Agenda item

To receive an update on the annual statistics in relation to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) and the Council’s corporate ‘3Cs’ procedure.

Members considered the Local Government Ombudsman and the Council Corporate 3Cs Annual Review Complaints.

Members made comments, asked questions, and received responses as follows:

·         Councillor Sennitt Clough stated given the excellent record that has been described how can the Council avoid becoming complacent? Councillor Boden responded all the officers concerned are always vigilant and it is not merely a matter of dealing with complaints it is also a matter of learning from the complaints, as the Council continues to have a process of learning going on then the Council knows the system is working as it is meant to work, with it being closely monitored by the Head of Human Resources, so nothing is taken for granted.

·         Councillor Barber stated a noteworthy number of complaints are in relation to FDC staff. She asked what the nature of those complaints might be and what is the process for investigating these complaints? Councillor Boden responded there are several reasons why customers may complain about members of staff, but any complaint which is made about a named staff member is triaged by the HR team then it follows the 3C’s process. He stated that where it is appropriate an HR business partner will provide support to the responding manager, but this is dependent on the nature of the complaint and ensuring that staff are supported throughout the process and that any investigation is thorough and personal details are never shared with customers as part of the response, however, feedback is always provided. Councillor Boden made the point that complaints vary in nature and further analysis has been carried out and there were no obvious patterns or trends in the complaints which name a particular member of staff. He continued it is worthy of note where complaints have been made about planning, housing, refuse, cleansing, council tax and benefits even if it is against a specific named member of staff, it tends to be about the outcome rather than about the performance of that individual. Councillor Boden stated that there is a plan to increase the frequency of customer service training for all staff and managers and they are encouraged to share their in-service complaints, anonymized so that their team get greater awareness, and they capture lessons learnt to improve customer service.

·         Councillor Hicks asked if it was true that the figures shown are never entirely accurate? Councillor Boden responded figures like these can never be completely accurate and there is subjectivity about how something can be categorised, some cases are over reported and in some cases there is under reporting in terms of numbers, however, the work is undertaken meticulously and conscientiously and whilst it has some degree of subjectivity the numbers are created on a like by like basis year on year and there has been no change in procedure about the way in which the numbers are recorded which provides a good indication of the direction of travel.

·         Councillor Booth suggested that the category of staff complaints should be recategorized once the investigation has been completed because it sounded like it is more against policy and process as opposed to the individual, this would then lead to a better trend analysis. He continued he would like to raise a point around the reporting of the complaints as there seems to be fewer complaints regarding elections in a year where voter ID was introduced and there was a lot of people complaining about it in the polling stations so how can the Council ensure it is not under reporting to be able to do a true trend analysis? Councillor Boden stated that he agreed with Councillor Booth’s recommendation, and this would be investigated for next year along with a change of methodology explaining how this affects the figures so that there is still a means of comparing like for like. He continued concerning the second point, the complaints that are recorded all start within the 3C’s system and if individuals are not being encouraged to use this system, which is the best way to get their complaints fully investigated, it will look like it is under reported in this report. Councillor Booth responded he felt the point was regarding overall complaints, if staff are not reporting verbal complaints then these are not being captured in the report and the report will show evidence of fewer complaints which does not then lend itself to a true trend analysis.

·         Councillor Hicks made the point would it not be beneficial to show both reports to the public to compare the figures with last year’s figures and to help as a stepping stone towards the new methodology of calculating the figures. David Wright responded some of the verbal complaints are logged as service requests and are dealt with immediately by the team where possible and would not make it into the 3C’s system. He stated that the Election complaints will show up on this year’s report and not the one shown in the presentation. David Wright agreed this is an area that needs to be addressed, and percentage changes are studied but there is no reason why using the figures available cannot be added to a summary from the previous year. Councillor Boden added that whatever is reported next year it will be made clear what the numbers would have been under the old system and what they will be under the new system to make it easy to see what the comparison is and what the change is because whenever there is a change of process there can be a suspicion that the numbers are being fiddled, this will give full disclosure so no accusations can be made against the Council. Councillor Booth agreed with what had been put forward.

·         Councillor Nawaz stated it was nice to see the number of compliments has increased by 22.5% and felt this committee should note, acknowledge and commend these results. Councillor Mrs Davis responded she would make sure his comments are passed on.

Members noted the information provided.