Issue - meetings

Annual Social Care, Public Health and Corporate Complaints Report

Meeting: 10/09/2019 - Scrutiny Board (Item 5)

5 Annual Social Care, Public Health and Corporate Complaints Report pdf icon PDF 925 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board welcomed Cllr Sandra Samuels, Cabinet Member for Governance and Sarah Campbell, Customer Engagement Manager.

 

Scrutiny Board received a report requesting it to review complaints management and performance for the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019.

 

The report provided a summary of the complaints, compliments and

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and Housing Ombudsman enquiries received by the Council during the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019.

 

The Customer Engagement Manager presented the report and highlighted specific areas of interest. It was stated that there had been an increase in the number of complaints about waste management, which reflected the changes in refuse service and policy. It was stated that by working closely with the service area, the customer services department had been able to resolve many potential complaints prior to them entering the formal complaints process.

 

Children and Young People had received 70 complaints which was a decrease of 22% on the previous year and the team would always try to resolve any issues in the first instance before moving to stage 1.

 

There were 74 complaints for Adult Social Care and Public Health which was a decrease of 9% on the previous year.

 

It was noted that the Ombudsman annual report recorded nineteen complaints out of which nine were upheld. This was an upheld rate of 47% and was up 3% on the previous year; the national average was over 60% for upheld complaints.

 

The Board queried whether timescales between each complaint stage were being met and it was confirmed that they were in the majority of cases and where this was not possible the customer was kept informed.  Breaches were minimal, and the Council was hitting 95% of the timescales.

 

The Board considered that it might be useful to include some additional contextual information regarding departments and service areas where no complaints had been received. It was also requested that in future reports, information be provided in relation to upheld complaints and follow up action that had been taken. This would include areas where there had been a breach in confidentiality.

 

The Board agreed that the Council should be proud of the report and the work of the officers

 

Resolved:

1. That the Statutory Complaints Activity for Children’s Services, Adult Services and Public Health, as listed in section 1 of the report be noted.

2. That all the other complaints activity governed by the Corporate Complaints Procedures as listed in section 2 of the report be noted.

3.That future reports include additional contextual information regarding departments and service areas where no complaints have been received.

4. That future reports include information in relation to upheld complaints and any follow up action taken. This would include areas where there had been a breach in confidentiality.