Agenda item

6.1

The Committee considered a joint report of the Directors of Human Resources and Legal and Governance that provided an overview of the complaints received and formally referred and determined by the three Ombudsmen (Local Government, Parliamentary and Health Service and Housing) during the period from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016 regarding services provided by the Council, both directly and through partners. The report also identified future developments and areas for improvement in complaint management.

6.2

In presenting the report, Andrew Fellows, Customer Services Manager, referred to dealing with Ombudsman complaints in a timely manner, the Government’s intention to create a single Public Service Ombudsman and improvements to complaint recording that were being considered. He also highlighted the areas for improvement that had been identified in the way that complaints are generally managed and these related to reviewing how learning from complaints can be improved, carrying out communications with key stakeholders to improve awareness of complaints processes and trends and investigating how to improve the visibility of complaints resolved through problem solving.

6.3

In response to questions from Members of the Committee, the Customer Services Manager indicated that:-

·         There would be move from a more bureaucratic system to recording details within the service and these would feed into service improvements.

·         In terms of how Sheffield compared to similar sized authorities, the only comparator was on Ombudsman complaints with the Core Cities Group. Sheffield was not out of step with the national picture, where complaints relating to Adult Social Care featured highly.

·         With regard to the increase in the number of complaints relating to Amey, four year data or in year statistics were not available and officers were working with the client to improve the level of visibility.

6.4

Resolved: The Committee accepts the report on the performance of Ombudsman complaints and notes the issues raised.