Agenda item

The Business Manager, Complaints and Enquiries introduced the report on Annual Complaints & Service Monitoring Report for 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 and provided an oral summary of the key highlights.

It was reported that the Council focussed on trying to resolve complaints to the satisfaction of residents. Across the Council only 30% of informal complaints (2,587) had been escalated to a Stage 1 complaint (789) and only 5% of Stage 1 complaints had been escalated to Stage 2 (42).

It was noted that the Council had received a significant number of compliments (502) and the number of compliments recorded over the past 5 years had continued to rise from 76 in 2016/17 to 502 for 2021/21. Residents had been particularly complimentary about the wild flowers across the Borough.

The number of informal complaints recorded for 2020/21 of 2,587 was higher than the 2016/17 figure of 2,081. However, the number of formal complaints recorded (Stages 1, 2, and 3) was generally lower for 2020/21 than in previous years. 

The number of Ombudsman Investigations was lower for 2020/21 than in any other previous years. This was because the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman decided to pause their investigations for four months to allow local authorities to follow their Covid 19 response. It was also noted that the Council’s corporate complaints procedure had been revised in 2017 which allowed a direct escalation of complaints to the Ombudsman.

The Committee discussed the options in place to manage complaints informally prior to them reaching a formal stage. It was explained that the volume of complaints were generally low in social care but higher in other areas such as waste and housing. It was agreed that good communication was highly valued in all complaints. A number of steps were taken at an informal level as complainants often preferred quick responses. Learning and feedback was identified and shared with senior management teams. 

Concerns were raised in relation to the audit of Members Enquiries information. Although the main source of information was extracted from Members Enquiries data and from one source, officers were asked to review this information as there were discrepancies in the figures. Further information would be provided to Members.

It was noted that there had been complaints about trying to contact the relevant teams with concerns of long waiting times.  Members heard that generally people contacted the contact centre with issues and these calls would then be filtered to the relevant teams. To make the complaints process easier for residents, there was also a form on the Council’s website that was sent directly to the complaints team.

Further information would be provided in relation to highways complaints. It was noted that education complaints were low and many complaints were raised directly with the school. 

The Committee discussed the importance of using officer resource sensibly and whether it would be possible for the digital agenda to provide better information to Members to reduce the number of Members’ Enquiries. Members also asked what amounted to sufficient evidence in the complaints process and it was agreed that residents would benefit from better information on this.

Members thanked officers for the full and thorough report, that covered a wide range of services.

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