Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Shelton and Ms Amanda Fitchett.

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed.

Members were asked to declare any interests they might have in the business to be discussed.  No such declarations were made.

The minutes of the meeting of the Standards Committee, held on 8 October 2014 are attached and Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Standards Committee held on 8 October 2014 were confirmed as a correct record.

To receive a presentation on the review of the Corporate Complaints System and monitoring arrangements.

The Committee received a report and a briefing at its meeting on 9 July 2014 and asked for quarterly monitoring reports and an analysis of whether complaints were dealt with within the prescribed timescales.   There has since been a review of the complaints system and monitoring arrangements and the presentation will focus on the outcomes of this.

The Committee had received a report and a briefing at its meeting on 9 July 2014 and had asked for quarterly monitoring reports and an analysis of whether complaints were dealt with within the prescribed timescales.   A review of the complaints system and monitoring arrangements had since taken place and Alison Greenhill, Director of Finance and Caroline Deane, Vacancy Management Service Manager gave a presentation on the outcomes of the review.  A copy of the presentation is attached.

In addition to the comments in the presentation, the following points were noted, some in response to Members’ questions:-

a)         The review was looking at all systems that dealt with complaints.

b)         Different complaint systems had different response times and some of the statutory procedures for Children’s Services were more focused on delivering a customer oriented outcome than complying with a response within a strict timeframe.

c)         Not all complaints were captured within the CRM system which was considered to be outdated.  A more simplified system was required which allowed customer services officers to have one portal logon rather than have to log into 26 individual systems.

d)         To be effective the complaints monitoring needed a system that captured postcodes and ward references in relation to complaints.

e)         More work needed to be done to train staff to differentiate between a service request and a complaint; there were numerous instances where service requests were treated as a complaint through an over cautious approach by staff.

f)          The Council was not responsible for dealing with complaints where services were provided by external service suppliers. E.g housing associations should have their own complaints processes, but further work could be undertaken to see if staff could provide more help, advice and contact details for Members dealing with constituent’s complaints in these areas.

g)         The recommendations in the presentation had been supported by the Senior Management Board.  As a consequence work was progressing to evaluating a business case for a dedicated complaints team rather than staff undertaking complaints responsibilities as an ‘add on; to their main duties.

h)        It was hoped to have the new system in place ready for the induction sessions for new Members after the May elections.

i)          Positive comments received from the public were relayed to staff.

Following the presentation and questions Members made the following observations and comments:-

a)         The experience of members of the outcomes of some complaints systems did not demonstrate confidence in the actual process of how individuals or members were dealt with during the process, contrary to good performance statistics.

b)         The offer of a workshop for Members before any new system was introduced was welcomed.

c)         The use of corporate e-mail addresses by Councillors to report issues had mixed outcomes.  They were more effective for dealing with the issues such as the removal of fly-tips etc than trying to deal with constituent’s circumstances where eviction and homelessness was concerned.

d)         Councillors needed to have confidence in the system dealing with all complaints.  

e)         A revision  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

The Monitoring Officer to submit a draft Annual Report on the complaints received for the period July 2013 to June 2014.  Members of the Committee are requested to make comments prior to it being submitted in its final form to a future Council meeting.

In accordance with Rule 1 of Part 4B of the Constitution (Access to Information – Procedure Rules) the report is not available in the public domain as it is in ‘draft’ form and is only circulated to Members of the Committee at this stage.   Should Members wish to discuss specific individuals or circumstances, the Monitoring Officer may need to advise Members to exclude the public and press, in accordance with item 7 below, and discuss the issues in private session.

The Monitoring Officer submitted a draft Annual Report on the complaints received for the period July 2013 to June 2014.  Members of the Committee were requested to make comments prior to it being submitted in its final form to a future Council meeting.

In accordance with Rule 1 of Part 4B of the Constitution (Access to Information – Procedure Rules) the report was not available in the public domain as it was in ‘draft’ form and was only circulated to Members of the Committee.  Members were advised that if they wished to discuss specific individuals or circumstances, the Monitoring Officer may need to advise them to exclude the public and press, in accordance with item 7 on the agenda to enable the meeting to continue in private session.

The Monitoring Officer stated that two minor changes were required to the report as follows:-

a)         The first sentence of paragraph 3.2 of the report should be amended to read ‘ The seven cases to June 2014 involved 8 allegations etc etc ’

b)         The heading on the appendix to the report should read ‘Complaints 01/07/13 – 30/06/14’

The Monitoring Officer reported that the monitoring form to capture information previously requested by the Committee had been prepared and would be used in future complaints. 

Members suggested that the report could include details of:

a)         A comparison with, or statement on, the costs of dealing with complaints under the new arrangement compared to the cost of the previous system would be helpful.  It was recognised that it may not be possible to quantify this in monetary values but recognition of 80% of complaints being dealt with by two people rather than being processed through the old committee system was still worthwhile.

b)         A statement indicating that the time taken to reach a conclusion in a complaint is now quicker than the previous system.

c)         A rewording of paragraph 3.18 to make it easier to read.

RESOLVED:

1)         That the draft report be received and that the report be amended to take account of comments made above.

2)         That a revised draft be submitted to the next meeting of the Committee.

The Monitoring Officer submits a report giving feedback on complaints against Councillors reviewed and/or determined since the last meeting and updating the Committee on progress with outstanding complaints against Councillors.  The Committee is recommended to receive and note the report.

The Monitoring Officer submitted a report giving feedback on complaints against Councillors reviewed and/or determined since the last meeting and updating the Committee on progress with outstanding complaints against Councillors.

Councillor Senior referred to a recent article in the Leicester Mercury concerning a complaint against a Councillor and the Monitoring Officer advised that he would be prepared to provide more detailed information should the Committee exclude the public and press from the meeting.

RESOLVED:-

That further discussion on the item be deferred until the public and press had been excluded from the meeting.

The Chair reported that a Special Meeting of the Committee had been arranged for 4 February 2015 to discuss Councillors involvement in the Procurement Process. 

MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC TO NOTE

Under the law, the Committee is entitled to consider certain items in private.  Members of the public will be asked to leave the meeting when such items are discussed.

The Committee is recommended to consider the following reports in private on the grounds that they contain ‘exempt’ information as defined by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, as amended and consequently that the Cabinet makes the following resolution:-

“that the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following reports in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, because they involve the likely disclosure of 'exempt' information, as defined in the Paragraphs detailed below of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act and taking all the circumstances into account, it is considered that the public interest in maintaining the information as exempt outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Paragraph 1

Information relating to any individual.

Paragraph 2

Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

Paragraph 7c

The deliberations of a standards committee or of a sub-committee of a standards committee established under the provisions of Part 3 of the Local Government Act 2000 in reaching any finding on a matter referred under the provisions of section 60(2) or (3), 64(2), 70(4) or (5) or 71(2) of that Act.

RESOLVED:-

        “that the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following reports in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, because they involve the likely disclosure of 'exempt' information, as defined in the Paragraphs detailed below of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act and taking all the circumstances into account, it is considered that the public interest in maintaining the information as exempt outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Paragraph 1

Information relating to any individual.

Paragraph 2

Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

Paragraph 7c

The deliberations of a standards committee or of a sub-committee of a standards committee established under the provisions of Part 3 of the Local Government Act 2000 in reaching any finding on a matter referred under the provisions of section 60(2) or (3), 64(2), 70(4) or (5) or 71(2) of that Act.

The Monitoring Officer provided an update on the complaint and its outcome.

RESOLVED:

That the Monitoring Officer’s report be noted and the outcome of the complaint by informal resolution of mediation between the two parties concerned be welcomed.

The Chair declared the meeting closed at 7.10 pm.