Agenda item

To present the complaints statistics for the period April 2022 to February 2024.

Members considered complaints statistics for the period April 2022 to February 2024.

Over the period April 2021 to February 2024, the Council received 3243 complaints. There had been a steady improvement in resolution times detailed at Table 1 in the report. In the period April 2021-2022 of the 879 complaints received only 9.97% or 85 were closed within the defined timeframes, and the average complaint was open for 73 working days. In 2022-2023 the resolution time rate was improved to 38.18%, with the average time open falling to 39 working days. The trend continued in 2023-2024. 59% of complaints were resolved on time, with the average complaint open for 16 working days. This was a significant improvement based on previous years; however, performance remained below target timeframes.

There was not a dedicated complaints team at SKDC, instead there was a process for dealing with complaints across all teams. In additional, statutory officers (Head of Paid Service, Section 151 Officer and Monitoring Officer) met on a monthly basis and part of this monthly meeting was to discuss the complaints dashboard.

The overall trajectory of dealing with complaints was positive and highlighted areas for improvement. An action plan was in the process of being developed to improve performance further.

Upheld escalations to the Local Government Ombudsman was a metric from the Office for Local Government (OFLOG); on this, SKDC performed well compared to peer authorities.

The following points were raised during debate:

·       The positive trajectory of complaints being closed on time had been compounded by an increase in the amount of complaints received.

·       When complaints were first received into the Council they would be logged as a Stage 1 complaint. If they were not resolved at this first stage, then they would progress to being a Stage 2 complaint. Replies to a Stage 1 complaint would follow a standard template, and within this the responder would be asked to address all corresponding items in the complaint. When the Stage 1 complaint was sent back to the complainant, it would be marked as ‘closed’. It would be for the complainant to respond within 30 days if they felt the complaint had not been addressed adequately; at this point it would be escalated to a Stage 2 complaint. If the complainant was not content with the Stage 2 response, they would need to approach the LGO to take it forward; this was made clear in Stage 2 responses.

·       Stage 1 and 2 complaints were linked through. Stage 2 complaints were handled by Heads of Service and Senior Managers.

·       When a Stage 1 complaint was closed officers explained how it had been resolved and supportive evidence for this would be inputted into the complaints system. Recently, changes in complaints guidance had been received from the Housing Ombudsman, who recommended that complaints be closed along with actions outlining the response given. Officers would be looking at these new changes in guidance and how they may change the way complaints were looked at.

·       Submitting a complaint was dealt with through the Customer Complaints and Feedback Policy. People could complain through a variety of different avenues, but in general complaints were submitted through the SKDC website.

·       The statistics showed that there had been a substantial improvement in resolving Housing complaints. The average time had reduced from over two months to just under a month. The implementation of the new complaints system had assisted with this.

The Committee:

1.    Noted the information contained within the report; and;

2.    Notes that from 1 April 2024 complaints will be regularly reported under the new Key Performance Indicator (KPI) suite accompanying the Corporate Plan 2024-2027.