Agenda item

The Director for Adult Social Care and Safeguarding submits a report which details information about statutory, corporate complaints and commendations received by Adult Social Care during the previous year.  The Commission is asked to note the contents of the report.

The Director for Adult Social Care and Safeguarding submitted a report detailing information about statutory and corporate complaints and commendations received by Adult Social Care (ASC) services during 2016/17.  In introducing the report, the Director reminded Members that the Council was required to publish an annual report on statutory and corporate complaints received. 

It was noted that the number of complaints and commendations received about ASC services during 2016/17 had increased and there was a slight increase in the number of complaints upheld.  The number of complaints referred to the Local Government Ombudsman had fallen slightly.  Overall, complaints were now dealt with more swiftly than previously.

The Director stressed that complaints were not unwelcome, as they provided valuable feedback on services, and the outcomes were shared with management teams and front-line teams.  The number of complaints received varied from year to year, but were a very small proportion of interactions made with ASC services.

The Commission noted that there could be conflict between what the law allowed the Council to do, what the Council felt it should do, and what members of the public felt the Council should do.  When this conflict could not be resolved, people could complain to the Local Government Ombudsman.  Those complaints often resulted from people having too high expectations of what the Council could offer, or wanting the Council to respond to something that had to be defined as a “want”, rather than a “need”.

Some common themes could be identified in complaints made and those for 2016/17 were set out in the report.  These themes were used to learn from.  For example, work was being done with teams to ensure decisions were fully evidenced, to enable full responses to be made to people unhappy with the outcomes of assessments.  As a result of this work, the number of complaints being upheld was reducing overall.

As the Council worked with various partners, complaints sometimes were received that encompassed ASC services and services provided by partner agencies.  As the Council could only investigate its own services, multi-agency complaints were processed through a jointly agreed local protocol. 

It was recognised that it was important to use compliments positively.  They were received by ASC in various ways and were gathered as effectively as possible.  For example, when a formal compliment was received, the Strategic Director for Adult Social Care and Health sent a commendation letter to the member of staff concerned.  It was hoped that Team Leaders passed on verbal compliments.  Reflective supervision also could be an important way of acknowledging things that had gone well, as it was important for staff to be confident in their own skills and to acknowledge them.  A staff survey was planned, which would provide useful information on how supported staff felt.

Members suggested that officers should be more proactive in publicising their successes.  Councillor Dempster, Assistant City Mayor – Adult Social Care and Wellbeing, endorsed this, suggesting that activities such as a 24 hour Twitter feed could be considered.  She reminded Members that a significant proportion of the Council’s budget was for ASC, so it was very important to let people know what services were being provided and to recognise the work being undertaken by ASC staff.

AGREED:

1)    That the report be noted;

2)    That the Strategic Director for Adult Social Care and Health be asked to pass the thanks of the Commission to all Adult Social Care staff for the work they do and to let them know how highly the Commission values this work;

3)    That the suggested 24 hour Twitter feed be endorsed as a positive way of promoting the work being done by Adult Social Care staff; and

4)    That, further to 3) above, the Strategic Director for Adult Social Care and Health be asked to work with Adult Social Care staff and the Scrutiny Policy Officer to identify ways in which staff can be shown they are valued and to report back to the Commission on this.