Agenda item

To consider the annual summary of formal complaints 2020/21 to gain assurance that complaints are managed effectively. 

52.1          The report of the Head of Corporate Services, circulated at Pages No. 35-52, provided a summary of complaints received during 2020/21.  Members were asked to consider the annual summary to gain assurance that complaints were effectively managed.

52.2          The Corporate Services Manager advised that the report outlined the formal complaints received between March 2020 and April 2021 and was based on the complaints framework which was introduced in 2016.  The framework had been reviewed in early 2021 and a new, improved framework incorporating comments and compliments was introduced in May 2021 and would be used for the 2021/22 report.  Members were informed that 183 complaints had been received during the period, 144 of which had been handled under the formal complaints procedure with the remaining 39 deemed to be service-level complaints handled through a separate process, e.g. noise complaints, missed bin collections, anti-social behaviour reports.  Of the 144 formal complaints, despite the difficult circumstances which Officers were working in due to the pandemic, 84% had been answered in time with 41% found to be justified and 43% partially justified.  In line with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman guidance, Appendix 1 to the report provided a breakdown of the complaints as outlined at Page No. 37, Paragraph 2.2 of the report.  Around half of the complaints related to waste and recycling; however, this was a very high profile service with around four million collections per year so the number of complaints was actually quite low in that context.  The bulk of the other complaints related to other high profile, customer-facing services such as revenues and benefits, planning and grounds maintenance.  When the complainant was unhappy with the original response, the second stage was to refer the complaint to an independent Head of Service for investigation.  The stage two complaints process had been temporarily suspended at the beginning of the financial year to enable Heads of Services to be redeployed on COVID-19 response activities; despite this, during 2020/21, a total of 12 stage two complaints were received and the outcomes were set out at Page No. 38, Paragraph 2.4 of the report.

52.3          Members were advised that the outturn figures were input through LG Inform, the Local Government Association (LGA) database which included a benchmarking tool, on a quarterly basis.  In March 2020, the LGA had deferred its benchmarking exercise so outturn figures were not available for comparison against other local authorities during 2020/21.  The Corporate Services Manager advised that, in previous years, the Council’s outturn figure had always been very low compared with others.  During 2020/21, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman had determined nine complaints relating to Tewkesbury Borough Council, the details of which were set out at Page No. 39, Paragraph 5.2 of the report and in the letter attached at Appendix 2 to the report.  In terms of lessons learnt, the Corporate Services Manager went on to explain that the majority of complaints were around customer care and a perceived lack of customer focus.  In response to that, mandatory customer services training had recently been held for all customer-facing roles.  Furthermore, improved customer focus would be at the heart of forthcoming reviews including planning and licensing.  Once the Council’s Internal Audit team was back up and running following redeployment to the COVID-19 response, days would be allocated in the Audit Plan to check a sample of the lessons learnt.  Finally, it was noted that 48 compliments had been received during 2020/21 and a summary was included at Page No. 41, Paragraph 7.3 of the report.  Looking ahead, monitoring of complaints would move forward with the new complaints framework which would include a whole raft of information including compliments, comments, concerns and complaints.

52.4          A Member was pleased to see the number of complaints had reduced and she asked if there were any specific reasons for this.  In response, the Corporate Services Manager indicated that it could be related to the pandemic as a message had been included on the Council’s website to indicate that teams were being redeployed, therefore it may take longer for Officers to get back to them, so it was possible that members of the public may have been more understanding given the circumstances.  In terms of the new complaints framework and system, a Member drew attention to Page No. 42, Paragraph 8.2 of the report, and noted that the second bullet point stated that customers could choose which service area their complaint was sent to from a detailed drop-down list and that complaints were currently still triaged by Customer Services but that would be reviewed.  She queried whether the Customer Services staff would still receive training on that basis and the Corporate Services Manager confirmed that would absolutely be the case.  With regard to the breakdown by service, set out at Page No. 44 of the report, a Member noted that half of the planning complaints were determined outside of the target timeframe for a response and he asked how this would be improved.  The Corporate Services Manager provided assurance that this would be a real focus within the wider Planning Service review.  Another Member asked whether the complaints received in relation to planning were from individuals or from developers and agents and was informed that the vast majority were from individuals.  In response to a Member query regarding the column headed ‘joint’ within the tables at Appendix 1 to the report, the Corporate Services Manager explained that one complaint had related to a number of services which had all input into the response.  A Member noted from Page No. 37, Paragraph 2.1 of the report, that one of the 144 complaints was still ‘pending a response’ and he asked whether that was still the case.  The Corporate Services Manager confirmed it was still pending and explained it was a particularly contentious planning-related complaint.  The customer was in liaison with the Development Manager and was aware of the delay so was comfortable with why it had not yet been answered.  It was hoped that the new system would make it simpler for Officers to respond to complaints – before the new framework was introduced it had been easier for complaints to be submitted which were not actually formal complaints and this was an example of one which should probably have been dealt with by another process.  The Member noted the suggestion set out at Page No. 40, Paragraph 6.2 of the report, that completion of the lessons learnt field in the new complaint system be made mandatory with a follow-up box for monitoring purposes and he felt this was a very good idea; he believed it should be done at the time the complaint was made as opposed to doing it later.  A Member advised that two residents in his Ward were becoming frustrated with the lack of response in relation to their complaints and he queried if there was a time in which members of the public could expect a response from an Officer.  The Corporate Services Manager indicated that this was set out within the Council’s Customer Care Standards and she undertook to circulate a copy following the meeting.  If Members were aware of residents who were having problems getting a response from Officers, the Head of Corporate Services asked them to make him or the Corporate Services Manager aware and they would try to assist.

52.5          It was

RESOLVED           That the annual summary of formal complaints 2020/21 be NOTED.