Issue - meetings

The Leader of the Council to submit a report informing Cabinet of the contents of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s annual report letter and providing a summary of the complaints received by Melton Borough Council for the year ended 31st March 2021 by the LGSCO.

Cabinet

1)    NOTED the Local Government Ombudsman Annual Review Letter 2020/21;

2)    NOTED the contents of the report in respect of LGSCO findings, Housing Ombudsman findings and complaints statistics for 2020/2021.

Kieran Stockley, Assistant Director for Governance and Democracy 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 providing a summary of the complaints received by Melton Borough Council for the year ended 31st March 2021 by the LGSCO.

Ms. Stockley advised that the LGSCO provided the Council with an annual letter, reporting on all complaints it had received during the year (summarised at paragraph 5 of the report and detailed fully in Appendix 1).  The number of Housing Ombudsman complaints and its decisions on those complaints were detailed at paragraph 5.8 of the report.  Corporate complaints data for the period 1 April 2020 to the 31 March 2021 was detailed at paragraph 5.10 of the report.

Ms. Stockley highlighted that the LGSCO had confirmed that no public interest reports had been issued against the Council in the last eight years, which was positive.

The Leader noted the summary provided by Ms Stockley, highlighting that in 100% of cases, the LGSCO had been satisfied that the Council had successfully implemented its recommendations.  This compared to an average of 16% at other councils.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·         Members noted that the report was positive and were pleased that the Council had implemented the LGSCO recommendations, particularly in relation to its housing tenants.

·         Members thanked officers, particularly the Housing team for their work in responding to issues for improvement.

·         The Council encouraged the community it served to help it improve.  Good organisations learned from identifying problems and implementing improvements.

Cabinet

1)    NOTED the Local Government Ombudsman Annual Review Letter 2020/21;

2)    NOTED the contents of the report in respect of LGSCO findings, Housing Ombudsman findings and complaints statistics for 2020/2021.

Reasons for Recommendations

It is a constitutional requirement for Cabinet to have strategic oversight of complaints data to support priority 1 – excellent services positively impacting on our communities and priority 5 – ensuring the right conditions to support delivery. 

Receipt of regular complaints data also demonstrates good governance in line with the Governance Framework.