Agenda item

To receive a report from Nicholas Foster, Complaints Manager, HHASC on Update on Complaints Performance.

RECEIVED a report from Nicholas Foster, Complaints Manager HHASC.

NOTED:

i)                 The report provided an update of complaints handling between October 2016 – December 2017 regarding complaints handled under the Council’s corporate complaints scheme.

ii)               There has been a marked improvement to the service since the last report to OSC in February 2017. There had been some real challenges since the Enfield 2017 online systems were implemented but these had now been addressed and accessible and transparent systems are now in place to listen to customers and residents via the website, phone, email and face to face.

iii)              Enfield Council are now moving to a more resolution driven approach and the process is geared at solving complaints as early as possible and as informally as possible as a result of which formal complaints are decreasing.

iv)             More than 90% of complaints are resolved at First Stage and the numbers of complaints to the Local Government Ombudsman have also reduced.

v)               Further information was provided on the complaints procedure. Complaints are handled by the central Complaints and Access to Information Team. The team is also responsible for co-ordinating all members’ enquiries, school appeals and statutory requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act or Data Protection Act.

vi)             The Council aims to resolve concerns and complaints as soon as possible, therefore contact from customers is initially presented to the team or person responsible for delivering the service where dissatisfaction has arisen, so that the matter can be addressed.

vii)            Where attempts for resolution have been unsuccessful, the complaint will be handled under the two-stages. Information was provided on the First and Final stage of the process.

viii)           The complaints policy promotes early resolution of complaints. This approach ensures that swift action is taken to resolve the matter for complainants with the need to go through the formal complaints procedure. The Council aims to deal with informal complaints within 5 working days.

ix)             Charts were included in the report providing a quarterly breakdown of complaints and concerns that were resolved informally during October 2016 – December 2017.

x)               Information was provided on the Complaint Themes and Causes. These included council tax, housing benefits, waste – missed collections/recycling, highways and housing repairs.

xi)             Further discussions took place in relation to the Local Government Ombudsman. The Complaints and Access to Information Team work in partnership with services to ensure that timely responses are made to Ombudsman’s enquiries and appropriate settlements are negotiated to achieve resolution.

xii)            Positive outcomes within the service have contributed to a decrease in the numbers of complaints escalated to the Ombudsman. During 2016/17 there were 135 complaints dealt with by the Local Government Ombudsman. This compares with 157 in 2015/16 and 154 in 2014/15. The numbers of Ombudsman complaints in Enfield are low when compared with our closest neighbours.

xiii)           It was also noted that in some instances, complainants prematurely contact the Ombudsman without having gone through the Council’s internal processes. In these circumstances the Ombudsman would refer the matter to the Council to be dealt with.

xiv)          The Ombudsman usually highlights significant issues of concern within their annual letter. It was noted that, unlike some Councils, no concerns were raised within the letter to Enfield.

xv)           Moving forward the team aims to build on its current successes by:

·       Working with ICT to improve the functionality of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) electronic system to improve efficiency in the end to end process;

·       Using intelligence from complaints and other forms of customer feedback to proactively resolve concerns before they become complaints and improve Council services by addressing the underlying causes of complaints.

The following questions/concerns were raised:

Q.      Of the 135 complaints to the Ombudsman how many of these were premature? It would have been useful to have seen a breakdown of these statistics and a copy of the Ombudsman’s letter.

A.       Nicholas apologised for not including this information in the report but agreed to forward this to the Scrutiny Officer to include with the minutes. He did however point out that this information was available on the Ombudsman website.

          Action: Nicholas Foster/Susan O’Connell

Q.      It would also have been useful to have seen data on the average amount of time a complaint takes to go through the process. Without this information we cannot say how efficient this process is.

A.       This data can be provided. However, it should also be recognised that an indicator of success is not how quickly we send a letter but more importantly whether the complaint has satisfactorily been resolved.

Q.      Out of interest what are the Council Housing complaints usual about, and do these come from leaseholders or tenants?

A.       The complaints do come from the leaseholders but are usually from the tenants and are generally related to repairs not being completed satisfactorily or on time. They have been some ongoing challenges with current contractors, but these contracts are now up for review and a bigger piece of work is taking place around this issue. It was acknowledged that there was not a good history regarding the procurement of this out of house service, and the suggestion was that it is often beneficial to bring a service back in house therefore having people accountable.

Q.      When does a complaint end? If it starts again and is the same issue from the same resident how is this managed and dealt with?

A.       Repeat complaints of the same issue are not logged as a new complaint. We would however chase the appropriate service for a resolution.

The Chair thanked Nicholas for his interesting and informative report.