Agenda item

To consider a report by the Corporate Complaints Officer (copy enclosed) which presented an analysis of the feedback received via Denbighshire feedback policy ‘Your Voice’ for Quarter 1 of 2012/13, and highlighted areas of work currently being undertaken to improve performance.

                                                                                                        11.35 a.m.

A copy of a report by the Corporate Complaints Officer, which presented an analysis of the feedback received via Denbighshire feedback policy ‘Your Voice’ for Quarter 1 of 2012/13, and highlighted areas of work currently being undertaken to improve performance, had been circulated with the papers for the meeting.

 

The report provided information regarding any performance issues identified by ‘Your Voice’, and recommendations to address the identified areas.  The Corporate Complaints Officer referred to Appendix A, ‘Your Voice’ information, which detailed Your Voice’ reporting times, performance measures and complaints response timescales.  Appendix B, Your Voice’ Quarter 1 2012/2013 data, detailed the overall complaint response times, response times according to stage, compliments received and complaint categories and highlighted the following key issues:- 

 

Highlights:-

·        The inclusion of statistics relating to the Council’s overall response times to complaints according to the ‘Your Voice’ timescales. 

 

Complaint response times:-

·        Greater emphasis had been placed on monitoring service response times to complaints.

·        Services had been reminded how to use the corporate system for recording and updating complaints.

·        A noticeable improvement in the overall performance of the Council in responding to complaints within the ‘Your Voice’ timescales.

·        Both Housing Services and Social Services having shown an improvement from previous quarters.

·        An anticipation that the upward trend would continue for all services.

·        Despite an 18% increase in the overall number of recorded complaints received in Quarter 1, the volumes had remained relatively low.

·        Only half of the service areas had been able to respond to 100% of complaints within the relevant timescale.

 

Improving performance:-

·        The need to improve how complaints were handled and to respond to at least 95% of complaints within the stated timescales. Two generic standards be adopted across the Authority.

·        Two generic standards be adopted across the Authority.

·        The need to demonstrate that the Council listens its customers and changes things for the better based on what they are told.

·        Complaints be handled within timescale.

·        Service improvements to be made as a result of customer feedback.

 

Weekly Service reports:-

·        A weekly report to be circulated to officers responsible for coordinating responses to complaints in the services.  Officers to be provided with information to assist them in managing the complaints more effectively, and to prevent timescales being missed.

 

Presentation at Middle Managers Conference:-

·        A presentation be given to all ‘Middle Managers’ to raise the profile of ‘Your Voice’ and focus attention on enhancing the customer experience.

 

Focus on the customer:-

·        A ‘pre-complaint’ feedback element be introduced into ‘Your Voice’ to encourage dialogue and interaction with the Council’s customers to demonstrate that the Council listens and responds to feedback. 

 

Recognise good performance:-

·        The need to encourage and recognise the wider context of ‘Your Voice’ which references compliments under the banner of ‘Feedback’.  An analysis of the compliments received could be utilised to identify best practice and then applied to other areas or services within the Council.

 

The Corporate Complaints Officer provided a brief summary of the outcome of the Middle Management Conference held on the 17^th October, 2012.  He explained that the focus had now moved to how the customer interacts and communicates with the Council, and confirmed that the Council’s policy in respect of this issue had been reviewed.

 

In reply to concerns raised by Councillor M.Ll. Davies, and endorsed by Councillor M.L. Holland, it was agreed that written responses be provided to document complaints received.  The Head of Customers and Education Support referred to the necessity for a cultural change within the Authority and the need to redesign services, through the examination of the trends of complaints received, in order to change how the Council delivers its services to the customer.  She also referred to work undertaken in respect of the service standards for the customer, the new website and the review of the CRM system to address the problems being experienced by both the public and officers.  The review had been identified as a corporate priority and an outline of the work involved was provided which included a complete review of the complaint handling system.  The Head of Customers and Education Support explained that the issue of the provision of translations would be examined from a customer perspective.  She explained that it would be important to ensure that complaints received in Welsh also received responses in Welsh.

 

RESOLVED – that Performance Scrutiny Committee:-

 

(a)      receives the report and notes the suggestions made about improving Council performance through effective complaints handling, and

(b)      officers note the suggestions made.