Contact : Graham Linecar Ext 7390

1. Summary and Purpose of Report

1.1. Services and departments monitor complaints and complaints handling to identify trends and issues for management consideration. When constitutional changes separated the County Council's executive and scrutiny functions, a new procedure was introduced requiring each service/department to report annually to the appropriate Policy Review Committee so Members can `scrutinise' the way in which management teams are monitoring complaints and identifying whether action should be considered to alter practice and procedure or to recommend change in the Council's policy.

1.2. All services have reported (or are about to report) to appropriate Policy Review Committees. The purpose of this report is to bring that information to the Standards Committee, which has responsibility for overseeing, on behalf of the County Council, complaints handling and the maintenance of high standards of conduct.

2. Corporate data on complaints 2002/03

2.1. The attached table sets out in summary the number of complaints about each service and Department between 1 April 2002 and 31 March 2003. The second column records the number of complaints in that service dealt with at stage 2 of the corporate procedure - consideration by chief officer for the service. The third column records the proportion of complaints where a response was provided within the standard set in the corporate complaints policy - 20 working days.

2.2. The Committee should take satisfaction from these statistics which show that a high proportion of complaints are dealt with to the satisfaction of the complainant when they first raise the issue. Only a small proportion are dissatisfied and proceed to pursue their complaint through successive stages of the complaints procedure. Services responded to complaints promptly; there is scope for improvement but there will always be `difficult' complaints where it is hard to respond within the 20 working day standard.

2.3. The last column records compliments. Again, the Standards Committee should be pleased to note the large number of service users who take the trouble to express appreciation for the services provided by the County Council.

2.4. Figures for complaints and compliments are not comparable between services/Departments. It is not always easy to distinguish a `complaint' from a `suggestion' about how a service might be improved or a `report' of a defect or fault. All Departments are improving the thoroughness of complaint recording, but it is inevitable that in services with many points of contact with the public some complaints go unrecorded. Similarly, recording of commendations and compliments is unlikely to include all spoken comments to staff.

2.5. Knowing what issues are giving rise to concerns is important performance management information. But the Standards Committee may share the view that more important than complete recording of all comments and complaints is development of a management culture that encourages staff to respond positively rather than defensively when issues are raised with them by service users. That is a good deal more difficult to monitor but the information and comments in paragraph 2.2 suggests that staff are responding positively and successfully to issues taken up with them by service users.

2.6. It should be recognised that number of complaints received by a Department/service is not a measure of fault or error. There are many reasons why people complain. Not infrequently, it is because they do not like a decision properly made following correct procedures, and want that decision overturned or reversed. Examples are decisions on planning applications or of independent school admission appeal panels. In only a small number of cases does investigation of a complaint show that the County Council was at fault. We do not often get things wrong. Most complaints are settled by carefully explaining to the complainant how and why the decision or action giving rise to the complaint was taken following County Council policies and procedures.

2.7. The Committee will note that not all recorded complaints are about County Council services to the public. For services like libraries, country parks, trading standards and Social Services, almost all recorded complaints will be expressions of dissatisfaction from the public as service-users. A significant proportion of what the County Treasurer records as complaints are from staff and pensioners, individuals but not complaining as users of services to the public. A significant proportion of complaints made to the Education Department and to Property Services and Business Services (PBRS) are likely to be from organisations such as schools expressing dissatisfaction with services provided under service level agreements or other quasi-contractual arrangements. They are still complaints from service users, but not complaints from the public about County Council services to the public. And Departments' management teams need to take such complaints into account in reviewing management of services in the same way as they would those relating to services provided direct to the public. They are therefore included in the data reported to departmental management teams, the appropriate Policy Review Committee and in the summary table attached to this report.

3. Racially motivated complaints

3.1. As part of complaints monitoring, departments identify and separately record complaints of racial discrimination and complaints considered to be racially motivated or where racial considerations seem to be involved. This data is one element of a Best Value Performance Indicator set by the Audit Commission to give comparative data between authorities of number of racial incidents.

3.2. In 2002/03 only 1 department, Social Services, recorded a complaint which included a claim of racial motivation. On investigation, that claim was demonstrated to be unfounded.

4. Ombudsman complaints by Department

4.1. The data in the summary table appended to this report does not include complaints made to and dealt with by the Local Government Ombudsman. The last meeting of the Committee (29 July) received a report on complaints determined by the Ombudsman in 2002/03.

4.2. The following presents data on the number of complaints relating to each County Council department determined by the Ombudsman in 2002/03.

Chief Executive's			8	(7 about independent school admission appeal panels)
Education			4
Environment:	highways		5
	development control		4
Personnel and Training			1
Property, Business and Regulatory Services			5	(of which 3 related to County Council development)
Recreation and Heritage			3
Social Services			13
Treasurer's			1	(Blue Badge)

Members will recall that the Ombudsman dismissed all these complaints.

5. Consideration by Policy Review Committees

5.1. Reports have been considered by (or are to be considered by) Policy Review Committees (PRC) as follows:

Copies of these reports (with the exception of Social Care PRC) may be found on the County Council's website under the appropriate PRC. A report will be made to the Social Care PRC at its meeting on 28 November to which will be appended the Social Service Department's annual report on complaints and complaints handling. Members of the Standards Committee may raise any concerns on that report when considering the minutes of this meeting at the Committee's next meeting on 27 January 2004.

5.2. Members will be pleased to see that all Departments have reported fully and fairly to Policy Review Committees on complaints monitoring and how information from that monitoring process has been considered by management teams. Most Departments have given examples of where issues identified by that monitoring process have resulted in changes in practice and procedures.

5.3. The Committee should express satisfaction both to Departmental managements and to Policy Review Committees that the arrangements now in place provide an exemplary means for Member scrutiny of the complaints monitoring process in a large authority.

6. Chief Executive's comments

6.1 Several Departments' reports highlight action taken to reduce the likelihood of recurrence of matters giving rise to complaints.

6.2. The Standards Committee may wish particularly to note issues referred to in reports to both the Environment PRC and Policy and Resources PRC. A small number of complaints arose in relation to developments undertaken for the County Council's operational purposes and where planning permission is therefore granted by the Regulatory Committee. Complaints arose because correct procedures had not been followed for seeking and securing necessary planning development control approvals for modifications to details of design found necessary as design work and construction progressed. Changes in procedures and practice in both Property Services and in the Environment Department are intended to reduce likelihood of a recurrence.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the Committee notes the satisfactory arrangements for scrutiny of complaints and complaints monitoring and commends the Policy Review Committees and Departmental management teams for a rigorous reporting and consideration of complaints monitoring information.

Complaints Monitoring Returns 2002/03

Summary table of numbers of complaints received by Departments 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2003