Agenda item

To consider a report (copy attached) by the Corporate Complaints Officer which seeks the Committee to review the Council’s performance in dealing with customer feedback and learning from complaints.

11am – 11.30am

The Lead Member for Customers and Libraries introduced the report (previously circulated) to provide an overview of compliments, suggestions and complaints received by Denbighshire County Council under the Council’s Customer feedback policy “Your Voice” during Q1 2016/17.

The Interim Principal Manager: Support Services detailed the reports contents and explained the areas of performance highlighted within the report.  Responding to Members’ questions, the Lead Member, Corporate Director: Communities, and officers advised that:

·       if the Committee had concerns on the number of complaints received with respect to services administered on the Council’s behalf by external providers e.g. Civica, Kingdom etc., or their performance in dealing with those complaints, the Committee could invite the external providers to a future meeting to discuss those concerns.  Members were advised that the types of services delivered by these providers tended to be “unpopular” services and, therefore, they were more likely to register a higher number of complaints.  Officers undertook to provide data on the number of complaints lodged against the Revenues and Benefits Service whilst it was part of the Finance Department in comparison to the number received since it had been under the management of Civica;

·       enquiries would be made as to whether appeals lodged against the issue of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) for parking offences were classed as “complaints”;

·       with regard to potential financial risk to the Council having outstanding unresolved complaints, the Committee had been informed that there would always be a risk that the Public Services Ombudsman may impose a fine on the Council.  However, the Council required to balance this risk against the need to obtain a satisfactory resolution that would eventually lead to improving things for the customer and residents generally in the long-term;

·       all complaints had to be logged as individual complaints, even if they were lodged by the same individual.  Nevertheless, the Council did have a Difficult Customer Policy for the purpose of dealing with vexatious complaints.

Attached to the report at Appendix 2 was the Social Services Customer Feedback Annual Report for 2015/16.  The Corporate Director: Communities, advised that this was a key report for the Service as it summarised the Service’s effectiveness in dealing with feedback and complaints and learning from them.  This was now a key requirement of Social Services’ work as per the provisions of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. 

An extract from a recent report published by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales was read out by the Interim Principal Manager: Support Services, in which it was reported that the number of complaints lodged with the Ombudsman against Denbighshire had increased by 10 last year in comparison to the previous year. 

The number lodged in relation to Social Services in Denbighshire had increased to 7, which had been 2 above the national average.  There had also been 5 code of conduct complaints against Denbighshire Councillors, none of which had proceeded to investigation by the Ombudsman.  Responding to the statistic relating to the number of complaints lodged against Denbighshire’s Social Services Department, the Corporate Director: Communities, advised that these related to the implementation of an unpopular policy.  In response to complaints received, the Service had listened to families and were working with them to address the situation.

Following detailed discussion, the Committee:

RESOLVED that subject to the above observations, to receive the report on the Council’s performance in dealing with complaints, compliments and suggestions under the “Your Voice” corporate procedure during the first quarter of the 2016/17 year.