To discuss and note the contents of the report and make recommendations to Cabinet.

Members were told that three different complaint areas were being considered in this report: adult complaints, statutory children’s complaints, and corporate children’s complaints. Hilary Hall, Executive Director of Adults, Health and Housing, said there had been one additional complaint in the children’s corporate area compared to last year but the number of complaints had reduced in the other two areas. She explained that a lot of changes had been made to the complaints process in adult social care following the Ombudsman public interest report that was considered last year, relating to the timeliness and quality of responses. There had been a particular reduction in the number of complaints relating to adult services, which Hilary Hall said was attributable to issues being resolved at an earlier point before they escalated to a formal complaint. It was noted that three complaints made to the LGO relating to adult services had been upheld. Hilary Hall told the Panel that one of these was the Ombudsman public interest report mentioned earlier. The others related to confusion over charging someone for care as it was unclear whether the Council or service user was paying for their care, and issues relating to a user who lacked mental health capacity. There had been the opportunity to learn from these cases and apply best practice in future.

Members noted that two complaints relating to children’s services had been upheld by the LGSCO. Lin Ferguson, Director of Children’s Social Care and Early Help, said these related to a child being adopted and the other related to a child’s special educational needs. She said a number of the issues relating to children’s corporate complaints were due to timeliness of responses, and new processes were being put in place to counter this. Lin Ferguson said a number of complaints were also raised about the accuracy of children’s records and care plans, with spelling and grammatical errors being highlighted as an issue. A complaints workshop was taking place the following day as part of the process of providing greater quality assurance. The Panel was also told that three new managers had been employed by children’s services over the past year.

Councillor Sharpe asked if there was anything in the nature of the complaints that caused concern to officers. Lin Ferguson stated there had not been a spike in complaints relating to children’s services. The main issues related to improving accuracy of records and timeliness of responses to corporate complaints, which were felt to be important but not a significant concern. Hilary Hall said there were no concerns about the nature of complaints regarding adult services, and those received over the last year had allowed for opportunities for learning and improvement of services.

Responding to a question from Councillor Bateson, Hilary Hall said that if a complaint was received at the end of the year being reviewed then it would be included in that year’s statistics, even if the matter was then not concluded until the following year. There was a target of responding to complaints within 20 working days but this was not always possible in cases dealing with particularly complex issues. In such cases timescales would be agreed with the complainant.

It was noted that there had been 36 children’s corporate complaints. Vanessa Faulkner, Service Lead HR People Services, explained that statutory complaints related to children in care, looked after children, special guardianship support and post adoption support. Everything else was considered under corporate complaints and as it was a broader field then complaints of this nature were more likely.

Members thanked officers for preparing the report.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Panel noted the report and agreed:

i) That the report is published on the Council’s website.

ii) That the annual report continues to be produced and presented at Overview and Scrutiny panels.