Agenda item

8.1

The Committee received a report from the Director of Direct Services which summarised the key performance of corporate complaints for all Portfolio areas and the Council’s key strategic partners Amey and Veoila for the reporting year 2022/23 and key focus areas for 2023/24. It provided an honest and transparent representation of the Council’s performance for all services in relation to feedback and complaints. Also provided an update of the November 2022/March 2024 Complaints Service Improvement Plan.

8.2

The Service Delivery Manager, Customer Services (Corleen By-Graves Paul) gave a presentation to the Committee and the key points to note were: -

8.3

The 6 recommendations set by the Audit & Standards Committee at their meeting in November 2022 were shown along with the progress of each of those recommendations.

8.4

The Customer Service now attend quarterly Senior Manager meetings to discuss complaint progress.

8.5

In 2022/23 the Complaints procedure & Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) training was delivered to approximately 400 Officers.

8.6

The total number of complaints received in 2022/23 including the Council’s strategic partners was 9514. Council Services receiving the highest number of complaints were Council Housing Repairs (42%), Customer Services (17%) and Finance (16%). 56% of complaints recorded were resolved via Problem Solving. 50% of complaints were responded to within 28 calendar days (20 working days) the Council’s target was 80%.

8.7

It was explained that the Ombudsman Report was not included within this report, that would be presented at a future Audit & Standards Committee.

8.8

The Council’s top 3 remedies and service improvements were:

1.Apology 50% (52) ; 2.Finanical remedies 14% (15) and  3.Change, review or provide a service 13%(13).

8.9

The presentation outlined the Complaints Service Improvement Plan.

8.10

The Service Delivery Manager acknowledged the lack of information provided relating to racism and equalities. She explained that fields had been introduced into the complaints system which would highlight complaints relating to racism so that this information could be collated in the future.

8.11

At this stage of proceedings, the Chair of the meeting (Councillor Sioned-Mair Richards) left the meeting and Councillor Fran Belbin Chaired for the remainder of the meeting.

8.12

Members of the Committee asked questions and the following responses were provided: -

8.13

The Service Delivery Manager explained that Senior Leaders within the Council were now proactive in being accountable for complaints that fell within their portfolio. The Council had regular Senior Leadership Board (SLB) meetings in which the Service Delivery Manager attended to inform Senior Officers of those complaints. She explained that although Council’s Repairs and Maintenance service received the highest number of complaints, that particular team was really efficient when it came to recording complaints and then working with customers on resolving those issues.

8.14

The Service Delivery Manager explained that any expression of dissatisfaction constituted as a complaint. Citizens could express this in many ways such as a phone call, email or face to face. Officers were also responsible for recoding complaints if they felt a customer was dissatisfied with a particular service.

8.15

The Head of Customer Services confirmed that the vision for the new complaints system was to save individuals details so that you did not have to fill in a complaint from the start each time. This would also help with joined up working across services as these complaints can be seen by other services, when necessary, in order to give the best response possible to customers.

8.16

The Service Delivery Manager explained that a new project had begun in which British Sign Language Interpreters (BSL) would be able to help customers with that need navigate the Council’s website and direct them to the service they needed.

8.17

The Service Delivery Manager explained there was regular Officer training in place which taught Officers how to recognise and complaint and then how to deal with it. She added that Officers will be encouraged to record complaints relating to racism.

8.18

The Head of Customer Services and Service Delivery Manager noted the comment in regard to making the actions in the report more robust and defined.

8.19

RESOLVED: That the Committee (1) gave review and consideration of the Annual Corporate Complaints Report 2022/23; and (2) gave approval and continued support of the Summary Corporate Complaints Improvement Plan for the period November 2022 - March 2024 to ensure objectives are met.