Agenda item

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

The report of the Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer incorporating information on service complaints for the period 1 April, 2024 to 31 March, 2025 was presented to the Executive for consideration.

Councillor Carwyn Jones, the previous Portfolio Member for Corporate Business and Customer Experience, presented the report which showed the data of complaints and whistleblowing for 2024/2025.

The Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer reported that the Complaints and Whistleblowing Annual Report is presented to the Governance and Audit Committee on an annual basis which includes the Public Services Ombudsman Annual Report.  The Council’s services have validated the data within the report and have received the analysis on the complaints.  She noted that the Complaints Officers have received training during the year, and the policy has been updated to reflect the introduction of stage 1 and 2 complaints and the principle of the concerns as is noted in detail in paragraph 3.2 of the report.  3.5 of the report details the services that received complaints during the period 2024/2025 as shown in Appendix 2.  Highways and Property are underperforming as there has been an increase in complaints from 19 in the previous year to 49 in 2024/2025.  There were also underreporting in Q1 and Q2 in 2024/2025.   She further said that there was improvements in the complaints within Housing Services from 139 complaints in the previous year to 47 during 2024/2025 and noted that the previous problems resulted in new software that was introduced but whilst there has been an improvement 45 of the complaints received have been upheld which is considered high and it is evident that there was underreporting in Q1 and Q2 in the current year.  93% of the complaints received by the Leisure Services were upheld which resulted in the need for training of staff in recording complaints.  There has been a high level of performance within the Planning Service and Waste Service, and no concerns were raised as regards to late responses. 

The Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer further reported on the Public Services Ombudsman Annual Report and noted that the number of complaints has decreased from 38 in the previous year to 22 in 2024/2025.  She noted that the main message from the Public Services Ombudsman letter is that 24% of the complaints in the previous year related to the process the Council has been dealing with complaints which has resulted in 10 interventions by the Ombudsman in the previous year, however in 2024/2025 there was a decrease to 50% with only one intervention.  Additional details are included in Section 4 of the report.  

She further referred that the Council’s Complaints Policy places an emphasis on learning from mistakes and using the information to improve services.  There is a requirement for a robust management within the Highways and Property and Housing Services along with further training for the Leisure Service.  There is a need to act earlier to the Ombudsman’s recommendations and to ensure that it is reported during the period set out by the Ombudsman.  She further said that action plans need to be undertaken if possible and to afford training regarding Equality and Customer Care for Complaints’ Officers and training sessions have been completed on the CRM.  A review will be undertaken on the CRW in three months and the roll out of the dashboard to Managers and Heads of Service will be undertaken and further guidance will be provided to highlight the need for consistency.

The Chair said that details within Section 4 of the report is important as regards to lessons learnt and it is accepted that some services will receive a high level of complaints and there is a requirement to be more consistence in responding to complaints and the need to identify whether a complaint is a request for a service or actually a complaint against the service.  He ascertained whether the recommendations within the Ombudsman’s report have been completed but the Authority did not respond within the required timeframe.  The Director of Function (Council Business)/Monitoring Officer responded that 6 cases have been reported in the Ombudsman’s report, but 2 cases have actually been reported with 6 cases within these 2 actions.  She noted that these cases have been actioned but have not been reported to the Ombudsman within the timeframe.

It was RESOLVED: -

•  To implement, as soon as possible: -

   •  the introduction of the Power BI dashboard for Heads of Service and

      Directors, in relation to complaints about their service;

   •  training for complaints officers, and their deputies, on customer care

      and equalities/diversity;

   •  updated guidance note on effective complaints handling.

•  That having considered the Annual Letter from the Public Services

    Ombudsman (PSOW) for 2024/2025, to require that current

    performance data on service complaints become a standing item in

    the routine meetings between Heads of Service/Directors and their

    Executive lead (Portfolio Holder).

•  To instruct the Monitoring Officer to remind services of the

    requirement to:

    •  action any recommendations from the PSOW, and report completion

       to the PSOW, within the timeframe set;

    •  routinely record any lessons learnt from complaints, identifying any

       patterns and implementing suitable mitigation measures.

•  To instruct the Monitoring Officer to respond to the PSOW’s Annual

    Letter 2024/202, as required in the penultimate paragraph of the said

    Letter.