Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Usha Patel, Governance Services  Tel: 024 7683 3198

Items
No. Item

1.

Declarations of Interests

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

2.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 56 KB

To note the minutes of the meeting held on 16th April, 2018

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 16th April 2018 were noted.

3.

Outstanding Issues Report

There are no outstanding issues.

Minutes:

There were no outstanding issues.

4.

Children's services comments, compliments and complaints annual report 2017/18 pdf icon PDF 79 KB

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (People)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (People), which set out the comments, compliments and complaints received in respect of children’s services during 2017/18.

 

The report indicated that there is 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.  The Council is also required to produce an annual report about the operation of the complaints procedure.

 

Between 1st April 2017 and 31st March 2018, there were 179 statutory and informal complaints received regarding children’s services.  Of these, 156 were statutory, 12 corporate and 11 informal complaints.  This was an increase from 2016/17 when the authority received 147 complaints and 2015/16 when 133 were received.

 

21 complaints were made by children and young people themselves or by an advocate and the remainder were from adults.  Two main themes were identified arising from the complaints: issues regarding poor communication with users; and concerns about standards of service provided.

 

During the same time period, 64 compliments were received, compared with 91 in 2016/17 and 68 in 2015/16.  Themes from compliments were predominantly around the good standard of practice received from individual social workers and the overall standard of service received from teams. 

 

Appendix 1 of the report set out the children’s services compliments, comments and complaints annual report for 2017/18 and highlighted trends and themes that have arisen and the learning and service improvements that have resulted from the feedback received.

 

Appendix 2 of the report provided the Council’s guidance for dealing with complaints.

 

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People approve the publication of the annual report in relation to complaints and representations in children’s services in 2017/18.

5.

Any Other Business

To consider any other items of business which the Cabinet Member decides to take as a matter of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

Minutes:

There were no other items of public business.