Agenda item
Complaints Annual Report 2008/09
This report provides information about complaints against Brent Council considered by the Local Government Ombudsman; comments on the Council’s performance under our own performance; and reports on developments in the Council’s complaint handling. The annual reports on the operation of the statutory social care complaints process are presented with this report to give Members a comprehensive picture of complaints made against the Council.
Minutes:
Susan Riddle (Corporate Complaints Manager, Policy and Regeneration Unit) introduced the Complaints Annual Report for 2008/09 and confirmed that complaints made to the Local Government Ombudsman were at the lowest for a number of years. Figures to date for 2009/10 suggested that these numbers would remain low. However, Susan Riddle warned that although complaints under the Council’s procedure had also fallen at the first stage of the complaints process, there had been an increase in complaints being escalated to the second and third stages across the service areas. This highlighted the need to resolve complaints at the earliest opportunity. Susan Riddle reported that the new Adult Social Care Complaints Process launched in April 2009 had performed well and other areas of the Council could benefit from using similar processes.
Councillor Bessong sought more information on the review of the complaints process and asked if the relevant contacts were actively publicised for those wishing to submit a complaint. Councillor Mendoza enquired about the number of complaints submitted by frequent complainers. Councillor Van Kalwala enquired if statistics were available breaking down complaints submitted according to ethnicity and asked if residents were being informed of the need to identify their ethnic background. He also asked if there were resource limitation issues with regard to retrieving some information.
The Chair sought further details as to what measures were untaken to attempt to resolve a complaint at stage one of the complaints process.
In reply, Susan Riddle stressed the need for proper engagement with the complainant at the first stage in order to resolve the complaint as soon as possible and the Complaints Team were working closely with service areas to address. She advised that the present economic circumstances had seen a rise in the number of complaints involving compensation claims. The Select Committee noted that the Complaints Process was due to be reviewed this year and that there had been an earlier internal audit review of it. The internal audit review focused on processes and had identified that some service areas were not meeting corporate objectives and work was being undertaken to address this. Information on the Complaints Process was also available on the Council’s website, at post offices and medical centres in the borough and at area consultative forums and service user forums.
Susan Riddle advised that there were only a small number of complaints submitted by frequent complainers although each complaint was taken seriously. Only a small proportion of complainants provided details of their ethnicity on the complaints form and it was felt that this was because many felt the information irrelevant or that it would disadvantage them in some way. In addition, some complaints were not submitted using the Council’s complaint form. The low uptake of providing ethnic information was reflected across London boroughs as a whole. However, Susan Riddle advised that community groups were being approached and informed of the need to provide ethnicity details. Members heard that it was a time consuming process in obtaining information on complainants from the service areas, although future links to the Client Database Index would make this easier and quicker. It was also noted that Social Care tended to receive the largest proportion of complainants providing ethnic details.
Duncan McLeod (Director of Finance and Corporate Resources) added that the proportion of ethnicity details provided in complaints submitted to Revenue and Benefits was also very low.
The Chair concluded by welcoming the continuing overall decrease in complaints received.
RESOLVED:-
that the Complaints Annual Report 2008/09 be noted.
Supporting documents: