Agenda item

Report of the Chief Executive

The Audit and Procurement Committee considered a report of the Chief Executive, that set out the number, trends and outcomes of complaints to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) in relation to the City Council during 2020/21.

The Committee noted that the report had also been considered by the Cabinet Member for Policy and Leadership and the Ethics Committee.

The LGSCO is 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 is a free service that investigates complaints in a fair and independent way and provides a means of redress to individuals for injustice caused by unfair treatment or service failure.

Coventry City Council’s complaints policy sets out how individual members of the public can complain to the Council, as well as how the Council handles compliments, comments and complaints.  The Council informs individuals of their rights to contact the LGSCO if they were unhappy with the Council’s decision after they had 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 the complaints dealt with in each Council that year.  The latest letter was issued on 21^st July 2021 and covered complaints to Coventry City Council between April 2020 and March 2021.  Mid-March 2020 saw an abrupt pause to the Ombudsman’s casework in response to the exceptional operational challenges local authorities and care providers faced because of the Covid-19 pandemic.  The Ombudsman resumed some casework at the end of May and started taking new complaints again at the end of June 2020, after a three month pause.

The report outlined the number, trends and outcomes of complaints to the LGSCO during 2020/21 and, in particular, focussed on upheld complaints, service areas with a high number of complaints, compliance with Ombudsman’s recommendations, learning from complaints and how this compared to previous years and other local authorities.  The Committee noted that due to the response to the Covid-19 the number of complaints received and determined in the 2020-21 year had been reduced.

Across all councils, the LGSCO received 11,830 complaints and enquiries during 2020/21, down from 17,019 the previous years.  The areas receiving the greatest number of detailed investigations was adult social care (801), education and children services (800) and planning and development (436).  For Coventry, the LGSCO had received 54 complaints and enquiries during 2020/21, down from 117 the previous year.  The report set out the categories for each complaint and it was noted that the highest number of complaints for Coventry related to education and children’s services, adult care services and housing.

When dealing with an enquiry, the LGSCO can choose to investigate cases where it sees merit in doing so. Following an investigation, the LGSCO can decide if a complaint is: upheld – where a council has been at fault and this fault may or may not have caused an injustice to the complainant; or where a council has accepted it needs to remedy the complaint before the LGSCO makes a finding on fault; or not upheld – where, following investigation, the LGSCO decides that a council has not acted with fault.  Of the complaints submitted, 31 were referred back to the council for local resolution and 13 were investigated, of which 10 were upheld and 3 were not upheld.  The remaining complaints were either incomplete / invalid, closed after initial enquiries or advice given.  Of those complaints upheld, 9 were remedied by the LGSCO and for 1 the LGSCO found that Coventry had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached them. 

The Committee noted that the Council had complied with all remedies recommended by the LGSCO and the report set out a summary of agreed actions for each service area where complaints had been upheld.  In addition, the Committee requested further information on the costs to the Council in respect of complaints that have resulted in a financial award.

In considering the report, the Committee requested that information on the 31 complaints referred back to the Council be circulated.

RESOLVED that the Audit and Procurement Committee:

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

2.  Note the Council complaints process and guidance.

3.  Are assured that the Council takes appropriate actions in response to complaints investigated and where the Council is found to be at fault.

4.  Request that information on the 31 complaints referred back to the Council be circulated.

5.  Request that further information on the costs to the Council in respect of complaints that have resulted in a financial award be circulated.