Agenda item

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 noted that:-

 

·         It was believed that this was relevant to the Children Department because of the Service's intervention in the families' lives on safeguarding matters, as well as the complexity of the processes.

·         In terms of safeguarding matters, complaints were received that children's guardianship was back with the families etc., but if the Department had gone through all the procedures and possibilities, it was a matter of communicating that to the family.

·         It was impossible to say at the beginning of a safeguarding investigation how the arrangements proceeded and what was the potential outcome. Therefore, it was a matter of communicating to families in a way that was more sensitive to their needs, knowing that they would be disappointed at times, and would obviously wish to complain about that.

·         It was attempted to solve such complaints at the first stage by meeting with the families to explain what was happening and the reasons for that.

 

It was noted that it was good to see that no cases had been referred to the Ombudsman, and that all complaints had been solved in the first stage.

 

It was noted that the number of complaints were very low considering the number of cases that the Social Services dealt with, but some concern was expressed regarding the definition of a complaint, bearing in mind that members also received complaints from their electors (although not formal complaints) and referred them to the departments. The officers were thanked for providing answers to those complaints and it was noted that this was a big step forward to prevent complaints or informal enquiries from becoming a formal complaint. ⁠It was also noted that people's expectations were definitely high, considering that they were worried about their families or themselves as individuals. In response to the observation regarding the definition of a complaint, it was noted that:-

 

·         ⁠There was a definition of an official complaint in the regulations provided by the Welsh Government.

·         Many enquiries were received regarding the status of the service provided to individuals etc., from members of parliament and councillors and a response was provided to them straight away.

·         It was possible for families to raise a formal complaint through their local councillor.

 

A member noted that he had received permission from the Monitoring Officer to refer to his personal experience of going through the complaints process as an individual in the past. He noted:-

 

·         As he was not happy with the response to his complaint, he requested to go to stage 2, which was to have an independent investigator.

·         That the only Welsh investigator that he managed to find was someone who used to work for the Social Services in Gwynedd, and possibly had a close relationship with some members of the Team.

·         As the response that he received to the investigation was not very different to the answer he had in stage 1, he referred his complaint to the Ombudsman.

·         He understood that the Ombudsman was only willing to look into the complaint if the Social Services had said that they had offered the service in the first place, but once again, did not do that. If the Social Services did not say that they offered the service, there were no grounds to take the complaint further.

·         He was very disappointed that it was not possible to take the complaint further and he was eager to share his personal experience as it was likely that this was also the experience of others.

·         Although he had nothing but praise for the way that the Customer Care Officer dealt with him at the time, he felt that the main response to the complaint was to try and defend the Service, instead of looking at how the public could be served better in the future.

 

In response, it was noted that:-

 

·         It was wished to give assurance to the member that the Children's Service took every complaint seriously and the Head of Department was aware of every complaint within the service and had an input in the response to complainants.

·         The Head of Department was also interviewed as part of stage 2 complaints by independent investigators, and in terms of the availability of Welsh speakers to investigate complaints, she was aware of about 5 Welsh investigators who had dealt with the Service's complaints during the previous year. However, it was accepted that the situation could be different during the Covid period when the member was going through the process.

·         The Children's Service tried to solve every complaint in the first stages and felt that they had failed if the complaint reached the Ombudsman.

·         It was not believed that the Children's Services behaved defensively and that everyone was always ready to learn from the lessons and improve services.

·         Not many trends highlighted themselves in the Children's Services because all the cases were so individual and unique, and the complaints related to quite detailed things regarding people's lives.

·         There was an attempt to improve communication continually through the social work teams and the social workers involved with the families.

·         The arrangements of the Adults Service were similar to the arrangements of the Children's Service.

 

It was noted that many of the complaints related to lack of clear or consistent communication and it was enquired what the two departments intended to do to prevent this from always arising. In response, it was noted that:-

 

·         The Adults Service did not receive many complaints regarding lack of communication.

·         In terms of the Children's Service, it was believed that this related to the fact that families could be disappointed that the messages conveyed to them were not communicated to them from the start, but as had been noted in response to a previous question, it was impossible to say at the beginning of an investigation what the outcome would be.

·         If there was genuine concern that there were communication errors, the Children's Service Management Team would discuss those matters. A meeting would also be held with the individual social worker and their manager to see whether the worker needed any further training opportunities or further awareness raised, whilst also considering whether there were any disciplinary matters that needed to be addressed deriving from any complaints that had been confirmed.

·         As the nature of Children's Service's complaints related to individual workers instead of specific teams, there was a need to look at each individual and try to address the matters that related to the complaints on this specific case.

 

It was enquired why the number of complaints had increased so much in the last year. In response, it was noted that:-

 

·         The number of complaints about the Adults Service was lower in 2020/21 during the lockdown periods and had increased back to its normal levels since then. Table 2 of the report noted that the number of formal complaints had reduced from 33 during 2021/22 to 24 during 2022/23, and although the 2023/24 report had not been prepared yet, it was not anticipated that the figures would be much different to that.

·         The table in the report showed that the Children's Service had also received fewer complaints during the last year. Despite that, it was felt that complaints were welcomed because there was always room to improve and develop.

·         It was possible that the number of stage 2 complaints about the Children's Service was higher this year. Three were currently underway and one had been completed slightly outside of the current reporting window.

·         It was felt that the number of enquiries from members of parliament and councillors on behalf of their electors was increasing and it was emphasised that a full response could be provided at this stage to prevent enquiries from developing into a formal complaint.

·         The Service also related to a number of matters that did not reach stage 1, because it was possible to solve them to the individual's satisfaction outside the formal complaints arrangement.

 

It was suggested that staff shortages in the Adults Service was at the root of the majority of the complaints. In response, it was noted that:-

 

·         It was believed that the nature of the complaints derived from shortcomings in front-line services as a result of the challenges in staff recruitment and retention, whether in the residential care field or the adults care field, and also more generally in terms of residential homes.

·         The number of complaints regarding the domiciliary care provision had been higher during the last quarter of 2022/23 and that went hand in hand with care providers moving from the area during that period.

·         The situation remained to be challenging in terms of waiting lists for domiciliary care, especially in some parts of the county, but the Service did everything within its ability to put arrangements in place to try and retain the current staff and recruit new staff, including holding successful recruiting campaigns.

 

It was noted that it was encouraging to understand that recruiting campaigns had been successful and the importance of continuing to host them was emphasised.

 

It was enquired what right did carers have to present a complaint on behalf of a service user, remembering that those individuals often had capacity but did not like to complain. In response, it was noted that:-

 

·         Generally, the personal data of the individual who received the service had to be protected and the services that the user received could not be discussed with anyone else without permission.

·         If an individual had the capacity to decide to make a complaint, they would be asked to do so themselves or give clear permission for someone else to complain on their behalf.

 

It was noted that the response proved how difficult it was to make a complaint against the service. In response, it was noted that:-

 

·         Everyone who worked in the field had a responsibility to report any safeguarding matter that they were concerned about and that situations had arisen where the individual who raised the safeguarding case had to share that with the individual who possibly received the service, explaining why the matter had been raised.

·         The communication was clearly integral and the situation could also be sensitive.

·         The situation in terms of receiving complaints and making the most of complaints and learning from them was extremely important to the Social Services, but at the same time, it was very difficult to strike the right balance in a sensitive situation with people who were very vulnerable, and how to promote people to make complaints and how to offer that without over-offering.

·         It was important that we had an effective and qualified workforce to do the work in a sensitive way.

·         People were often afraid of complaining, but it was believed that receiving complaints benefited the Service, not only in terms of humility, but also in terms of learning and allowing the team to provide the best possible service.

 

The fact that the number of complaints had reduced last year was welcomed and it was noted that the number was rather low considering the number of cases the departments dealt with. It was noted that it came as no surprise when hearing that a theme started to emerge in terms of complaints regarding domiciliary care, considering the recruitment problems in the field, and it was suggested that this was something to keep an eye on.  Appreciation was expressed of the examples of gratitude and praise that were in the report and it was noted that this showed that there was a human face to the services that were being offered. In response, it was noted that:-

 

·         They wished to thank for the appreciation of these expressions of gratitude in the report as it was extremely important that the hard work of workforces in difficult situations was acknowledged.

·         In terms of the reduction in the number of complaints, not receiving complaints was not the goal, but to allow people to complain as much as was appropriate.

 

Reference was made to an observation in the report that three complaints had been received regarding the quality of work of one of the external providers commissioned to provide Direct Payments services to service users, and it was enquired what the Business Unit had done to ensure that the quality had improved. In response, it was noted that the contract with the company had come to an end and the service was now provided internally.

 

At the end of the discussion, it was explained that this item was usually presented to the scrutiny committee in September each year. Apologies were expressed that the 2022-23 report arrived late and it was noted that the 2023-24 report would be available soon for consideration in the next few months. 

 

RESOLVED 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.