Decision details

3.1     The Committee received a report by the Executive Director, Communities and Public Protection and Director of Communities (copy appended to the signed minutes) which outlined complaints and compliments received by the County Council in the last two years, including the learning from them.

3.2     The report was introduced by David Tominey, Complaints Manager, who advised that the 2016 and 2017 data had been presented in a new dashboard format, following a detailed review. Compliments were being more routinely recorded as well as better quality complaints information. Learning from complaints was included in the report and levels seemed to be reasonably stable.

3.3     The Committee highlighted the importance of recording complaints accurately and acting on the learning. It welcomed assurances that expected levels of customer service were being highlighted to contractors to improve consistency of complaints handling across contracted services. In response to questions from the Committee, Mr Tominey reported that one of the main problems for the Council at the moment was for customers to receive responses within agreed corporate timescales. He highlighted that senior managers were now receiving monitoring information so that late responses could be chased.

3.4     The Committee asked if customers were surveyed following the conclusion of complaints. Mr Tominey confirmed that this had been introduced as an automatic follow-up from May 2018, to obtain a better understanding of people’s satisfaction or otherwise.

3.5     The Chairman invited any members with comments on how to improve the format of the reports to contact Mr Tominey direct with their suggestions.

3.6     Resolved – That the report be noted.