Agenda item

To approve the formal Complaints Policy.

That the formal Complaints Policy be APPROVED.  

96.1           The report of the Corporate Services Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 135-144, set out the Council’s new complaints policy which Members were asked to approve.   

96.2           Members were advised that the Council generally received a low number of complaints, however, the formulation of a new complaints policy responded to a report from Internal Audit that the Council needed to deal with those complaints that it did receive better. A mini transformational project had been put into place which had devised a new way of recording and dealing with complaints. That system had been demonstrated to Lead Members already and would be presented to the Transform Working Group at its next meeting.

96.3           In reviewing the complaints system, an Officer Working Group had been set up to look at the old processes and it had been found that the system was difficult to manage and did not really record complaints in the correct way. This meant that the policy had been completely redrafted and a supporting leaflet had also been introduced. The new policy set out clearly what the customer should expect from the Council, how the Council would respond and in what timeframe a response would be provided. Complainants could now complete an online form and, once received, a complaint would be responded to within 20 working days; this had been increased from 10 working days due to the increasingly complex nature of the complaints received. Officers would always be encouraged to respond as soon as possible but the 20 day limit was in line with Local Government Ombudsman recommendations. In addition, within two working days of a complaint being received, an acknowledgement would be sent to the complainant to let them know who was investigating the complaint, the timescale within which a response would be received and what the procedure to be followed was. In accordance with data collection legislation a data retention schedule was to be maintained and reference was made to this within the policy.

96.4           A Member expressed the view that Ward Councillors should be advised of complaints as it could be advantageous for Officers to gain a fuller understanding of the complaint and the complainant from a Member with local knowledge. It was also felt to be helpful for the Member to know if there were any particular issues from within their Ward. In response he was advised that the system would prompt an Officer to consider whether the complaint was something that they should tell the local Member about; there was no automation within the system to email the Councillor directly about every complaint that was received. Officers had to remember that they had a duty of confidentiality but there was a judgement call to be made on what information about a complaint was passed to Members. Any vexatious/serial complaints were referred to the Borough Solicitor. In terms of the way complaints were made, the Committee was advised that the idea was to maintain a channel so that Customer Services could log all complaints that were received. Customers were encouraged to use the online form but they could send in letters/emails and, as long as they were recorded through Customer Services, they could still be logged properly and responded to accordingly.

96.5           There was some concern expressed that Councillors needed to know the details of the complainants, as well as their complaints, so that they were not caught off guard if a resident asked them how their complaint was progressing. In response the Lead Member indicated that the easiest thing would be to respond that there was a strict confidentiality process in place so Councillors were not advised of the particular details of complaints but, if the resident wished to provide the Member with the details, they would follow it up. She felt that the new system worked really well and kept the complainant properly informed throughout.

96.6           Accordingly, it was