Agenda item

Report attached.

The Cabinet considered a report of Councillor Peter Britcliffe, Deputy Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Resources, presenting a proposed new Complaints Procedure.

Councillor Britcliffe outlined the main benefits of the updated procedure, which included speeding up response times and the provision of refresher training for support staff.  The Council valued the submission of complaints, as these allowed it to learn and improve its systems and services and to provide more comprehensive information about policies to individual complainants. The new procedure had been shortened from three to two internal stages and would ensure that the customer was listened to and responded to promptly.

Approval of the report was not deemed a key decision.

Reasons for Decision

Management Team had recommended a review of the existing Complaints Procedure to speed up the resolution of complaints, alongside proposed training to support staff to respond to customer concerns in a timely and appropriate way.

The proposed Procedure was based on guidance from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

The proposed Procedure contained a comprehensive list of what could be treated as a complaint and what could not, which would support customers to get to the right route earlier.

The proposed Procedure reduced the number of internal stages in the complaint process from three to two, ensuring a speedier conclusion internally, before a customer could take the matter further with the Ombudsman, if they so chose.  Specifically, the new Procedure removed the current “internal appeal” stage, which allowed a dissatisfied customer to require their complaint to be reviewed by an unconnected chief officer or service manager if they did not agree with the response they had received from the service manager for the area covered by their complaint.  This stage could be very time-consuming and delayed matters for a customer who ultimately wished to take their complaint to the Ombudsman.  The new Procedure retained an option for the Council to ask an independent manager to consider a complaint where it was considered that this was the appropriate course of action.

There was a risk that the overall changes could lead to the number of complaints which were considered and upheld by the Ombudsman increasing.  However, such Ombudsman complaints were currently extremely rare, averaging a mere 0.7 per year for Hyndburn Borough Council over the last 10 years.  If this number did increase significantly, there would be an opportunity for the Council to again review the operation of its Complaints Procedure.

There was currently little data available on complaints and how they were dealt with in the early stages.  The Council would monitor and report on how many stage 2 complaints were received by each service, how long it took to conclude each, and whether the complaint was partly or wholly upheld.  This information would be presented to Corporate Management Team and Standards Committee, together with the statistical information provided annually by the Ombudsman.

Alternative Options considered and Reasons for Rejection

The Council could retain the existing procedure with 3 stages plus Ombudsman, but it was believed that the proposed changes would give a speedier response to customers.

Resolved                                    -    The Cabinet:

(1)   Approves the draft Complaints Procedure appended to the report.

(2)   Notes that training sessions and briefings will be arranged for appropriate staff prior to implementation of the new Complaints Procedure.