Agenda item

To consider the report.

Contact Officer: Jennifer Griffin

The Committee received an annual report on compliments and complaints for Buckinghamshire Council for the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.  The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s annual review letter would likely be issued to authorities in July for 2021/22. For this reason, there was no ombudsman case information in this report. An update on this area will be issued later in the year.

It was explained that the Council operated 3 complaints systems.  2 related to statutory responsibilities for Adults Social Care and Children’s Social Care complaints, with all other complaints recorded separately.  Data from all 3 sources had been combined into the annual report.

912 compliments had been received during 2021/22, which was less than the 1,029 received in 2020/21.  The majority of compliments were thanking officers for their contributions to individual situations, particularly in areas like social care and SEND.  Compliments were shared with services so that they could be passed on to individuals.

1,988 complaints had been managed through the corporate complaints process during 2021/22 (2,099 in 2020/21).  The highest number of complaints were received for the Southern Waste and Recycling team (859), Transport for Buckinghamshire (219), SEND (129), Planning and Development Management (173), and Revenue and Benefits (135).

The Corporate Complaints Policy stated that the Council would attempt to respond to complaints within 20 working days.  Where a complaint took longer than 20 working days to answer the Complaints and Improvements Team would write to the complainant and explain that there was a delay.  The average response time for Stage 1 Corporate Complaints for 2021/22 had been 21 working days.

Stage 2 of the corporate complaints process involved an in-depth review of the stage 1 response carried out by Stage 2 officers who worked within the Complaints and Improvements Team.  186 Stage 2 complaints had been considered which represented an escalation rate of 9.35% from stage 1 complaints.  This compares to 172 stage 2 complaints received during 2020/21.  The average response times for Stage 2 Corporate Complaints for 2021/22 was 42 working days.

The Adults Social Care (ASC) statutory complaints process was a one stage process that encouraged local resolution to resolve issues within 48 hours. The complaints process usually began once the Concern Stage had been exhausted.  The pre-complaint stage (called the Concern Stage) allowed the Service 48 hours to informally resolve issues with the complainant.  105 concerns had been raised this year compared with 75 for the previous year.  The average response times for the concerns received was 2 days.

49 ASC statutory complaints had been received during the year that was slightly more than the 44 dealt with in 2020/21.  Whilst the statutory timescale allowed up to six months to issue a final response to the complaint, the Council had set a local standard of 28 calendar days during which time most complaints were expected to be resolved.  The average response time for 2021/22 had been 28 days which was met in spite of additional pressures that the service dealt with including the impact of the pandemic.

The Children’s Statutory Complaints process had 3 stages.  Stage 1 was the local resolution stage and involved the service responding in writing to the complaint.  Stage 2 was an independent investigation of the complaint that was carried out externally. The resulting report fed into the formal response that was completed by the relevant Service Director. Stage 3 was an independent review panel.

46 (28) cases received at stage 1 of the process, 13 (7) of which escalated to a stage 2 and in turn 3(1) escalated to a stage 3. The previous year’s figures were shown in brackets.  Stage 1 of the Children’s Statutory Complaints Process had a target of 10 working days, but this can be extended to 20 working days in certain circumstances; usually where the complaint was complex.  The average response time for responding to a stage 1 complaint for 2021/22 was 20 working days.

Members were informed that more in-depth reporting would be prepared for individual Directorates and shared with Corporate Directors.  An Officer task and finish group had been established to look at how good practice could be embedded in all Directorates with advice and support to staff on ensuring timely and effective early interventions and a personal approach as part an improvement of the Council’s responsiveness to those who raise concerns.  Directorates had provided a number of examples of good practice in dealing with concerns and complaints at an early stage before they become formal corporate complaints.

Members considered the report and commented:

-                      That the Ombudsman’s report and the number of complaints escalated would provide a good measure of how well the complaints process was working.

-                      That it was often difficult to contact some services, e.g. highways, missed waste collection, which could mean that customers abandoned calls and there not being an opportunity to capture all complaints.  The Council was procuring software to capture missed calls information (other than the Customer Service Centres which already did this) for the future.

-                      That it was unfortunate that the Fix My Street system had not been working at the same time as there had been issues with missed refuse collections in the south of the Council area.  Fix My Street also needed to be clearer on what action would be taken when an issue was reported.

-                      That people who submitted a SEND query/complaint should be responded to as soon as possible, although it was accepted that many of these were complex in nature.

-                      That on occasion they had to contact Officers a number of times before they were able to reach them or get a response to a query.  It was felt that this could be improved.

Officers informed Members that Officers were encouraged to proactively respond to people to inform them on actions taken or how their complaints were being dealt with.  Information was also provided to Corporate Directors and recommendations made to Services where it was thought that processes could be improved.  Mention was also made that the Transport, Environment and Climate Change Select Committee would be undertaking an in-depth review looking at issues with waste collection in the South in September 2022, including talking to the new contractors.  Members had been recently provided information on planning surgeries where they could make an appointment to speak to an Officer from the Planning Department.

RESOLVED –

That the Buckinghamshire Council Compliments and Complaints 2021-22 report be NOTED and AGREED.