Agenda item

Report of the Complaints and Customer manager

5.1     The Committee considered a report on the Council’s Annual Complaints Review for 2017-18.  The report summarised the Council’s complaints performance (Complaint stages 1 and 2), complaints received by the Local Government Ombudsmen (LGO) and a limited review of dealing with the Leader and Cabinet Member correspondence.  The report contained, as an appendix, a copy of the Local Government Ombudsman Annual Letter/Review for the year ending 31 March 2018.  Whilst the review covered most of the Council’s services, Adults and Children’s Social Care Services each have their own separate statutory complaints procedure and separate reports are produced for these.  Copies of these were appended to the report for information.

5.2     Information used to compile the 2017/18 annual report had largely come from the complaints icasework management system, which has been in operation since June 2016.

5.3     The committee noted that the Review indicated that there was a 46% increase in the number of stage 1 complaints received.  The increase in volume is attributed to service areas now fully engaging with the new complaints Casework system and the use of the Council’s complaints web form which is linked to the icasework system and is not an indication of poor service.

5.4     The Committee asked whether all of the Council’s departments were recording complaints through the icasework system and whether all complaints were being captured in it.  Sue Howell, Customer and Complaints Manager, explained that some complainants still contact the Council via letter.  While some of these might not be entered into the system she was confident that a significant majority of complaints were now being captured in one place.  In response to further questions, Sue Howell explained that in addition to the web form members of the public can submit complaints in writing or by phone.  The ability to submit complaints via email was removed as part of the Council’s Digital Programme and the desire to increase the use of the web form. Members commented that many people find communicating by email much easier and asked officers to explore options for re-introducing an email facility for raising complaints.

5.5     The Committee noted that the number of complaints received by Directorate increased per quarter to year-end.  Members asked whether there was a reason for this.  Sue Howell informed the Committee that while some complaints are seasonal there was no correlation from one quarter to the next and volume levels had differed the previous year.

5.6     The annual report revealed that the highest volume of complaints come from twoDirectorates which are City Treasurers (Revenue and Benefits) with 48% of the total, and City Management and Communities (CMC) with 38%. In respect of the latter, there had been a % reduction in volume on the preceding year.  In 2017/18 Revs and Bens represented 48% of all stage 1 complaints.  In 2016/17 it was 62%.  The increase in stage 1 complaints for City Management & Communities (CMC) is generally attributed to better reporting since the introduction of the icasework system as previously CMC complaints were captured on various systems some complaints may not have been reported at a corporate level so some under reporting was expected.  The Committee noted that the Housing Benefits and Revenue divisions within the City Treasurer’s Directorate had the best response times.  Sue Howell explained that due to the volume of complaints it receives the division has a dedicated proactive team that is focused on responding to and resolving complaints.  Members suggested that, where transferable, it should share some of its practices with other Council directorates.

5.7     The report outlined that there was a 22% reduction of stage 2 complaints when compared with 2016/17.  This reduction came from Revenue and Benefits and in particular from Housing Benefit complaints.  The service attributed this reduction to an improvement in the standard of stage 1 responses. There have been no significant service failures found at stage 2 of the complaints procedure and only 4% (4 of 113 complaints) were upheld at the final stage. This  suggests that the service areas are generally putting things right at the first stage of the procedure. 

5.8     The LGO made no specific comments about the Council’s performance, and the Annual Complaints Review has reported that no formal public reports were issued against the Council.

5.9     The Committee noted in relation to the Adults Annual Complaints report that the volume of complaints had risen over the last 4 years and that quality of service was the most complained about issue in 2017-2018.  The Committee further noted that 48% of complaints were either fully or partially upheld.

          Actions:

          1.       The Committee has requested that future complaint reports cover all of the Council’s services including the statutory complaints from Adults and Children’s and Family Services and the Housing provision currently being delivered by CityWest Homes, once this has been bought back in-house, in order to obtain a complete picture of complaints received by the Authority.

          2.       The Committee asked for detailed information on Adult complaints that were either fully or partially upheld.