Agenda and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

Members were invited to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda.  None were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 19 November 2010.

RESOLVED:That the minutes from the last meeting, held on 19 November 2010, be approved as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting, members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the Committee’s remit can do so. The deadline for registering is by 5pm on Tuesday 7 December 2010.

To register please contact the Democracy Officer for the meeting, on the details at the foot of this agenda.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak under the council’s Public Participation Scheme.

This report presents information gathered to date in support of the Customer Complaints scrutiny review and asks Members to identify relevant consultees and any additional information required in support of this review.

Members considered a report that presented information gathered to date in support of the Customer Complaints scrutiny review and asked Members to identify relevant consultees and any additional information required in support of the review.

Representatives from the following directorates were in attendance:

• Adults, Children & Education
• Communities & Neighbourhoods
• Customer & Business Support Services
• City Strategy

Officers questioned the representatives on the following issues:

• The statistics provided in Annex C of the report
• Best practice in regard to timescales for responding to complaints
• Whether or not (and how) information derived from complaints was being used to identify service improvements

The following issues were discussed:

(i)            Customer & Business Support Services

·        It was noted that the statistics in Annex C of the report would have included a number of complaints that had been double-counted.  This was as a result of some of the complaints initially being sent to the Chief Executive and then forwarded to the appropriate team for a response.

·        Letters responding to complaints included information on the action that was being taken in response to the complaint (eg staff training, implementation of change to work procedures etc).  The letters also thanked the customer for their feedback. 

·        In complex cases, the investigator would sometimes telephone the customer regarding the complaint.  Members suggested that telephone calls should be followed up by a letter or email to ensure that an audit trail was in place.

·        Customer care training had been delivered to staff.

(ii)        Adults, Children & Education

·        More detailed information was provided in respect of the number of complaints that had been handled, including a breakdown for particular service areas.

·        It was noted that the corporate complaints policy excluded the procedures for handling complaints about social care.  Details were given of the statutory procedures that were in place in respect of complaints about social care.  The team sought to use the best practice from the statutory procedures when they were investigating housing complaints. 

·        The deadlines set in the statutory procedures were noted.  Officers acknowledged Members’ suggestions that, although there were statutory timescales, consideration could be given to completing the process earlier than this and within corporate deadlines.  It was, however, noted that the complexity of some of the cases and the need to negotiate with clients regarding convenient dates for meetings, meant that a shorter timescale may not always be achievable.

·        A named contact was included in any correspondence.

·        Details were given of the support that was offered to people with learning difficulties who had submitted a complaint.  An advocate was appointed for vulnerable clients. 

·        Support was also offered in terms of ensuring that information was accessible, eg available in different languages or formats. 

·        At each stage of the complaints procedure, officers checked with the customer that they were satisfied with the way the complaint was being dealt with.

·        An “Action Plan of Service Improvements” form was completed following each stage of a complaint.  As well as detailing the action that had been taken to resolve the complaint, the service manager was required to detail  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.