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 incorporating the Annual Letter from the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW) 2022/23 was presented for the Committee’s consideration. Since 2006, the PSOW has published an annual report on the work undertaken by her office over the previous twelve months. The PSOW also publishes a separate annual summary of performance for each council under the cover of an annual letter.

The Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer presented the report confirming that the Annual Letter relates only to service complaints against the Council which were lodged with the PSOW during 2022/23. The Letter also contains a section on complaints made under the Code of Conduct for Members. The key messages show that 25 service complaints were lodged with the PSOW in the year down from 29 complaints the previous year. Of those, 20 did not require an investigation by the PSOW’s Office and 5 of the complaints were dealt with by way of early resolution. One Code of Conduct complaint was made against a member of the County Council but was not investigated and one complaint was also made against a Town/Community Councillor during 2022/23, but the investigation was discontinued. As a council, Anglesey’s performance compares satisfactorily with that of other councils in Wales with regard to complaints and remains constant as shown in the table at Appendix A to the Letter.

In addition to requesting that the Letter be presented to the Governance and Audit Committee and the Executive and the outcome of both is shared with the PSOW’s Office, the PSOW asks that the Council continues to engage with her Office’s complaints standards work, accessing training for the Council’s staff, fully implementing the model policy and providing accurate and timely complaints data. The Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer confirmed that those actions are in the process of being implemented as detailed within the report.

The Committee noted that while the number of complaints is relatively low, 24% of those complaints relate to the Council’s complaints handling for which it sought an explanation.

The Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer advised that in order to address issues with the way the Council deals with complaints and the complaints handling process itself it is proposed that a training strategy is developed and the training needs of staff and Elected Members are assessed and identified as outlined within the report. The issues with complaints handling can be about a late response, an insufficient response, not addressing all aspects of a complaint and/or a failure to fully understand a complaint hence the recommended training programme.

It was resolved –

·      To note and accept the Annual Letter from the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW) 2022/23.

·      To support the implementation of the PSOW’s Model Policy.

·      To support the development of a training strategy.

·      To support the development of a training needs assessment and the rollout of suitable training as required.

·      To authorise the Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer to write to the PSOW to confirm that the Governance and Audit Committee has given formal consideration to her Annual Letter and agreed to the implementation of elements referred to in her Annual Letter.

·      To provide assurance that the Council will continue to monitor complaints thereby providing Members with the information required to scrutinise the Council’s performance.