Contact: Sue Pappadakis, Customer Relations and Complaints Adviser, ext 6572; e-mail [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 This report summarises complaints made by either parents and the public or by schools about services delivered by the Education Department during the financial year 2002/03.

1.2 This report also summarises compliments that have been logged by the department.

2 Background

2.1 Hampshire County Council operates a complaints policy that provides a three-staged process for the escalation of a complaint and requires all staff to work within stated timescales. The procedure is published as a leaflet and on the website as the fourth of the council's Factsheets: Comments, suggestions and complaints and includes an extensive form.

2.2 A complaint is defined as "An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the Council or its staff affecting an individual customer or group of customers." (Commission for Local Administration in England)

2.3 Stage One of the corporate policy is to resolve the concern with the relevant member of staff within the service
Stage Two is to write to the department's chief officer (county education officer)
Stage Three is to write to the chief executive.

2.4 The timescales require an acknowledgement to be made within five working days and a full response with 20 working days.

2.5 From April 2001, the County Council has required all departments to log and monitor complaints and compliments and to report these annually to the Corporate Policy Unit. Additional information on equalities, that is: gender, age, disability and ethnicity is also required.

2.6 The Education Department has instigated a complaints logging system managed by each service. All staff are required to record, in addition to information about the complainant, details of the reasons and service outcome of any complaint.

2.7 The recording and reporting of complaints by each service is not to produce a `league' table but to identify trends and provide a mapping mechanism for service improvement. Although analysis of complaints is only one measurement in the context of service review, it is one of the recommended ways of improving quality under Best Value. It is important to bear in mind that the education department's work is concerned with thousands of children and adults and more than 600 schools and other services. In responding to complaints and resolving problems, care is taken to take into account the needs and interests of the whole community.

2.8 Staff have also been encouraged to log compliments.

3 Complaints 2002/2003

3.1 The total number of complaints logged for this financial year was 89 of which 28 were made by parents or members of the public and 61 by school staff. This compares favourably with 2001/02's total of 159 when 27 were made by parents and 132 by schools).

3.2 The majority of complaints have been dealt with effectively at stage 1 of the complaints procedure with only eight complaints being escalated to county education officer level (stage 2). This compares with a similar number of five during 2001/02.

3.3 Two complaints went further, to the Local Government Ombudsman, compared with 13 (8 relating to the same complaint) in 2001/02. One case was determined as `outside the ombudsman's jurisdiction'. The other was settled by the council.

3.4 85% of complaints were responded to within the council's timescales. Those that took longer to resolve were mostly related to EdICT services where the problems were complex and/or associated with outside contractors.

3.5 The equalities information is limited and is not recorded at all for schools. There were no complaints of racial discrimination made to the department.

4 Service complaints

4.1 Of the 89 complaints logged for 2002/03: 43 were directly related to an educational service whilst 46 were related to technical support services to schools. The following breakdown is by service and compares with the previous year (compliments are in brackets). 2001/02 2002/03 Educationally related

Hampshire Inspection and Advisory Service (HIAS) 2 0

Governor Services 8 24

Special Educational Needs (SEN) Services 4 5

Educational Psychology Service (EPS) 4 0

Education Welfare Service (EWS) 5 27

Education Other Than At School (EOTAS) 1 0

Family Group Conference (FGC) 0(1) 1 (22)

Admissions 0 1

Youth Service 7 15

Music Service 9(27) 9

Early Years 0 1

Adult and Community Learning 3 0

Totals: 43 (28) 83 (22)

Technical support related

Information Communication Technology (ICT) 46 (1) 76 (9)

4.2 A breakdown by reasons and resulting outcomes on a service shows that the majority of complaints relate to service quality or administrative and communication difficulties:

_ Service quality (60%)

_ Communications or administrative difficulties (20%)

_ Dissatisfaction with a decision (7%)

_ Gap in provision (3%)

_ Staff attitude (5%)

_ Delay in service (5%)

5. Outcomes

5.1 Whilst approximately 20% of complaints resulted in a clarification or explanation, the following resulting service improvements have also been recorded:

_ Systems reviewed/refined

_ Recruitment

_ Further staff training

_ Improved communications

_ Guidelines reviewed

_ Revised decision.

5.2 Although the highest number of complaints were recorded by EdICT (46), this is a significant reduction on last year's figures (76) despite two high impact projects taking place: HPSN roll-out and the implementation of OWL email. More than half the complaints were linked to these projects and relate to service level agreements and outside contractors.

5.3 A reduction in complaints to the education welfare service may be explained by improved recruitment and training.

6 Compliments

6.1 Compliments have been less well recorded nevertheless a minimum of 29 written compliments were received and logged during 2002/2003.

7 Conclusions

7.1 During the financial period 2002/03, the Education Department has dealt with complaints effectively from the first contact by the complainant, ensuring a minimum escalation to the county education officer or chief executive.

7.2 The Education Department is increasingly aware that the logging and analysis of complaints provides an opportunity to review services and initiate any necessary changes.

7.3 The Education Department will, in future, log any compliments received more effectively as part of its service review.

8 Recommendations

8.1 That this report is noted.

8.2 That the PRC continues to receive an annual report on compliments and complaints within the Education Department.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB The list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

TITLE FILE

Comments, suggestions and complaints - Hampshire County Council's complaints procedure (Factsheet 4)