Issue - meetings

The Portfolio Holder for Corporate Governance, Access and Engagement to submit a report informing Members of the contents of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s Annual Report Letter providing a summary of the complaints received by Melton Borough Council for the year ended 31 March 2019 by the LGSCO.

Cabinet NOTED the Local Government Ombudsman Annual Review Letter 2019.

In the absence of Councillor Alison Freer-Jones, Portfolio Holder for Corporate Governance, Access and Engagement, Adele Wylie, Director for Law and Governance introduced the report, the purpose of which was to inform Cabinet of the contents of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s (LGSCO) Annual Report Letter and to provide a summary of the complaints received by the Council for the year ended 31 March 2019 by the LGSCO.

Mrs. Wylie provided a brief summary of the report, highlighting that the LGSCO had made decisions on seven of the 11 complaints it had received:-

·         One complaint was upheld in relation to housing (all upheld complaints would be reported to Cabinet.  However, this complaint did not fall within the timeframe of the Council’s newly formed Cabinet model of governance.

·         One complaint was considered to be incomplete/invalid.

·         Two complaints were referred back to the Council for local resolution.

·         Three complaints were closed after initial enquiries.

The Categories/Departments subject to these complaints were detailed at paragraph 6.2 of the report.  This was consistent with complaints received the previous year and to other local authorities.  There was nothing particularly contentious about these complaints.

The Council started recording compliments in January 2019 and had received 3 to date.  Services should forward compliments to the Complaints team for recording, to ensure accurate capture of data.

During discussion the following points were noted:

      i.        This was a positive report and officers were thanked for their work.  However, even 1 upheld complaint was too many.

    ii.        It  would be useful to Members and the public to have further information regarding costs to the Council in terms of resources associated with handling complaints.  There was no doubt that dealing with complaints was time consuming and the Council could look at the work other local authorities had done on this and learn from it.

   iii.        Members highlighted the Council’s ‘customer is king’ approach to service delivery.  Complaints were used to improve the quality and efficiency of service provision.

DECISIONS (NON-KEY)

Cabinet NOTED the Local Government Ombudsman Annual Review Letter 2019.

Reason for decision:

It was a constitutional requirement for Cabinet to have strategic oversight of complaints data.