Agenda item

This report informs the Panel about the number and type of complaints and representations, including compliments, received between April 2020 and March 2021 by Children’s Services and Education.  It demonstrates how they have been managed and how the Service has used the learning from the complaints and representations to inform service improvement.

The Complaints and Data Protection Team Manager introduced the report to the Panel.

She informed them that the total number of complaints received across Children’s Services was higher than the previous year; however, the number is broadly in line with the numbers received in the past 5 years. She added that this is despite all services being under pressure throughout 2020 – 21 and particularly during the first lockdown. She said that it was anticipated this would have a significant impact on the number of complaints received but this did not materialise.

She explained that the most significant change was in the number of complainants who were dissatisfied with the initial response to their complaint and escalated their complaint to Stage 2. This resulted in 13 requests for a Stage 2 investigation compared to 5 in the previous year. Although 6 of these complaints did not progress to a full investigation either because the complainant withdrew the complaint (4 complaints) or because the Stage 1 review under the Corporate Procedure found further investigation was not required.

She said that an exercise has been carried out to compare the number of complaints received by Bath and North East Somerset with the 10 comparator authorities to establish whether the number of complaints is in line with these authorities. Unfortunately, insufficient data has been published by other authorities and the information provided the Ombudsman no longer gives sufficient detail to make a comparison.

She informed the Panel that the number of complaints in most service areas remains consistent except for the statutory SEN service. The complaints covered issues such as lack of special school places, the content of the EHC Plan and delivery of provision by the school. She said that the rise in SEND complaints had coincided with the national Covid 19 pandemic. During this time, the requests for new assessment had grown significantly, both locally and nationally. She explained that in this calendar year, there have been 77 more requests for assessment (260) than at this time in the previous year (183) and this has had a significant impact on the team's ability to process work and adhere to timescales.

She stated that additional support has now been provided to the service, capacity has improved, and demand is being managed. She added that while the increase in complaints is a concern, each complaint has been carefully responded to and no requests for a stage 2 complaint have been received.

She said that colleagues in Children’s Services and Education welcome complaints and will always strive to use all types of feedback to improve practice and service delivery.

She said that they plan to review the information available to the public to ensure it is accurate and accessible for children, young people, their parents and carers.

The Chairman referred to section 4.11 of the report and asked how a complaint is deemed ‘out of time’.

The Complaints and Data Protection Team Manager replied that they normally have to be received within 12 months of the particular issue taking place. She added that in certain circumstances they can be accepted.

The Chairman asked if the Council ever receives complaints relating to historic abuse cases.

The Complaints and Data Protection Team Manager replied that occasionally they do and then discussions are held with the LADO.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked if in relation to the growing number of complaints relating to SEN (paras 3.8 and 3.9), are the actions that are being taken, sufficient to address the issue and will we see an increased number of special school places.

The Director of Education & Safeguarding replied that referrals relating to SEN have increased largely within the last couple of years and that it was acknowledged that there is a shortage of Special School places locally. He added that work was ongoing to attempt to achieve additional places at current sites in the coming year.

Councillor Hardman referred to advocacy (paras 7.4 - 7.7) and said that the report mentions that it is not available to parents in the same way as it is available to children. She said that it would be useful to understand this a bit more and also asked what role does the B&NES IASS (SEND Partnership) play in advocating on behalf of parents.

The Complaints and Data Protection Team Manager replied that advocacy is made available for children in need and looked after children through Off The Record. She added that B&NES historically has been proactive in supporting parents. She said that POhWER were now assessing requests on a case by case basis and added that the Parent Partnership do provide support.

Councillor Hardman commented that she was pleased to see that paras 7.9 and 9.2 of the report highlight that improved equalities information is an area for development.

Councillor Andrew Wait asked if any further comment could be made regarding Data Protection and Information Sharing requests.

The Complaints and Data Protection Team Manager replied that since the awareness of GDPR was made the number of Subject Access Requests had risen over the past 5 years whereas the number of requests from the police and other agencies had fallen sharply. She added that they were seeing an increase in requests for information to be removed.

Kevin Burnett asked if the increase in complaints to the Family Support Teams has been addressed.

The Complaints and Data Protection Team Manager replied that she believed that they have and that in the main they related to assessments and some parents feeling that they are not being represented fairly if living apart.

The Director of Children's Services & Education said that the Council welcomes conversations with families to discuss their situations and will try to help to the find the best solutions for the people involved.

The Chairman thanked the Complaints and Data Protection Team Manager for the report on behalf of the Panel and said that it was an important matter for them to be aware of.

The Panel RESOLVED to note the contents of the report.