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 setting out issues arising under the Council’s Concerns and Complaints Policy along with the number of whistleblowing disclosures made under the Council’s Whistleblowing Policy for the period 1 April, 2023 to 31 March, 2024 was presented for the committee’s consideration. The report included Social Services complaints but only those where the complainant was not a service user. Social Services user complaints are dealt with separately under the Social Services Policy – Representations and Complaints Procedure for Children and Adults which are reported annually to the Corporate Scrutiny Committee.

The report was presented by the Data Protection Officer and Corporate Information Governance Manager who provided an overview of the key points from the way complaints and concerns were dealt with by the Council’s services under its formal Concerns and Complaints Policy during 2023/24. He also updated the committee on the development of the CRM as a means of hosting and managing the complaints process which will provide services with real time information regarding their performance via a dashboard that will be available to Senior Managers and Leaders thereby enabling them to access on a daily basis, data in relation to complaints, timescales and the progress of responses.

Having been invited by the Chair to account for the high number of concerns and complaints recorded against Housing Services, the Head of Service explained that the highest level of engagement with the public occurs through Housing Services by virtue of the service’s function in managing the Council’s housing stock which involves regular interaction with tenants and housing applicants. Given this level of contact, the potential for and volume of comments and complaints received by the Housing Service is therefore likely to be greater than for other services. The Head of Housing Services assured the committee that the service’s Performance Team is focusing on complaints handling as an area where improvements can and are being made particularly with regard to communication with poor communication having been recorded as the most common cause of complaints against the service and that he was hopeful that the report for 2024/25 would reflect the improvement.

The following were points of discussion by the Committee –

• In noting that Social Services user complaints are dealt with separately under the relevant statutory processes and reported elsewhere, members suggested that it would be helpful in enabling the Governance and Audit Committee to obtain a complete council wide picture of complaints management, for the committee to be provided with and for the annual report to include, the headline figures for Social Services complaints and concerns.
• The length of time taken by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW) to determine complaints against elected members. A member noted that two of the five code of conduct complaints against elected members during 2023/24 continue to be investigated (the other three having been closed after initial assessment without any investigation) and was concerned by the impact of the delay and lack of resolution both on the members concerned and on the complainants. The concern was noted and following further discussion it was agreed that it would be appropriate for the concern to be brought to the attention of the Standards Committee.

With regard to Social Services user complaints the Committee was further advised by the

Data Protection Officer and Corporate Information Governance Manager that in principle information about Social Services user complaints could be included in the annual report to assist the committee gain a view of the complaints position and management across the organisation with the proviso that comparison is not feasible as the Social Services complaints procedure, policy and timescales differ from those for the Council’s Corporate Concerns and Complaints Policy.

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.
• To note the information provided by the services to the Corporate Information and Complaints Officer in the Lessons Learnt Table at Appendix 2 to the report and to confirm that the Governance and Audit Committee is satisfied with the level of detail captured.

Additional Actions –

• The Annual Concerns, Complaints and Whistleblowing Report for 2024/25 to the committee to include salient information regarding Social Services service user concerns and complaints.
• The concern expressed with regard to the delay in the PSOW process in relation to the complaints against two elected members be referred to the attention of the Standards Committee.