Lee Henley, Strategic Lead Information Management, presented the report that set out the Council’s complaints statistics for the period 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020. The number of complaints received for the reporting period was 1393 and compared to the same period last year had represented a reduction in the number of complaints received. During this reporting period 40% of the complaints had been upheld which had been an improvement when compared with the same period last year.  Lee Henley directed Members to Appendix 1 of the report which detailed the Top Ten Complaint Themes and to Appendices 2 and 3 of the report which detailed the Adult and Children Social Care Dashboards.

Councillor Collins asked for some clarification on the “Maladministration Causing Justice” on the Ombudsman Enquiries as detailed in the report. Lee Henley referred Members to page 24, paragraph 2.9 of the report that recorded the financial compensation payments made by the Council and confirmed the £5675 payment referred to delays in getting an education health care plan in place for a resident’s son and the payment of £100 was a data protection breach of disclosing landlord’s details.

Councillor C Kent referred to the high associated costs relating to the complaint investigation costs and asked how this could be prevented and to ensure the plans that were already in place were working to avoid such costs in the future. Lee Henley stated that the number of complaints had gone down and the figure was an indicative estimate on the cost to investigate complaints.

RESOLVED

That the Standards and Audit Committee noted the statistics and performance for the reporting period.