Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Report for Information

1) Management summary:

1.1. The purpose of this report is to update the Policy and Resources Select Committee on plans for performance improvement in relation to the handling of complaints made against the County Council to:

a) Support the aim of developing a single view of the customer and improve management arrangements for complaints using the customer relationship management system.

b) Implement the new guidelines from the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO), which will require more detailed reporting in relation to complaints.

2) Recommendations:

2.1. The Committee is asked to:

a) Note the improved progress since October 2007

3) The current process:

3.1. The corporate complaints procedure comprises three stages, the first two stages are dealt with in departments. Stage three is when a corporate investigation takes place independent to the department. If the complainant is still dissatisfied with the outcome then the next stage is the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO).

3.2. Currently at departmental level there are different procedures for handling complaints. Some of this is because certain services have statutory processes that have to be followed. The complaints co-ordinators are working together to develop a more consistent approach to handling and managing complaints.

4) Local Government Ombudsman performance

4.1. In June 2008 the LGO gave the County Council a favourable Local Authority report. The report outlines that cases investigated by the LGO had shown a further improvement in response times of 5% since the previous reporting period. They also acknowledged that the proportion of premature complaints is lower than the national average. The Ombudsman also comments that the downward trend in the volume of complaints "can be viewed with some satisfaction by the Council".

4.2. The number of complaints responded to within the 28 day time scale was 19, of which 16 were under 28 days and three were on the 28^th day.

4.3. Between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2008 we have received 47 new complaints from the Ombudsman. The figures also include investigations which started in 2006/07 but where the decision was made in 2007/08, 51 decisions have been made of which 16 were classed as either premature or outside jurisdiction.

4.4. Importantly there has been no finding of maladministration against the County Council during 2007 -08

Local Government Ombudsman report 2007-08

	Complaints made to Ombudsman	Actual investigations requested by Ombudsman	Average number of days to respond to first enquiries
2007-08	47	22	31.6
2006-07	58	23	33.2
2005-06	75	17	48.2

4.5. A comprehensive breakdown of figures by department is shown at appendix one.

5) Corporate Stage 3 performance:

5.1. Corporate Stage 3 investigations have also shown a marked improvement in response times. Although above the published corporate standard of 20 working days, the trend is still improving. Over the past six months 67% of complaints were responded to within the corporate time frame

5.2. During 2007 the compliance team worked closely with the Hantsdirect team to establish the workflows for complaint reporting. Interim arrangements for the management of complaints in time for the launch of Hantsdirect were also achieved.

5.3. In March 2008 the policy for dealing with unreasonably persistent and unreasonable complainant behaviour was developed, and communicated to departmental complaints coordinators giving guidance and thereby ensuring clarity for officers involved in dealing with such complainants. This was complemented by a series of workshops

Stage 3 breakdown

6) Complaints trends:

6.1. It is worth noting that for an organisation the size of the County Council that the majority of complaints are resolved at departmental level.

6.2. The majority of complaints at a Stage 3 relate to the standard of service received from a particular service area. Examples of complaints are the state of footpaths, misuse of footpaths, overhanging trees, and potholes

6.3. More than half of the Ombudsman's investigations related to Education specifically school appeals, and Transport and Highways which were various

7) LGO changes:

7.1. Changes arising from the new Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 came into force on 1 April 2008. In summary the LGO may now make a finding of `service failure' even if there is no maladministration and can recommend action in a report where there is no injustice. Full details of the changes are outlined in detailed in appendix two.

7.2. The LGO now offers a mediation service. This is to be offered when it is felt that there is a need to rebuild trust and communication between both parties, to determine what they both want as outcomes to the complaint and identify a way forward to which they could both sign up.

7.3. If either party declines the offer of mediation then the investigator will continue in the usual manner. If a mediated agreement is reached the LGO will discontinue their investigation, If agreement is not reached, the LGO's investigation of the complaint will continue.

8) Plans for improvement

8.1. There are a number of initiatives being developed to improve further the way in which complaints are dealt with. It is important that we use the information from complaints to identify ways in which services can be improved. It is also interesting that one of the new National Indicators for Local Authorities is around avoidable contact. This relates to how many times a person has to contact the County Council before the issue they are calling about is resolved.

8.2. A project has been initiated to look into the overall complaints process and how we can develop consistent practices across the organisation and collate information by using the customer relationship system (Lagan), used by Hantsdirect. Key areas include breaking down complaints into type of complaint, service delivery area, and geographical information enabling us to identify trends and highlight areas for improvement. This will enable a more robust reporting and performance mechanism

8.3. Work is scheduled to start after the current phased roll out of other service areas

8.4. The information collated by the ombudsman is useful for monitoring performance but as this only relates to a relatively small number of complaints other ways of monitoring performance are currently being explored. Which will enable us to benchmark performance against other similar organisations

9) Conclusions:

9.1. Good progress has been made in the response times and general performance management in complaints. The report shows that we have responded in a professional and efficient manner. There is still however room to improve the service and to learn from all complaint issues

Changes to the LGO procedures

Changes to the LGO procedures have also been brought about by the new Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. Some of the main provisions of the Act which will impact on us are:

· That if, during the conduct of an investigation into a complaint, an apparent service failure or apparent maladministration comes to the LGOs' attention, they can investigate, even though no-one has complained

· The LGO may now make a finding of `service failure' even if there is no maladministration. This could relate to failure in a service which was the local authority's function to provide and, also, failure to provide such a service

· The LGO's already draw a Council's attention to fault that has been identified during the course of an investigation. The new power enables the Ombudsman, in a report where there is no injustice, to recommend action. This would be to prevent injustice being caused in the future in consequence of similar maladministration.

· Where it is the local authority's function to provide a service, and it does this through a partnership with another body, accountability rests with the local authority. This has long been the LGOs' view, and it is now established in the legislation.