Issue - items at meetings - Annual complaints report

Report of the Director of Strategy and Governance

18.1    The Standards and Complaints Manager introduced the Annual Complaints report for 2009/2010.

18.2    Overall numbers of Stage One complaints had fallen during the year and as would be expected for large directorates providing services directly to the public, Environment and Adult Social Care and Housing received the largest proportion of complaints. The Complaints Team are working with the Council’s Youth Advocacy Practice to make the complaints process more accessible for young people so they can feel confident about contacting us.

18.3    Answering questions the Standards and Complaints Manager said a complaint was an expression of dissatisfaction however made about something the council has or has not done. He outlined the Council’s complaints procedures.

18.4    He frequently provided feedback to the Directorates and had regular contact with the service areas, Heads of Service and Directors. Some complaints information is reported to the Standards Committee; the annual complaints report is now presented to Overview and Scrutiny Commission.

18.5    Some services, particularly City Clean and Adult Social Care, are resolving complaints by having direct contact with customers. This is proving to be a good way to resolve complaints and improve services and this seemed to be happening more.

18.6    Benchmarking against other local authorities for Stages One and Two complaints was not in place. The Local Government Ombudsman provides comparative information on complaints referred to him.

18.6    The Standards and Complaints Manager explained how complaints data could be presented to distinguish been dissatisfaction with a policy or decision reached compared with a service received.

18.7    Complaints against Councillors were reported to the Standards Committee. Complaints about the decisions of Licensing Committee are outside of the complaints process.

18.8    Members were concerned at the significant rise in complaints about Repairs and Maintenance, especially in that the probable reason was transferring work between contractors. (Report paragraph 3.37) They felt strongly that in the context of a move to Intelligent Commissioning this learning should be shared widely. The matter would be referred to Adult Social Care and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

18.9    Chair of the Environment and Community Safety Overview and Scrutiny Committee Councillor Warren Morgan reminded the meeting that individual complaints were excluded from the remit of the scrutiny panel investigating the response to the severe weather, of which he was also Chair.  This was a one-off event but because these complaints had been omitted from this report the data here might be misleading, he said. (Report paragraph 3.52).

18.10  The Standards and Complaints Manager stated there had been too many complaints to process in the usual way. There was a significant strength of feeling from complainants in the December period of snow that had reduced to some extent by the time of the January spell of snow. He had provided evidence to the scrutiny panel, whose full report of key findings was available.

18.11    There is an established protocol with health organisations to allow for a combined response to complaints. Where services are shared between partnership bodies, clarifying the process for complaining or creating a one-stop shop would be useful, he said.

18.12  RESOLVED That as minuted above at 18.8 learning from complaints about Repairs and Maintenance in the context of Intelligent Commissioning be referred to ASCHOSC.