Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

a)  To agree the minutes from the meeting held on 24 January, 2019 (attached)

b)  Matters Arising

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 January 2019 were signed as a true record.  There were no matters arising.

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (People)

The Cabinet Member for Policy and Leadership considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (People) which set out the number, trends and outcomes of complaints to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) relating to Coventry City Council in 2018/19. It focused on upheld complaints, service areas with a high number of complaints, compliance with the Ombudsman’s recommendations, learning from complaints, and how the Council compared to previous years and to other local authorities.

The LGSCO was the final stage for complaints about councils, all adult social care providers (including care homes and home care agencies) and some other organisations providing local public services. It was a free service that investigated complaints in a fair and independent way and provided a means of redress to individuals for injustice caused by unfair treatment or service failure.

Coventry City Council’s complaints policy set out how individual members of the public could complain to the Council as well as how the Council handled compliments, comments and complaints. The Council informs individuals of their rights to contact the LGSCO if they are not happy with a Council decision after they have exhausted the Council’s own complaints process.

Every year the LGSCO issued an annual letter to the Leader and Chief Executive of every Council summarising the number and trends of complaints dealt with in each Council that year. The latest letter, issued July 2019, covered complaints to Coventry City Council between April 2018 and March 2019 (2018/19). This year it includes a new statistic on compliance. It records an authority’s compliance with the recommendations made to remedy complaints.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Member for Policy and Leadership:

1.  Note the Council’s performance in relation to complaints to the LGSCO.

2.  Note the Council complaints process and guidance.

3.  Request the Audit and Procurement Committee review and be assured that the Council takes appropriate action in response to complaints investigated and where the Council is found to be at fault.

There are no outstanding issues.

There were no outstanding issues.

Any other items of public business which the Cabinet Member decides to take as matters of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

There were no other items of public business.