Agenda and minutes

The Chairman reminded Members of the action to be taken in an emergency.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Joshua Chapman, Alex Donald and David Johnson.  Councillor Melvin Wallace was in attendance at the meeting as a representative for Councillor Joshua Chapman.

There were no declarations made at the meeting.

To approve as correct the minutes of the meeting of the Adjudication and Review Committee held on 15 August 2017 and to authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 15 August 2017 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Committee considered a report which provided an update on complaint handling performance, across all Council services.

The Council received 393 Stage 1 complaints during the period July to September 2017.  94% of which were responded to within 15 days, a slight increase compared to the Quarter 1 performance of 92%.  The Council received 73 requests for escalation to Stage 2 of the process, 96% of which were dealt within 20 days, compared to 94% for the previous quarter.  This equated to an escalation request rate of 18%, however this was reduced to 3% when the number of cases that were not escalated to Stage 2 were considered.  During the last Quarter, performance and quality had reduced and was a focus for the Council.  Although there had been a slow start to the Quarter, performance had improved throughout the period, bringing achievement rates in line with corporate standards.  Due to the complexity of some complaints, their response times had not been met.  It was requested for clarification, that reasons for any delay be provided in future reports to the Committee. 

With regards to Contact Type, there had been no increase since the last quarter in the percentage of complaints raised via the online form.  There had been an increase in complaints raised by phone from 15% to 21%, and a decrease of 2% in the number of complaints raised via email.  It was requested that the previous quarter comparables be presented in future reports to highlight the direction of travel.

Concern was expressed that there had been 74 complaints recorded against staff attitude or competence, however it was accepted that this could partly be due to customer perception. 

Data on complaint reasons by service was presented and the Committee accepted that the data may not be reflective as the reasons could be subjective, although the importance of ensuring staff are trained in managing complaints was raised.

The Committee challenged the improvement in housing complaints moving forward and requested that a report detailing Adult Social Care complaints, be presented quarterly to the Committee.

The Committee RESOLVED to note as follows:

·         The Corporate Complaints Performance Statistics for Quarter 2 (July – September 2017).

·         The results following the Quarter 2 Audit of complaints.

·         Decisions made by both the Local Government and Housing Ombudsmen throughout the quarter.

The Committee considered a report that provided an update on Member Enquiries handling performance, across all the Council services. 

Members expressed concern that the members / MP Enquiries Quarter 1 data presented was not an accurate reflection as often members approach officers directly, therefore by-passing the CRM process.  It was requested that officers be reminded to log all enquiries onto the complaints system.  Issues with CRM system had been identified and would be investigated and an officer would attend the next meeting to respond to technical questions in relation to the system.

Further concern was expressed that members were not predominantly making enquiries via the online form and highlighted some difficulties experienced when registering certain issues via the portal. 

The Committee noted the Member Enquiries Statistics for Quarter 2 (July – September 2017).