Agenda item

Ian Anderson, Business Manager, Complaints and Enquiries, introduced a report detailing corporate complaints for 2018-19.

The Committee was advised that the number of complaints had not changed dramatically since the previous year, and remained low when set into context of overall Council services. When comparing to neighbouring authorities, Hillingdon was receiving fewer complaints.  Member Enquires remained high in number, with the topic of waste accounting for over half of all Enquiries.

The number of compliments recorded had increased, due to better staff reporting and data capture. It was anticipated that compliments would continue to rise across the next year as further data was captured.

Responding to Education and Children’s Services complaints required further improvement the 10 working day target was being missed in a number of complaints. However, complaints Education complaints relating to schools missed the target mainly because it required an input from schools, in  the event that a school was closed (due to holidays, etc.), obtaining that data was difficult, which in turn delayed the response. Meetings were being held with Heads of Service to identify further ways to improve.

Overall, the number of complaints upheld by the ombudsman was low. The report referenced a Public Report issued by the Ombudsman which was upheld and related to a Housing Benefit claimant was elaborated on. The Council had subsequently accepted all of the ombudsman’s recommendations, and had learned several lessons relating to the handling of the complaint, the communication with the complainant, and points of contact.

Members requested that a breakdown of the subject of Member Enquiries be set out in future reports. In addition, it was requested that a separate email address be created to allow Members to submit emails on subjects that did not require an answer, thereby reducing the demands on officer time.

Mr Anderson advised that a breakdown could be hard to provide, due to the way in which Enquiries were recorded, though this could be looked into for next year’s report. Similarly, the suggestion for a new email address for Elected Members to use to report items for example to be collected, rubbish to be cleared, etc would be looked into and this would mean that the existing e-mail address would be for enquiries.

Members asked how the issue of bias was dealt with. For example, how could a complaint service, run by the Council, investigate complaints against Council-led decisions (such as Planning Committee decisions) impartially?

The officer advised that this was a common question. In response, the Committee was advised that officers would respond to complaints based on the data available. If mistakes were identified, then the Council would acknowledge these and put measures in place to ensure they were not repeated. In addition, the Corporate Complaints process had previously been updated to allow all complaints dealt with at Stage 1 (i.e. the majority) to escalate direct to the Ombudsman,if complainants were not satisfied. Whilst the Council process many planning complaints, in many such cases the complaint procedure is not the correct channel to seek a resolution as planning decisions for example need to be considered through the  planning inspectorate, appeal hearings and tribunals.

Members sought clarity on how individual achievement was recognised. Mr Anderson advised that when a compliment is received, the Head of Servcie or Director would write to the member of staff and thank them for their work. The Council also has an Employee Recognition Scheme where staff can be nominated and receive recognition for what they did. In addition, extracts from compliments are used at the Staff Roadshow. Mr Anderson explained that before a compliment is recorded, he will first check that someone has gone that extra mile rather than being complimented for doing their job.

The Committee asked whether all staff were trained to recognise and deal with complaints received by telephone. Members were advised that not all staff were trained to resolve a complaint, though all should be able to recognise a complaint and escalate accordingly. There were a number of complaint handling events throughout the year that staff could attend and this provides them with information on how to deal with complaints and our processes for dealing with complaints. The vast majority of complaints were dealt with informally, and were more often requests for certain actions or information then official ‘complaints’.

Members sought clarity on why the number of complaints dealt with by the Ombudsman for adult social care had increased. The Committee was advised that the number of complaints was skewed somewhat, because of the length of time taken by the Ombudsman to deal with such complaints  (approximately 9 months), and because of this many complaints received in the previous year but show in the figures for the following year.  A year on year comparison could be provided to Members following the meeting.

It was requested that Mr Anderson provide a list of Member Enquiries per ward, in alphabetical order, so that Members could potentially identify common or ongoing problems. Mr Anderson advised that this would be subject to Manager approval.

The Committee requested further detail on complaint reference 6810892, which the report stated had not been investigated by the ombudsman. The officer advised that this was a quirk of wording, and the matter had been investigated. To provide further clarity, it was agreed that the officer would provide further detail on the matter outside of the meeting.

RESOLVED:

1. That the report be noted;
2. That a breakdown of the subject of Member Enquiries be set out in future reports, if possible;
3. That the potential for a separate email address for Members to submit emails onsubjects that did not require an answer be looked into;
4. That the potential for individual achievement to be recognised on the Council’s website be reviewed;
5. That a year-on-year comparison of complaints received by Adult Social Care be provided to Members following the meeting;
6. That a list of Member Enquiries per ward be provided to Members, if possible; and
7. That further detail on complaint reference 6810892 be provided to the Committee.