Lee Henley presented the report and stated the number of complaints received for the reporting period was 827. For the same period last year the figure was 520, therefore the reporting period represented an increase in complaints received. Members were referred to the appendices of the report that summarised details of the top 10 complaint areas, Adult Social Care complaints and a summary for Children Social Care complaints.

Councillor Raper referred to paragraph 2.6 of the report, learning lessons from complaints, where the summary had shown a high level of learning but on the Appendix 1 this had not been included to which Lee Henley stated Appendix 1 had detailed only the top 10 areas that had received the most complaints and key learnings had been summarised for those 10 areas. That high level learning had also been identified from complaints and were detailed from page 25 of the report. Councillor Raper referred to where people had been reminded of these learnings she questioned what was the quality of assurance and who conducted this to which Lee Henley stated that when a complaint was closed which had been upheld, the learning from these complaints is tracked on the complaints system.

Councillor Ononaji referred to the low number of complaints compared to the size of the borough and questioned whether this was because the council was doing very well or residents were unsure of the procedure on how to make complaints. Lee Henley stated this was the first report that was reporting an increase in complaints and the council promoted the complaints procedure for example in adult social care service where leaflets and posters had been provided in care homes detailing the procedures. Councillor Ononaji questioned whether this number was below the target to which Lee Henley stated there was no targets for the number of complaints only a target for upheld complaints, where lower figures were for the better.

Councillor Collins referred to page 26 of the report and referenced the contact centre and questioned whether there had been any other complaints such as obtaining parking permits which should be included in the report. Lee Henley stated Appendix 1 was the top 10 areas of complaints, complaints may have been received on the contact centre but this area were not in the 10 top and therefore would not have been analysed as part of this report.

Councillor Snell acknowledged the number of compliments received.

Councillor Snell referred to page 25 of the report, Housing – Repairs, Mears, and questioned what was being undertaken to monitor their performance, how regular were these monitored and had this made any difference. Lee Henley stated that housing had a robust contract management controls and procedures around monitoring any contractor complaints. Members were referred to the lower number of complaints for housing repairs v. the number of repairs that were undertaken as a council, therefore when put into perspective this was a very low number when compared to the number of repairs undertaken.

Councillor Ononaji acknowledged and congratulated the zero percentage in the number of Maladministration when compared to the last report and that work had been undertaken to reduce this figure. Councillor Ononaji stated there had been no data available within the report to compare from previous months to which Lee Henley stated the report had listed a summary of all the ombudsman decisions within that reporting period along with any compensation payments paid out by the council and provided details for members on the seven local ombudsman cases over the last six months. 

RESOLVED

Noted the statistics and performance for the reporting period.