Agenda item

To consider the following reports from the Statutory and Corporate Complaints Officer (copies attached) which seek members’ observations on Services’ performance in complying with the Council’s corporate complaints procedure ‘Your Voice’ and to identify any areas that may benefit from further scrutiny.

(i)            ‘Your Voice’ report – Quarter 4 2016/17

(ii)          ‘Your Voice’ report – Quarter 1 2017/18

11am – 11.30am

Introducing the ‘Your Voice’ Complaints report for Quarter 4 2016/17 and Quarter 1 2017/18 (previously circulated) the Lead Member for Developing Community Infrastructure advised the Committee that the information was provided to give members an opportunity to scrutinise the Council’s performance in dealing with complaints.  The report also outlined how complaints had been used by Council services for the purpose of improving service delivery to residents.   During his introduction the Lead Member drew members’ attention to the fact that the number of compliments received during both individual quarters had outnumbered the number of complaints received, which was pleasing.  It was also evident from the data that there was no discernible pattern emerging in relation to the complaints received. 

Appended to the ‘Your Voice’ report was a report which members had requested on the ‘Customer Dashboard’ – which provided an overview of the customer effort and satisfaction results for the Council for the period September 2016 to August 2017.  Introducing this report the Head of Customers, Communication and Marketing outlined the process for evaluating customer feedback and how the feedback received was used to improve Council services.  She advised that future ‘Customer Dashboard’ reports should include statistical and data analysis on a service by service basis.

Responding to members’ questions the Lead Member and officers:

·         detailed the process for dealing with ‘complaints’, emphasising that ‘complaints’ were different to ‘service requests’;

·         advised that ‘service requests’ could be dealt with and resolved earlier if pertinent and specific information was provided by the caller who contacted the Customer Services Centre;

·         confirmed that the Council was constantly looking at methods for improving services and for improving accessibility to the complaints process for the public.  The Council’s website contained all the relevant information on how to make a complaint;

·         advised that telephone calls received for service requests or to register a complaint were not audio recorded.  Nevertheless, a manual record would be made of each request or complaint received; 

·         confirmed that certain services, or agencies delivering services on the Council’s behalf, were more likely to generate complaints against them e.g. civil enforcement services.  This was because of the nature of their work;

·         advised that if members felt there was a need to raise awareness of the Council’s Corporate Complaints procedure a communications event could be arranged for this purpose; and

·         confirmed that the Council welcomed complaints as it viewed them as an effective way to understand problems and consequently improve services.

The Head of Customers, Communication and Marketing undertook to investigate the apparent delay encountered with progressing ‘service requests’ if the exact postcode for the problem/incident was not known by the person reporting it.  She also undertook to ensure that the telephone numbers for the emergency out of hours service were easily accessible on all Council publications, correspondence, website and social media pages. 

At the conclusion of the discussion the Committee:

Resolved: - subject to the above observations to –

(i)           receive the report on Council’s performance in dealing with complaints, compliments and suggestions  received under the ‘Your Voice’ corporate complaints procedure during Quarter 4, 2016-17 and Quarter 1, 2017-18, and how they were used to improve services to residents; and

(ii)          receive the data on the Customer Effort and Satisfaction results for Denbighshire County Council for the period from September 2016 to August 2017 and how that information had been utilised for the purpose of improving services to the Council’s customers and residents.