Agenda item

To consider the information presented and offer any relevant comments or suggestions

DECISION:

·       To accept the report

·       To accept the proposal of the Head of Corporate Services to submit a further report to the Committee which will set a context for service improvement policies and arrangements

Note:

Appendix A: Complaints Received: Cyngor Gwynedd – population percentage check needed

A report was submitted by the Head of Corporate Services presenting the observations of the Ombudsman for Wales on the Council's arrangements and performance in relation to dealing with complaints and service improvements during 2023/24, highlighting successes, challenges and developments. Members were reminded that the Committee had a statutory requirement to ensure that the Council had effective arrangements in place to deal with complaints. It was reiterated that there had been no change in the procedure or the Concerns and Complaints Policy during 2023/2024, and therefore, the content of the Ombudsman's letter was based on the Policy adopted by the Council in 2021.

It was reported that the Annual Letter had been received on 9 September 2024. Reference was made to some comments and recommendations made by the Ombudsman, which included, “I would encourage Cyngor Gwynedd, and specifically your Audit and Governance Committee, to use this data to better understand your performance on complaints and consider how well good complaints handling is embedded throughout the Authority”.

In the context of Gwynedd arrangements, it was suggested to submit a further report to the Committee which would set a context for service improvement policies and arrangements. It was considered that such information would be beneficial to the Council as the Ombudsman's letter did not convey this.

The members thanked the officer for the report.

Observations arising from the ensuing discussion:

·        To welcome a further report - seven of the complaints related to the procedure and, therefore, it would be beneficial to get further information considering that the Committee's duty was to scrutinise the procedure

·        Appendix B offered the number of complaints received by subject only - further information was required regarding the complaints pattern and how to identify / respond to those patterns

·        To welcome that many of the complaints were being resolved before reaching the Ombudsman

·        Did officers discuss with other authorities? Was there room here to learn and share experiences? Were there comparisons per other authorities' services available?

·        There was a mistake in the Welsh version of Appendix 1 to the Ombudsman's letter - the figures of the number of complaints per 1,000 population did not make sense because the number of Gwynedd, Isle of Anglesey and Conwy complaints were more or less the same (38, 38 and 36) and because the population of Gwynedd and Conwy were quite similar, but the Isle of Anglesey population was significantly lower, it did not make any sense that Gwynedd was 0.55 and Isle of Anglesey was 0.2.

In response to the observations, it was noted that Cyngor Gwynedd tended to be more open about their complaints and, as a result, the figures seemed to be higher than the figures of other Authorities (only complaints to the Ombudsman were included in the report). It was noted that the change in the Council's culture highlighted that Services dealt with complaints before they reached the complaints procedure and this was to be welcomed.

RESOLVED

·        To accept the report

·        To accept the proposal of the Head of Corporate Services to submit a further report which would set a context for service improvement policies and arrangements

Note:

Appendix A: Complaints Received: Cyngor Gwynedd (Welsh Version) - need to check population percentage