Issue - meetings

To prepare an Annual Report on the implementation of the Representations and Complaints Procedure for submission to the Cabinet and Scrutiny Committee in order to scrutinise and monitor the arrangements for dealing effectively with complaints received from service users and their representatives.

To accept the report, noting that it was nice to see the expressions of gratitude, and for the committee to scrutinise the Annual Report on the Complaints, Enquiries and Expressions of Gratitude Procedure for 2023-24 when it will be ready in the coming months.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Families, the Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Well-being and the officers were welcomed to the meeting.

Submitted - Annual Report on the Children and Supporting Families Department and the Adults, Health and Well-being Department's Complaints, Enquiries and Expressions of Gratitude Procedure for 2022-23. The committee was invited to scrutinise the arrangements for dealing effectively with complaints received from service users and their representatives.

The two Cabinet Members set out the context, thanking staff from both departments for their commitment when responding to complaints and expressions of gratitude from the public and service users. The Customer Care Officer - Adults, Health and Well-being then gave an overview of the report's content.

Members were then given the opportunity to ask questions and submit observations.⁠ 

It was requested to inform members whether there was a trend of something going wrong, instead of the members hearing about those complaints on the media or from members of the public. In response, it was noted that:-

·         It was wished to avoid such situations and it was attempted to ensure that contact with the Council's Press Team worked as conveniently as possible in terms of informing them of anything that was likely to raise.

·         It was clear that examples sometimes arose where that had not happened, and there was always room for improvement.

It was noted that it was comforting to see that there was a clear procedure to submit complaints and deal with complaints, but it was suggested that telling people that their complaint could not be received at the time because another investigation was underway caused more concern to those people, who had already reached the end of their tether. Enquiries were made about the arrangements for re-submitting such a complaint once the other investigation had come to an end. In response, it was noted that:-

·         It was not legally possible to respond to a complaint if an investigation, e.g. a Police investigation, was underway as this could be prejudicial to any other investigation.

·         The person who submitted the complaint received a leaflet explaining that it was not possible to look into the complaint straight away in some cases and welcomed them to re-submit the complaint once any other investigation had concluded.

·         In some cases, e.g. investigation under the Safeguarding procedures, it was possible to discover that the process had concluded and offer the complainant to re-submit their complaint. Also, a process that had already started could sometimes be sufficient to solve the matter so as to ensure that there was no need to raise the complaint again.

It was noted that the two findings that derived from the report this year was that the expectations of families of the service was extremely high and there was a need for clear and regular communication. It was enquired whether it was possible to manage the expectations by informing families from the outset that it was not possible for the Council to offer everything to them. In response, it was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5