Agenda item

To present the report of the Director of Function (Council Business)/ Monitoring Officer.

The report of the Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer providing information on issues arising under the Council’s Concerns and Complaints Policy for the period 1 April, 2019 to 31 March, 2020 was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report also included Social Services complaints but only those where the complainant was not a service user. Service user complaints are dealt with under the Social Services Representations and Complaints Procedure and are reported annually to the Corporate Scrutiny Committee.

Having declared a prejudicial interest in this matter, the Chair of the Committee withdrew from the meeting for the discussion thereon. The Vice-Chair took the chair for the item.

The Chief Executive had also declared a personal interest in this matter and withdrew from the meeting for the discussion thereon.

The Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer reported on the main points as follows –

•           That during the period covered by the report, 136 concerns were received and 69 complaints were made with two being withdrawn prior to investigation. Therefore 67 complaints have been investigated and responded to during this period. The number of complaints received remains at around the same level as in 2018/19 and are broken down by service in the table within the report. The Council publishes complaints data monthly.

•           Of the 67 complaints dealt with during the period, 13 were upheld in full, 5 were partly upheld and 49 were not upheld.8 complaints that had been through the internal process were escalated to the PSOW and all 8 were rejected.

•           The overall rate of responses to complaints issued within the specified time limit (20 working days) was 94%. 8% of the complaints received (down from 9% in 2018/19) resulted from escalated concerns which continues to indicate that services are dealing effectively with concerns thereby limiting formal complaints.

•           The Concerns and Complaints Policy places an emphasis on learning lessons from complaints and thereby improving services. Appendix 1 to the report explains what lessons have been learnt and any practice which has evolved as a consequence of the findings from the 13 upheld and 5 partially upheld complaints during 2019/20.

•           Where the complainant remains dissatisfied with the Council’s response to a complaint, the Concerns and Complaints Policy includes the option of escalating the complaint to the PSOW. There were 20 complaints relevant to this process within the timescale of the report lodged with the PSOW – 8 were escalated following formal responses under the Council’s Complaints Procedure and 12 complaints were made directly to the PSOW None of the complaints were taken into investigation.

•           During 2019/20, one code of conduct complaint against a County Councillor was received by the PSOW but was closed after initial assessment without any investigation.

•           Whilst there were no formal language related complaints during the year, 6 expressions of concern were received and recorded relating to the matters documented in the report. All 6 issues were resolved without being escalated into formal complaints.

•           During 2019/20, one whistleblowing concern under the Council’s Whistleblowing Policy was received and is noted in the report. Owing to the sensitive nature of such matters only limited information can be disclosed. The Policy and Guidance document was revised during May 2019; the revised Policy was published in June and became the Porth Policy click to accept policy for Council staff during the month. The compliance rate as at 16 July, 2019 was 89% (855 out of 960 staff) and was 94% as at 28 July, 2020 (930 out of 988 staff)

In considering the information presented, the Committee raised the following issues -

•           Further clarity around the point at which a concern becomes a complaint. The Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer clarified that the PSOW defines a “concern” as an expression of dissatisfaction that can be resolved promptly at the initial point of contact or very soon thereafter. A complaint is usually more serious in nature, may often not be possible to remediate and generally requires an investigation into the circumstances before a response or resolution can be achieved. The essential difference is the element of intractability involved.

•           Whether a record is kept of compliments, expressions of appreciation and/or positive feedback about aspects of service.  The Director of Function (Council Business) /Monitoring Officer confirmed that whilst services do collect data relating to the compliments received, the information is not part of the reporting process to the Audit and Governance Committee. Should the Committee so wish, the information could be incorporated as part of that process. The Committee was of the view that in order to obtain a balanced picture of customer satisfaction around service delivery, it would be useful to have this information to hand.

•           Further clarity about the arrangements for dealing with whistleblowing issues relating to Town and Community Councils. The Director of Function (Council Business) /Monitoring Officer clarified that Anglesey’s Whistleblowing Policy reflects the legislative requirements and as such applies to members of staff, independent contractors working for the Council and workers supplied through agencies who raise issues. Whilst it is open to anyone to make a complaint there is protection for staff, contractors and agency workers against what under the Public Disclosure Act is defined as detrimental treatment as a consequence of raising issues or making a whistleblowing complaint.

•           The arrangements for ensuring 100% compliance for acceptance of the revised Whistleblowing Policy under the Porth Policy Click to Accept policy. The Director of Function (Council Business) /Monitoring Officer explained that there is an ongoing issue regarding members of staff - estimated at around 700 - who do not have access to the Policy Portal which relies on the Council’s Active Directory because they are not AD users and are therefore not able to evidence that they have read and accepted the policy. Solutions to this problem are being sought but it remains unresolved at present because of the significant cost implications. For those members of staff who are included in the Active Directory and are able to access the Policy Portal, compliance reports are published every six weeks and made available to the Heads of Service who have access to the Portal and can monitor compliance within their own services, establish where there are gaps and subsequently follow those up. Compliance for this group of staff is high. The Committee in noting the explanation provided recognised the compliance issue with regard to staff without access to the Policy Portal as a risk and sought assurance that the matter is being pursued at the highest level. The Director of Function (Council Business) /Monitoring Officer confirmed that the matter is receiving corporate consideration with the need for clear and simple communication with staff having been brought into greater focus by the Covid-19 emergency. However, the cost of addressing the problem is prohibitive and remains the primary impediment to an effective resolution at present.

•           Whether any action had been taken in response to the whistleblowing concern raised as outlined within the report noting also the length of time for results to be fed back the whistle-blower. The Director of Function (Council Business) /Monitoring Officer referred to the summary of actions under lessons learned which included the preparation of an Action Plan the progress of which is regularly reviewed and reported to the Deputy Chief Executive.

It was resolved –

•           To accept the report as providing reasonable assurance that the Council is compliant with the processes required under its Concerns and Complaints Policy and Whistleblowing Policy/Guidance.

•           To accept and to note the Lessons Learnt Table as at Appendix 1 to the report as presented.

ADDITIONAL ACTION – The Director of Function (Council Business) /Monitoring Officer to include data relating to compliments received in next year’s annual report.