To consider the report.

The Head of HR and Corporate Projects introduced the annual complaints report that covered the period from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018. The report detailed all the compliments and complaints made by or on behalf of customers that were investigated under the formal complaints policy or statutory adults and children’s complaints procedures.

In 2017/18 the Council recorded 644 complaints, a slight reduction on 665 received in 2016/17.  There were also 463 compliments, a significant increase on 192 received in 2016/17.

The Panel were informed that the formal corporate complaints were covered from pages 24 to 31 of the report.  Corporate Complaints was a two stage process with up to 10 days with a potential 10 day extension for stage one complaints  and up to 20 days for stage two complaints.

Corporate complaints totalled 574 and corporate compliments totalled 310.  This represents 89% of the total complaints received and progressed and 67% of the total compliments received for the council during 2017/18 as detailed in section 5.1 of the report.

Table 7 within the report detailed the corporate complaints received by service area.  The 574 complaints received were spread out amongst 25 service areas with the highest numbers received by Highways, Waste and Customer Services. 

The nature of the complaints were shown by theme in table 8 of the report.  The top five themes similar to those across the council were lack of action, failed to follow timescales, attitude or behaviour of staff, services delivered below standard and not being happy with a decision.

The Panel were informed that at stage 1, the number of complaints responded to within timescale was 53%, however at stage 2 this increases to 79%.

The LGO made decisions on 32 complaints and enquiries, nine of these were within corporate services of which six were upheld.  These covered Housing, Planning, Benefits and Council Tax and Highways.  The Panel were informed that there was a public interest report published in 2017/18 for a complaint against the council’s housing service.  The LGO published a total of 42 reports nationally during 2017/18; an increase of 40% on the previous year.

The Panel were informed that it was important to learn from complaints with some examples being included in table 11 of the report.

The report also showed compliments received by 22 services in table12.  This was a significantly increased from 101 in 16/17 to 310 in 17/18.  Examples of some compliments received were shown in table 13.

The Chairman commented that an increase in the number of complaints may be a result of better reporting and capturing complaints.  He also asked that with regards to the LGO complaints were they included within the report and was compensation paid.  The Panel were informed that the complaint details were available from the LGO website and that in some cases compensation was paid. 

Cllr Brimacombe mentioned that there were four channels of communication with the Council; in person, telephone, letter and social media.  He asked if all were used to capture and record complaints.  It was confirmed that all the mentioned channels of communication were used and that there was an increased use of the RBWM website. 

Cllr Kellaway mentioned that he was currently undertaking a task and finish group on planning and requested that details of the planning complaints be made available to the task and finish group. 

Cllr Quick referred to learning from complaints and asked if this was being actioned upon especially staff attitude which should always be 100%.  The Panel were informed that learning action was undertaken, for example within customer services there were weekly training.  The complaints team also reported to senior management team meetings. 

Cllr Brimacombe reiterated that the increased number of complaints could also be seen as better public engagement. 

The Panel noted the report and thanked the teams with increased compliments.