Agenda item

7.1

The Director of Legal and Governance presented the report which gave details of complaints about the Council received by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and Housing Ombudsman during the period 1^st April 2018 to 31^st March 2019. 

7.2

Liz Stanley asked why there had been a significant increase in complaints received by the Council regarding Veolia and Capita services.  The Executive Director of Resources explained that changes to the Brown bin services had caused the increase in complaints regarding Veolia.  As the services provided by Capita were being brought back in house, the complaints were now being recorded using the Council’s complaints procedure.  This change in recording accounted for the increase.

7.3

Councillor Josie Paszek asked how the Council were performing against the points for improvement included within the report.  The Director of Legal and Governance explained that the CRM replacement was well underway and would resolve a few issues.  The Council was working on its Digital Acceleration Programme and Customer services was high on the agenda for change.

7.4

Councillor Mohammed Mahroof said that 2000 complaints was a high number and only 35% had been responded to in 20 days.  The Executive Director of Resources acknowledged that performance had not been good enough, but the number of complaints was relatively low compared to the number of transactions.  The telephony system was being replaced and more training was being given as part of bringing customer services back in-house.  A separate plan was in place to improve performance.

7.5

Councillor Josie Paszek noted that there had been a number of ombudsman complaints regarding vulnerable adults and children.  This represented both a financial loss to the Council and possible reputational risk.

7.6

RESOLVED: That, an update report, including answers to the questions raised, be presented to the next meeting of the Audit and Standards Committee.