Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

(a)  To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 28 February 2017.

(b)   Matters Arising

The minutes of the meeting held on the 28^th February 2017 were agreed and signed as a true record.

Report of the Director of Children’s Services

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (People) which set out details of the comments, compliments and complaints across Coventry’s children’s social care services during 2016/17.

The report indicated that there was a statutory duty for the Council to have a system for receiving representations by, or on behalf of, children who use the social care services they provide or commission; and for the Council to produce an annual report about the operations of the complaints procedure.

Between 1^st April 2016 and 31^st March 2017, there was a total of 173 complaints (147 statutory and 26 informal complaints) received about children’s social care.  This was an increase from 133 statutory complaints in 2015/16.   15 of the complaints were from children and young people themselves or from an advocate, compared to 17 the previous year.  There were two main theme identified as arising from the complaints which were issues regarding poor communication with users and concerns about the standards of service provided.

There were also 91 compliments received during the year compared to 68 in 2015/16.  These were predominantly around the good standard of practice received from individual social workers and the overall standard of service received from teams.

The annual report for 2016/17 was set out at Appendix 1 and Appendix 2 detailed the internal guidance for handling People Directorate and social care complaints.

Having noted the significant increase in the number of compliments received, the Cabinet Member sought clarification on how the good work of staff is recognised.

RESOLVED that, the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People:-

1.  Notes the Council’s performance in relation to complaints and representations in children social care in 2016/17.

2.  Requests that investigations be made in to how the Council recognises the good work of staff and that this information be provided to the Cabinet Member.

There are no outstanding issues.

There were no outstanding issues.

There were no items of other business.