Meeting documents

To be presented by Ms K Mitchelmore, Legal Team Manager

Ms K Mitchelmore, Legal Team Leader, Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) presented the report and highlighted the following:

• The figures and statistics followed similar patterns from previous years based on the number of complaints received.  The numbers continued to increase.
• The number of compliments had dipped, but the reason was unknown. 
• The main basis of complaints was around the quality of service.
• The numbers of statutory complaints received remained steady.  Within the last year all complaint response times had improved. 
• Comparisons had been shared with service areas. 
• There was an increase in the number of complaints, but the increase was not significant and was not related to any specific areas.

The following points were highlighted and discussed in response to questions raised by members of the committee:

·         The process of stage 1 complaints being escalated to stage 2 complaints was explained; stage 1 complaints were investigated by officers within the specific service.   The complaints team monitored the response from the service and if the information was unclear it would be investigated. 

·         The process was in line with the complaints processes used by other local authorities.  A resident filing a complaint could request that it was escalated to stage 2 if they were dissatisfied with the stage 1 response.

·         The expected response time for Children’s Services statutory complaints was 10 days, however the complaints team could use discretion to extend the deadline to 20 days. The 10 day deadline was missed 49% of the time and work was being done to improve quality of the response and the response time.  Children’s Services complaints could be complex and take longer. 

·         There had been problems with the reporting data base for the online reporting tool Fix My Street.  Members of the committee enquired as to whether complaint data was not being translated properly.  There had been issues with miscommunication with customers. 

·         Members expressed concerns that in the unitary authority there would be a greater capacity for complaints. 

·         Residents were dissatisfied with having to chase an answer and would prefer to be given a clear answer sooner. 

·         Preparations were underway for the unitary council.    The BCC complaints team was working with district council colleagues and the teams had collectively drafted a complaints policy for the new organisation.  All current existing authorities within Buckinghamshire had a two stage process which simplified the formation of the unitary policy. 

·         BCC complaints officers had participated in training at St Mary’s University.  Consideration into future training methods needed to be considered for unitary.

·         From 1 April 2018- 12 November 2018 there were 323 stage 1 complaints received.  From 1 April 2019- 12 November 2019 there were 623 stage 1 complaints received.  The majority of the complaints were received in the last quarter.

·         In the previous financial year 17 stage 1 complaints had been filed for Children’s Services and Client Transport.  This year 144 stage 1 complaints for the business units had been received. 

·         In the previous financial year the Special Educational Needs (SEN) team had received 36 stage 1 complaints.  This year the team had received 106. 

·         The stage 2 complaints trends were the same as previous years. 

·         Lessons had been learned to improve communication with customers going into the unitary council.

RESOLVED: The Committee NOTED the report.