Agenda item

To receive the Annual Wiltshire Council Complaints Report 2021-22. Please note that this will be published as an agenda supplement.

The Chairman introduced a report within Agenda Supplement 1, which presented the council’s Annual Complaints report for the 2021-22 financial year. It was noted that the report would also be considered by the Standards Committee on the 5 October, as they oversee the council’s complaints handling arrangements.

The following comments were received from Cllr Ashley O’Neil, Cabinet Member with responsibility for council Governance:

·       The report covered the complaints received annually by the Council and how these had been dealt with, including information about the complaints system as well as how the resolutions to complaints are meeting statutory responsibilities.

·       The report covered the outcomes of complaints and whether these were fully or partially upheld, as well as the breakdown and volume of complaints received by each department and also those which were sent to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

·       It was noted that the report does not cover complaints received about elected members or the Police and Crime Commissioner.

The following comments were received from Perry Holmes, Director for Legal and Governance:

·       Perry Holmes commended Henry Powell and his team for their work having taken over the complaints team, with it noted that a complaints report had previously not been delivered.

·       It was noted that complaints can be a rich source of information for the Council.

The following comments were received from Henry Powell, Democracy and Complaints Manager:

·       It was noted that the detailed report includes 19 charts and shows a gradual reduction in the number of complaints received by the Council over the past 4 years.

·       The number of service requests had been stable, with ¾ of such requests being resolved by means of direction to the relevant department, with only ¼ of service requests ending in a formal complaint.

·       There had been a small increase to the number of complaints upheld and partially upheld.

·       The area that attracted the highest number of complaints was Children’s Services (88), however it was recognised that this area tends to reach a high number of customers or involves contentious decisions.

·       In regard to service requests, the area that attracted the highest numbers was Waste Management (256).

·       There has been a slight increase in complaints about the Council received by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, but a decrease on all three years prior to that.

·       The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman upheld a smaller amount of complaints about the Council compared to other unitary authorities and that all recommendations had been complied with.

·       A new IT system will be in place soon in order to allow stats to be produced quicker as well as allowing for greater corporate awareness of complaints.

The following comments were received by Members of the Committee:         

·       It was queried whether there would be a way of capturing lower-level complaints received by Councillors.

·       In regard to complaints about Development and Building Control, it was suggested that this is part of the process and residents sometimes place complaints about planning applications that they object to.

·       It was suggested that complaints are not necessarily a bad thing as they show that residents are interested and engaged in issues.

·       It was queried whether the Council is able to benchmark against other local authorities, to which it was clarified that though this is difficult due to the way other Councils format their departments, this is an area that would like to be addressed within the next report.

·       The issue of waiting times for those calling the 0300 Council number was raised, with it clarified that data is available for numbers of those who end their call. It was however stated that once past holding the service received was very good.

·       Issues regarding the MyWilts app were raised, with it stated that a survey is set to be sent out to Members regarding the app with a Member User Group set to be formed. Cllrs Graham Wright, Chris Williams and Bill Parks volunteered to be part of the user Group.

·       Andy Brown made the Committee aware that within the Q1 report, approval had been granted to draw down funds for the customer experience programme which would have a focus on the digital offer.

At the conclusion of discussion, it was,

Resolved:

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee agreed to note:

1.     To note the Wiltshire Council Complaints Report for 2021-22.

2.     To note that formal complaints to the council have reduced by 41% since 2018-19.

3.     To note the actions to further improve the council’s complaints handling function over the next 12 months.