To consider the Annual Report.

Jacqui Hurd  presented the Compliments and Complaints Report to the Panel.

Points that were highlighted included:

·         The report covered the period 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017.

·         Reports on compliments and complaints made by or on behalf of customers that are investigated under the Statutory Children’s Complaints Policy.

·         It is a statutory requirement to produce an annual report for the Children’s Statutory Complaints Policy and this would be published as a combined report with the Adults Statutory Complaints Policy.

·         A total of 802 complaints were received, 58 in Children’s Services.

·         The Complaints and Children’s team worked very hard with families they are directly working with.

·         The statutory Children’s Services complaints process changed in September 2006 following new regulations and guidance, ‘Getting the Best from Complaints’. The guidance emphasises that “vulnerable children and young people must get the help they need, when they need it, however large or small their complaint”.  The scope of what could be complained about was also expanded and prospective adopters and foster carers are included as ‘qualifying individuals’ who could complain under the social care process.

·         Understanding why complaints were made, establishing root causes, changing processes and delivering training as a result was essential.  Listening to customers and reflecting on examples of where we have not got it right could reveal or highlight opportunities for improvement and increase satisfaction. The speed of response was key particularly if the complaint stemed from a timeliness related issue.  Even if a complaint was not upheld there could be some learning from that complaint with improvements arising as a result.  The complaints process and the feedback gained was an integral part of the quality assurance process, which fed into the development and monitoring of services.  Learning from complaints was reviewed by services at team meetings. The points below shows the specific learning in 2016-17. 

Ø  Refresher training for data protection.

Ø  Awareness and impact training on communicating key facts effectively to parents working with Children’s Services.

Ø  Policy change to contact families within three days when new allocation made. 

Ø  Raised awareness on assumptions not made when first meeting young people about what they want to discuss, and to “check-in” directly with the young person to ensure that they are comfortable throughout.

Ø  Maintain continuity of social workers involved in a case as far as possible.

Ø  Improved communications between children, young people, parents and professionals including in a timely way.

Ø  Share reports, information and outcomes of assessments in a timely manner.

Ø  Reminder for full consultation with all significant family members including non-resident fathers when undertaking a child and family assessment.

Ø  Check that outcomes and proposed next steps are understood by families working with the service.

Ø  Training to see things from the user’s perspective for a greater understanding.

Ø  Effective dialogue even when there is dispute including standing firm when necessary and communicating this effectively.

·         Whilst the council gets things wrong it does also provide excellent service and our staff often go the extra mile. It was essential that positive feedback was also captured and shared.  Compliments that were forwarded to the complaints team were logged centrally and in 2016-17 there were 192 compliments recorded, 56 for Children’s Services, an increase of 194% from 2015-16. Compliments received were fed back to the relevant service areas to ensure that due recognition was given to staff and that learning was shared and disseminated across the directorate.

·         The table below shows the summary for Children’s Services:

Summary

·         Regardless of the procedure being followed, once the council’s policies had been exhausted, the complainant could ask for their complaint to be investigated by the Local Government Ombudsman. Although customers could refer complaints to the Local Government Ombudsman at any stage, the Ombudsman would not normally investigate until the council had exhausted their complaints procedure.

·         We performed very well in comparison to other local authorities.

It was raised that future reports should be specific to the Panel they were being presented to. The Panel Agreed unanimously that future reports should be specific to Children’s Services.

The Chairman offered a great compliment to all staff in Children’s Services and Customer Services. It was a great achievement.