Agenda item

Report of the Task and Finish Group

The Committee considered a Briefing Note which detailed recommendations from the Complaints Policy and Procedure Task and Finish Group, which was established to review the existing Policy and Procedure to ensure that the process is easy to access and understandable for everyone involved, particularly members of the public.

The Briefing Note detailed the membership of the Task and Finish Group, which was chaired by Councillor N Akhtar, and the scoping document for the Group was appended to the Briefing Note.

The Briefing Note indicated that the Task and Finish Group had discussed the following issues:-

  •  There are unlikely to be savings but better service provision.

•  Need to have the right processes before a system can be built.

•  Links with Members Casework Management tool to be explored.

•  Training for staff to deal with complaints and soft skills to manage engagement with residents.

•  Where complaints come in from Members – the need to be kept involved in the process and updated to be built into the process design.

•  The possibility of including surveys of complainants to be shared  with elected members at some point in the future. 

The Task and Finish Group had agreed that a renewed Policy and Procedure should include the following:

•  Differentiation between contacting the Council, service requests and complaints. 

•  Some case studies or flow charts as to how a complaint will be handled.

An Appendix to the report detailed annotated comments and amendments made by the Task and Finish Group to the current Policy and Procedure. The Task and Finish Group had also considered a presentation on progress and had discussed the following:-

•  The benefits and challenges of the informal resolution stage for complaints and how it has reduced the number of formal complaints by 68%.

•  The structure and capacity of the complaints service and the introduction of the new service manager who will start on the 1st of May.

•  The areas that still need to be worked on, such as checking the Ombudsman code, creating training and response standards, reporting, and learning from complaints, and reviewing the templates and systems.

•  The issues around a single point of contact and potentially violent persons processes and how they can be improved and aligned with data protection and customer service principles.

•  The opportunities and implications of exploring Customer Relationship Management systems and how they can support the complaints process and the resident experience.

•  The feedback and suggestions from the Task and Finish Group on the draft policy and process and how they will be incorporated into the final document.

RESOLVED:-

1)  That the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee approves the submission of the following recommendations of the Complaints Policy and Procedure Task and Finish Group to the Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources:-

a)  That the Complaints Policy  and  Procedure be amended as proposed by the Task and Finish Group and as detailed in the Appendix to the report.

b)  That timescales for implementation of the electronic complaints system to deal with complaints be identified.

c)  That consideration be given to future strategic planning opportunities, including the budgetary implications for savings from an alternative Customer Relations Manager system.

2)  That a report on progress on the recommendations made to the Cabinet Member as detailed above be added to the Committee’s Work Programme for the Municipal Year 2024-25.