeking an experienced Senior Complaints Practice Lead to provide strategic leadership and expert oversight of complaints management across Surrey County Council.

This is a senior role within Customer Services, responsible for ensuring a consistent, high-quality and customer-focused approach to complaint handling. You will ensure the voice of the customer is central to service improvement, organisational learning and policy development.

• 26 days' holiday, rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 31 days after 5 years' service
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Up to 5 days of carer's leave and 2 paid volunteering days per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependents leave
• An Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources
• Wellbeing and lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, and shopping
• A chance to make a real difference to the lives of our residents.

The post has two key leadership facets:

• Direct accountability for line managing a dedicated complaints team, ensuring high performance, quality and professional standards.
• Matrix leadership across other complaints teams within the organisation, working collaboratively to strengthen consistency of approach, improve performance and embed best practice organisation-wide.

You will play a critical role in supporting Surrey Councils through Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation (D&LGR), helping to prepare for Vesting Day and beyond. This includes ensuring complaints handling arrangements are safe, legal, and consistent throughout the transition, supporting new operating models, and shaping the complaints framework for the two new local authorities.

This is an exciting opportunity to influence how complaints and customer feedback are managed in a newly formed local government landscape.

• Provide organisation-wide leadership and specialist expertise in complaints management
• Manage high-risk and high-profile complaints across high volume service areas
• Drive service improvement by embedding learning from complaints
• Deliver insight, reporting and assurance to senior leaders and Audit & Governance Committee
• Act as the organisation's Link Officer for the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman
• Develop and deliver training to build capability and consistent practice
• Lead, motivate and develop staff within your directly managed complaints team
• Support D&LGR by working collaboratively across multiple complaints teams to design and oversee safe, legal and consistent complaints handling

For full details, please see the attached Job Description.

In order to be considered for shortlisting, your application will clearly evidence the following skills and align with our behaviours:

• Leadership experience in complaints handling, service improvement, and customer experience, ideally in a complex or public-sector setting.
• Ability to lead through influence and direct management, building strong collaborative relationships across teams.
• Experience driving change, aligning practices and priorities to deliver consistent standards and improved performance organisation-wide.

To apply, we request that you submit a CV, and a personal statement of no more than two pages which outlines the reasons for your interest in this role and your relevant qualifications and experience.

Please contact us for any questions relating to role requirements, flexible working requests, transferable skills or barriers to employment. For an informal discussion, please contact Eleanor Brown via email at .

The job advert closes at 23:59 on 15/01/2026 with interviews planned to follow.

We look forward to receiving your application, please click on the apply online button below to submit.

Surrey County Council is undergoing Local Government Reorganisation, moving from a two-tier system to two new unitary councils in April 2027. If you are employed by Surrey on 1st April 2027, your role will transfer with current terms and conditions to one of the new organisations, supporting local devolution and greater powers for our communities.

We are a disability confident employer which means if you have shared a disability on your application form and have evidenced you meet the minimum criteria, we guarantee you an interview.

Your skills and experience truly matter to us. From application to your first day, we're committed to supporting you with any adjustments you need, we value inclusion and warmly welcome you to join and help build a workplace where everyone belongs.