Agenda item

A report on the Corporate Complaints Policy and Procedures is attached.

Ian Savigar - Divisional Director Customer Services and David Langman – Customer Services, introduced the report. It was explained that complaints come in to all departments and are collated by Customer Services and at present a new system ‘Customer Relationship Management System’ is being introduced. The new system will encourage officers to see complaints as feedback and opportunities. They also explained that the new system would drive a standardisation of approach to complaints. The officers explained that the new policy is detailed at Appendix 2 to the report.

The Panel raised the following points and asked the following questions:

Councillor Roberts asked that officers be trained to record all complaints, he also asked if there would be any trend analysis. The officer explained that using the word ‘feedback’ will hopefully open out reports of complaints and officers are encouraged to capture wider information than they do at present. Regarding trend analysis, the officer explained that some analysis has been started with some experienced complaints officers. The Divisional Director explained that there was some work to be done at Divisional Director level on how complaints are perceived. Councillor Roberts asked the officers to pass on to the Divisional Directors that the Resouces Panel see complaints as an important way of understanding ways we can improve as a Council.

Councillor Gerrish endorsed the above comments. He added that customers should have the process of complaints explained to them, for example why an officer from a different department would be dealing with the complaint.  He added that an organisation is judged by the way it handles complaints and officers should be encouraged to see this as a positive process. He added that Cabinet members often pick up complaints and deal with them direct with their lead officer, he asked that these complaints be picked up by the system. Overall he felt that the system was moving in the right direction. The officer acknowledged these points.

In response to a query, the officers explained that in the new system, complaints would be tracked and costs would be reduced, the plan is to correct the old system. Councillor Macrae stated that he hoped that in the new system there would be more of a degree of urgency in how complaints are dealt with. The Divisional Director explained that the ethos of Customer Services was to deal with complaints at the point of contact.

Councillor Anketell-Jones explained that a lot of time and money can be spent with a complaint if it is allowed to proceed to stage two. He felt a lot more complaints could be settled at stage one or before. He pointed to the Ombudsman leaflet which recommends that complaints are dealt with by direct contact with the complainant; he recommended that in the new system, stages 1 and 2 could be preceded by face to face contact. The officer agreed that dialogue is the key and that was built in to the new system. The Strategic Director, Andrew Pate commented that the personal touch does not come across in the policy but that this must be conveyed to staff. He added that he would like to see a tightening up around vexatious complaints.

Councillor Rigby stated that having a named person as the contact in a complaint would be helpful. She added that she had had feedback in her ward that Council Connect do not always respond until a Councillor writes to them.

Councillor Barrett asked about a report on complaints to Members, the officer explained that this was very labour intensive but he could provide the figures. The Chair stated that maybe performance figures could be provided as part of this information.

Councillor Roberts thanked the Council Connect staff for their work.