Agenda item

The Director of Finance submits a report providing an update on corporate

non-statutory complaints in 2021/22 including the management of complaints,

information on complaints received and their outcomes, the reasons for

complaints, lessons learned and improvements.

The Director of Finance submitted a report providing an update on the corporate non-statutory complaints in 2021-22.

The Service Improvement Manager introduced the report and provided a summary of the management of complaints, including the new complaint handling process introduced for housing, information on complaints received and their outcomes, the reasons for complaints, lessons learnt and improvements.

It was noted that:

·         754 complaints were received compared to 671 in 20/21, an increase of 12.3%. Of the complaints received 328 were identified as a request for action or service request and forwarded to the service area to deal with e.g., to provide orange bags for recycling. The remaining 426 were investigated, compared to 249 the previous year, an increase of 71%.

·         Service areas receiving the most complaints were within Housing Services, Revenues & Customer Support and also Planning, these accounted for 74% of the total complaints however these were also the service areas interacting with the greatest numbers of customers in demanding areas of Council business.

Members expressed concerns about the accessibility of the complaints system and it was suggested that it was inaccurate to say that people could complain by telephone as often constituents informed councillors they could not get through on generic numbers, in addition there was a section of the public who could not use computers and therefore relied on the telephone or to be able to speak to someone face to face. Members were advised that there was a project reviewing the online messaging process to try and improve customer experience and the concerns raised were noted.

Members welcomed the “Not in cards”  within housing but there was criticism that those gave out an incorrect telephone number.

Members acknowledged that when housing repairs were delayed or cancelled the tenant was informed in a timely manner however it was suggested there needed to be more clarity for the tenant about when the work would take place to avoid them having to make calls. The Service Improvement Manager advised that the “not in” cards were as a result of a recommendation to improve the service and Housing Services were trying to improve and be supporting to tenants.

There was a brief discussion about vexatious complaints, and it was noted that there was a separate policy, members were interested to see more details about vexatious complaints and whether consideration was given to signs of someone having mental health issues. The Service Improvement Manager confirmed there was a policy for handling vexatious complainants and part of that process included having discussion with Adult Social Care to see if they were known and to try and help manage their conversations and try to support and understand their cause. Unfortunately, there was a tendency for those conversations to become very abusive, threatening and for targeted emails to come through so there was a process to provide a single point of contact.

As regards dealing with difficult people, it was noted that there were mechanisms in place for staff to offload, reflect and receive support.

Members were advised that the councillor enquiry system allowed matters to be tracked and they were encouraged to raise any matters on behalf of constituents there.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the contents of the report be noted,

2.    That a copy of the Vexatious Complainant Policy be shared with members outside the meeting.