Decision details

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet noted the half yearly update.

KEY DECISION:

No

PORTFOLIOS:

Finance and Corporate & Housing and Homelessness

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED/REJECTED:

As set out in the report.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST:

None.

DISCUSSION:

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Corporate introduced the item and explained that the number of complaints had increased since the last half-yearly update and that most of these concerned the new waste service. He was pleased that residents were able to feedback to the Council and raise concerns and acknowledged that complaints were now being processed efficiently and in a timely manner.

The Portfolio Holder for Housing and Homelessness explained that the Council had received some complaints in its capacity as landlord under the jurisdiction of the Housing Ombudsman. The Housing service were committed to dealing with complaints swiftly and he was reassured that the best way to measure and monitor performance was through its complaints. This process also allowed the Council to resolve any issues that were brought to its attention.

The Service Manager for Legal and Information Governance provided further detail on the report and explained that the Council was under the jurisdiction of two ombudsman for its handling of complaints. These were: the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Housing Ombudsman, both of which had complaints handling codes that the Council must meet, in terms of compliance, reporting and scrutiny.  The Council had chosen to produce this half-yearly update in addition to the statutory annual report to support ongoing scrutiny of complaints during the financial year. The Council’s Resources and Transformation Overview and Scrutiny Panel had considered the report, along with those members of the Housing and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel who attended.

Within the report, the Service Manager for Legal and Information Governance referred members to section 5, the overview of number of complaints received during this time frame and the general themes, section 6 which concerned tenant complaints and section 8 which covered ombudsman decisions during the half yearly period and confirmed that there were no complaints upheld nor were there any findings of maladministration from the two ombudsmen.

The Portfolio Holder for Environment and Sustainability acknowledged the number of complaints received for the new waste service. However, he did stress that the Council made around 40,000 collections a day and that the Council’s waste collection service includes refuse, recycling, food waste, garden waste and glass, all of which demonstrated the scale of the challenge.

The Leader thanked the Council’s Customer Services team for their hard work in handling enquiries and complaints. Cabinet acknowledged that complaints were serious and required proper assessment and continual reviews of handling processes.

A non-Cabinet member raised concern over equalities and whether residents with a disability were being served sufficiently and encouraged to feed back to the Council. The Portfolio Holder for Housing and Homelessness reassured members that supporting those residents with a protected characteristic was of great importance. The Deputy Chief Executive explained that the Council was undertaking a data-collection exercise for all tenants. A bulk survey had returned results for 35% of the Council’s tenants. Each year, the Council gains new data for 400 tenants, and a follow up programme that involves a variety of ways that the Council can collect data which will ultimately feed into a number of plans and projects to improve Council services.

A non-Cabinet member referred to the 120% increase in complaints for the 24/25 financial year. He acknowledged that a bulk of the complaints for the half year period related to the new waste service rollout but wanted reassurance that the Council was handling all its other complaints sufficiently. The Deputy Chief Executive explained that several of the remaining complaints were from tenants and related to housing which were handled separately to other complaints to the Council. He explained that there are several monitoring measures following actions taken to address complaints in the housing service. He stated that the number of housing complaints received by the Council were low when compared to other authorities and he was confident that trust levels were high among Council tenants due to the Council’s encouragement for tenants to engage with the service and request action or change where appropriate to resolve any issues.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Corporate emphasised that all areas were important, and that the Council would continue to address any systemic issues that were brought to its attention through the complaints process.