Agenda item

Ian Anderson, Business Manager, Complaints and Enquiries, introduced a report detailing corporate complaints for 2019-20.

The Committee was advised that the number of informal complaints had reduced by 15% since the previous year, from 2,756 to 2,339. Stage 1 complaints (861), had risen by 3%, and of these, 9% (80) had been escalated to Stage 2. There had been no Stage 3 complaints.

Complaints considered by the Housing Ombudsman Service and Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman had fallen by 31% from 86 to 59 complaints. Of the 59 complaints investigated by the Ombudsman, 6 were upheld, 8 were partially upheld, 8 were not upheld, and 37 were not investigated. The majority of directorates were responding to complaints within their targeted timeframes.

Compliments received had increased by 29% from the previous year, from 234 to 301. In recent months many residents had complimented the Council on the planting of wildflowers and street cleansing.

Member Enquires (MEs) remained similar at 11,308 for 2018/19 and 11,047 for 2019/20. Waste Services accounted for 66% of all Members Enquiries (5,949).

Members referred to a previous request to have the report include details of Member Enquiries submitted by each Ward, which was absent from this report. Members were advised that such information would need to be approved by senior management for inclusion in future reports. Mr Anderson agreed to report back to the committee on this point.

Regarding the report’s reference to delays when processing enquiries/actions from commissioning services etc. Members requested detail on what improvements had been made. The Committee was advised that a new management team was now in place, and performance had been seen to have improved.

Members asked whether there had been any impact due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Committee was advised that as the report detailed the period from 1^st April 2019 to 31 March 2020, it only covered a very small period of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, it was explained that the Council continued to deal with complaints as normal with no relaxation of timelines for responses, but there had been a reduction in the number of complaints and Members Enquiries received between 1 April to 30 July 2020.

Members asked whether the Stage 2 complaints were as a result of delays in responding to Stage 1 complaints, or whether there were other reasons for these complaints. The Committee was advised that Stage 2 complaints were received as part of an escalation process, should a resident be dissatisfied at the outcome of the Stage 1 complaint.

Members asked whether the instigation of a new Member Enquiry process had impacted on the number of MEs received. The Committee was advised that, barring a brief adjustment period following the introduction of the new process, there had been no marked impact recorded.

The report referenced case ref. 7388809, that had been upheld by the Ombudsman. Members requested detail of any lessons learned. It was agreed that further detail would be forwarded to the Committee following the meeting.

Members highlighted that not all cases to the Ombudsman had been detailed within the report. The Committee was advised that the report included the required statutory detail, but that future reports could include non-statutory Ombudsman investigation outcomes as part of an overall summary.

The Committee requested that future reports include detail of complaints received for the past 5 years, in order to identify potential trends, and the percentage of complaints regarding in-house services versus commissioned services. Members were advised that the 5-year detail could be included, though further analysis was required to see whether the second request could be accommodated.

RESOLVED:

1. That the report be noted.