Agenda item

This report provides compliment and complaint performance for the Business Support Department for 2024-25 and compares this to the previous year. The report also provides insight into the review and service redesign of the Stage 2 Complaints Process and the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, referring to the council’s new Feedback Policy.

Discussion:

The Chief Information Officer introduced the report which summarised compliments and complaints received by the Business Support Department in the last financial year. He highlighted the high number of compliments received in the year which had outstripped complaints. In addition, the service was developing a feedback policy and working on changes to stage two complaints to improve responses.

The following issues were discussed:

Compliments feedback - Members welcomed the improvements outlined in the report and the additional use of automation software to reduce officer time; further information was requested how the Council feedback compliments back to staff. The Chief Operating Officer stated that staff receive the feedback personally, successes are celebrated in a quarterly newsletter for staff in his division, and this was also fed into the Council’s Make A Difference Awards. He believed practice was similar across the different divisions within the Council. The Chief Operating Officer added that many of the compliments received related to the improved wider welfare service which was a testament to the service.

Stage 2 complaints – it was commented that the number of stage 2 complaints which had been escalated because the complaint had not been fully addressed or actions not completed was disappointing. The Chief Information Officer acknowledged this was an area for improvement, further training was being provided to assist officers when responding to complaints. He added that the service redesign of stage two complaints which included some automation would release staff to provide a more focused response and improve service delivery.

Benchmarking - in response to a question whether the Council benchmarked its complaints and compliments with comparator boroughs, the Chief Information Officer explained that the Council did complete this comparative review and undertook to provide data to the Committee outside the meeting.

Anonymous and persistent complaints – responding to questions regarding anonymous complaints, the Chief Information Officer stated that these were passed to the relevant services as a service request and investigated at that stage. With regard to persistent complainers, the team review previous contact with the Council, including the volume and extent of contact prior to anyone being labelled as a persistent complainer.

Accessibility – a Member commented that making a complaint on the website could be made easier, and the addition of contact numbers would be helpful. The Chief Information Officer undertook to review the ease of access of contact information on the website. Complaints were made directly to the CABS team to make it easier for members of the public to provide feedback unless the CABS team was the subject of the complaint. The Council was dedicated to making it as accessible as possible for residents, complaints could be made online, in person over the telephone, by sign language or with the assistance of the Community Interpreting Services.

It was asked whether demographic data was available in relation to complaints. The Chief Information Officer stated that complainers are invited to provided optional demographic data. This could be provided to the Committee, it was the experience of the team that complaints were broadly in line with the population of Medway.

Decision:

The Committee noted the report.