Agenda item

Ian Anderson - Business Manager, Complaints and Enquiries, introduced the report. Members’ attention was drawn to a poem on page 102 of the agenda pack which had been written by a young person to thank her social worker and Personal Assistant for the help they had given her.  The Committee was reminded that residents were often very appreciative of the services supplied by the Council.

Key points highlighted in the report included:

·         The data focused on the last two years 2018/19 and 2019/20 – future reports to POC would cover a five-year period;

·         During the financial year 2018/19, 2756 informal complaints had been recorded – this had reduced to 2339 in 2019/20;

·         Over the same period, the number of Stage 1 complaints had risen by 3% from 837 to 861 and Stage 2 complaints had increased from 73 to 80;

·         Statistically it appeared that 91% of complaints were being resolved at Stage 1;

·         There had been a significant drop in the number of cases investigated by the Ombudsman from 86 to 59;

·         The number of compliments received had risen from 234 to 301;

·         A large number of compliments had already been received in the period 2020/21 and it was estimated that the number would reach approximately 600 by the end of the financial year;

·         Residents had been particularly complimentary about the wild flowers across the Borough;

·         The volume of Members’ enquiries had dropped slightly from 11,308 to 11,047;

·         Residents Services accounted for 97% of all enquiries from Elected Members – the majority were in relation to Waste Services (5,949 enquiries);

·         Few Members’ enquiries regarding Children’s Services and Adult Social Care were received; however, it was noteworthy that those received were generally more complex and took longer to investigate and resolve;

·         An area for improvement was in relation to the timeliness of responses. It was important that complaints and enquiries were responded to on time. At present 99% of Finance complaints, 93% of Adult Social Care complaints and 86% of Children’s Services complaints had been responded to within target. However, 72% of Resident Services complaints had been responded to within target. The Business Manager, Complaints and Enquiries was working with the relevant teams to improve response times in this area.

Members congratulated Ian Anderson on his detailed and thorough report and appreciated its transparency and honesty. In response to Councillors’ requests for clarification, it was confirmed that it was difficult to say that 91% of Stage 1 complaints were resolved as a complainant could escalate a complaint to Stage 2 many months later. The only conclusion that could be drawn from the numbers was that the complaints process was doing what it was designed to do in that as you went up the Stages, there were fewer complaints.

With regards to a correlation between Stage 2 complaints and those which progressed to the Ombudsman, Members were informed that it was difficult to draw any conclusions from this as Ombudsman investigations took a very long time to be concluded and the findings could even be reported the following year. However, it was confirmed that the Council took the Ombudsman’s findings very seriously and, if the Council was found to be at fault in some way, officers at all levels would consider what needed to be done to ensure that it did not happen again. Officers were committed to providing the best service possible and when things went wrong, to put them right.  Members were informed that officers engaged in a constructive and positive way with the Ombudsman and were mindful that if the Ombudsman was unhappy with the operation of a particular local authority, it could publish a public report to this effect.

RESOLVED: That the Committee noted the contents of the report and provided any comments to officers as appropriate.