Agenda and draft minutes

It was agreed that Councillor Best would chair the meeting in the absence of Councillor Sutton at the start of proceedings.

Apologies were received from Councillor Joshua Chapman, Councillor Ciaran White substituting.

Members are invited to disclose any interests in any of the items on the agenda at this point of the meeting.  Members may still disclose an interest in an item at any time prior to the consideration of the matter.

There were no disclosures of interest.

To approve as a correct record, the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 5 March 2020 (attached) and to authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 5 March 2020 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Report attached.

Council complaints officers reported that a total of 581 stage 1 complaints had been received in the quarter under review, of which 78% had been responded to within the target timescale. 100 stage 2 complaints had been received in the same period with 65% being responded to within timescale. Only 7.5% of complaints had gone to a full stage 2 investigation, compared with 9% in the equivalent quarter the previous year.

A total of 9 complaints had been upheld by the Omdudsman although in only 6 of these cases had maladministration been found and in only two of these had a financial penalty been awarded. Members felt these were positive results given the ongoing pandemic situation.

It was noted that a significant proportion of complaints related to waste and recycling and Members were advised that a contract officer was now in post to seek to ensure that the waste contractor kept to the specification of the contract. It was felt that it may be useful to include the number of properties in Havering within the report in order to give some perspective to the figures on missed waste collections.

Officers clarified that the figures did include complaints regarding the recycling centre and garden waste collections. Flytipping complaints were also included within waste and recycling although it was possible more detailed categories of complaints could be included in the future. It was clarified that the on-line category of complaint covered those made via the Council’s website rather than the app. Members expressed a hope that complaints of missed refuse collections could be resolved more quickly in the future.

The Committee noted the quarter 2 complaints performance report.

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Report attached.

The Local Government Ombudsman’s annual letter for Havering indicated that 121 complaints and enquiries had been received relating to the Council, compared to 95 the previous year. 85 contacts had required an Ombudsman decision of which 55% had been upheld. This compared well with other Local Authorities and the Council also had to show that it had complied with Ombudsman decisions. Havering had achieved a 100% compliance rate.

A total of 12 cases had been felt by the Ombudsman to have shown maladministration and these cases were summarised in the agenda papers for the meeting.

The biggest maladministration penalty was £7,000 which was related to the foster care service and was not connected to the pandemic.

The Committee noted the Ombudsman Annual Letter 2019/20.   

The Committee is invited to consider items for inclusion on its future work programme.

The Committee agreed to recommend to the Overview and Scrutiny Board that the Council’s complaints system as a whole be scrutinised.

Members thanked officers for their work in dealing with complaints.