Issue - meetings

Report and appendix attached.

The report  before Members introduced the Council’s Corporate Complaints mechanism and invited debate around stage 3 hearings.

The Corporate Complaint Policy and Procedure was introduced on 1 April 2015.

Some changes to the Corporate timescales were made, effective 1 October 2018. Turnaround was set to 10 working days for Stage 1 complaints and 25 working days for Stage 2 complaints. Services should aim to respond to 95% of cases within time.

Most complaints were dealt with under stage 1 or 2 however, some complainants wanted to take their complaint further and for it to be heard by a review panel.

Officers confirmed that Havering was the only borough in London that still operated a three tier complaint system.

During the debate Members felt that the hearings were onerous on both officers and Members.

It was also commented that poorly worded letters at both stage 1 and 2 sometimes left complainants without the resolution they were looking.

Officers advised that if the stage 3 hearings was to removed that there would have to be constitutional change made.

Members noted the contents of the report and agreed to review the position in the future.