Issue - meetings

To consider a report by Councillor Julie Matthews, Lead Member for Corporate Strategy, Policy and Equalities (copy enclosed) presenting the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW) Annual Letter for consideration and seeking Cabinet’s agreement to report back to the PSOW on any considerations and proposed actions as a result of the Annual Letter.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)      considered the data in the letter, alongside the Council’s data, to understand more about performance complaints, including any patterns or trends and the organisation’s compliance with recommendations made by the Ombudsman, and

(b)      agreed that any considerations and proposed actions as a result of the PSOW Annual Letter were reported back to the PSOW at the earliest opportunity.

Councillor Julie Matthews presented the report on the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW) Annual Letter and sought Cabinet’s agreement to report back to the PSOW on any considerations and proposed actions a result of the Annual Letter.

The role of the PSOW was explained and the Annual Letter related to complaints received about the council, members, and town councils and benchmarked Denbighshire’s performance against all local authorities in Wales.  The Annual Letter related to 2023/24, prior to the implementation of the new Waste and Recycling Service, and it was expected that the next Annual Letter would have a different outlook and perspective.  During 2023/24 the Ombudsman made 6 recommendations to Denbighshire with a 67% compliance rate achieved and the reasoning why one recommendation had not been completed within the set timescale was explained.  Reference was also made to the new statutory requirement for Cabinet to consider the Annual Letter and also the role of the Governance and Audit Committee and Scrutiny Committee in that regard with wider screening of the report by members.

Main points of discussion focused on the following –

·       the importance of the report was highlighted in terms of lessons learned as part of the complaints process with a view to effecting improvements

·       the list of Town/Community Council’s in Appendix G to the Annual Letter was not a complete list and also included a Town Council from outside the county – it was agreed to provide feedback to the PSOW in that regard

·       the Lead Member was comfortable with the report in terms of the number of complaints and their timely resolutions, also noting Denbighshire sat in the middle of other local authorities in Wales in terms of complaints made to the Ombudsman

·       noted the Your Voice information (Appendix 2 to the report) provided a breakdown of complaints by service which would help to identify trends to address

·       the Annual Letter included reference to complaint outcomes (Appendix C to the report) and the Statutory and Corporate Complaints Officer explained the difficulties in obtaining further details in those cases given the PSOW anonymised those complaints they did not investigate

·       the Standards Committee also received regular reports from the PSOW.

The Leader was pleased to note that the report was thoroughly scrutinised via a number of the Council’s democratic processes.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)      considered the data in the letter, alongside the Council’s data, to understand more about performance complaints, including any patterns or trends and the organisation’s compliance with recommendations made by the Ombudsman, and

(b)      agreed that any considerations and proposed actions as a result of the PSOW Annual Letter were reported back to the PSOW at the earliest opportunity.