Agenda item

The Committee considered an update report on progress being made against the management actions identified in the complaints handling audit report, which had been undertaken in August 2022.

The Committee noted that the nature of audits meant that the data that had been reviewed was retrospective and many of the issues identified and resulting actions in the audit report had already been identified by management prior to the audit and steps had begun to undertake improvements.

During the debate the following points were raised by the Committee:

·       Dismay at the number of complaints received

·       Concerns over the move towards an E complaints system, and the difficulties residents experience in communicating complaints to the Council, particularly those without access to a computer.  In response, the Executive Head of Communications and Customer Service, explained that there were other options for customers to log complaints with the Council, for example by telephone or letter.  Customer Services can also provide assistance to residents in submitting a complaint.

·       The Executive Head of Communications and Customer Service confirmed that complainants were not required to complete an official complaints form.  Complaints could also be logged over the telephone.  The information contained in the report on the number of complaints received represented the number of complaints logged on to the system.

·       Query regarding the extent to which matters raised with the Planning Enforcement team were “complaints”, and what actions could be taken in the context of performance indicators which would measure the extent to which such matters were satisfactorily addressed.  This would be referred to the Planning Enforcement Team for a response.

·       There needed to be mechanisms in place that informed residents that, if they were not satisfied with a response to a particular service-related enquiry, they could follow the Council’s complaints procedure. In response, the Executive Head of Communications and Customer Service confirmed that staff would be reminded to provide this information.

·       In response to a query as to the number of vexatious complaints received, the Executive Head of Communications and Customer Service confirmed that the Council had a vexatious, malicious and persistent complainants policy that would be put into place if required.  These cases were not reported publicly.

·       Request that progress be made to implement action 2.4 “analyse complaints data periodically to draw out common complaint themes to be fed back to service areas. Where actions have been identified for improvement, they should be tracked to completion.”  In response, the Executive Head of Communications and Customer Service confirmed that it was very likely that there were common themes amongst some of the complaints received and gave assurance that the Council was learning from complaints and appropriate actions were being taken to make improvements as a consequence of receiving complaints. The audit action was quite specific around having a specific corporate mechanism by which this could be done. Officers were looking at upgrading the current system in order to assist with this.

The Committee

RESOLVED: That the update report be noted.

Reason:

To respond to the Committee’s request for an update report on the progress against the audit actions.