Agenda item

This report provides Members with updates in respect of:

·        Responses and updates to queries and questions from Committee in November 2023

·        Corporate Governance Team (CGT) performance indicators update

·        Information Commissioners Office update

·        Ombudsmen update including

·        Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) and Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) cases from the previous report in November 2023 to date of preparing this report on 13 February 2024

·        Update on LGSCO and HOS complaint handling codes 

Members considered a report that updated them on the:

·     responses and updates to queries and questions from

the Audit and Governance Committee meeting in November 2023.

·     Corporate Governance Team (CGT) performance indicators.

·     Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

·     Ombudsmen including

o   Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

(LGSCO) and Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) cases from the previous report in November 2023 to date of preparing the report on 13 February 2024.

·        LGSCO and HOS complaints handling codes.

The Information Governance and Feedback Manager/Data Protection Officer (DPO) presented her report and she made reference to various sections, where she acknowledged that:

·        the template used to present the key data was undergoing a review to meet legislative requirements, as well as the additional ICO guidance, and once completed, the performance data report would show the full year statistics and comparison data.

·        there had been an improvement in the number of freedom of information and environmental impact reports (FOI/EIR) and data protection subject access to records requests being responded to within the statutory timescales, and work was continuing across the council to sustain this improvement.

·        there had been six Local Government Social Care Ombudsman decisions since the last report to this committee. The decisions, including recommendations, remedies and actions, as shown in Annex 2 of the report, had now all been completed.

·        The number of complaints received through the adult and social care legislation had risen this quarter but despite this increase there had been improvements made on the number of complaints responded to in time.

·        The report highlighted the LGSCO Complaint Handling Code, which was launched in February 2024 and officers would continue to ensure the council adopted the code into its complaints handling policies and procedures.

The Information Governance and Feedback Manager/DPO answered questions raised regarding the FOI statutory timeframes, the performance indicators, the stretch targets, and the ICO enforcement notice, and it was noted that:

·        The goal was to meet the ICO’s challenging stretch target of 95% but realistically the most achievable target was around 75% to 85%.

·        An explanation would be provided to members regarding the discrepancy in the figures listed for the total % of FOI/EIR requests answered within statutory timescales, as noted in Annex 1 of the report. However, this was likely to be linked to the time the reports were produced.

·        The council had fully complied with the requirements set out in the enforcement notice. However, whilst the ICO group manager had acknowledged that the council had complied fully with the requirements, they would not update the details on their website until the end of the 6-month period (13 March 2024). Following this, a detailed report on the progress of the improvement plan would be provided to the committee in the next quarterly update.

·        The reports being built into the new case management system would be designed from ICO guidance and officers would also consider other additional data sets.

·        The number of corporate complaints received had declined due to the Corporate Governance Team liaising with departments who received repeated complaints to identify quicker resolutions. That work was starting to embed and analysis would be undertaken to fully understand the improvements it had made.

Members welcomed the significant improvements made and they thanked the Information Governance and Feedback Manager/DPO for her update.

Resolved: That the details contained in the report be noted.

Reason: So that members were provided with details and current performance from the Corporate Governance Team.