Agenda item

The Chairman welcomed to the meeting Ms Marie-Neige Hadfield, Complaints and FI Manager to present the report on the Revised Concerns and Complaints Policy and Procedures. The report had been presented to the committee in         order to ensure that the Council had a robust and up-to-date Concerns and Complaints Policy (corporate) which is compliant with the requirements outlined by the Complaints Standards Authority (CSA).

The Complaints and FI Manager reported that the Concerns and Complaints Policy and Procedures had been reviewed and updated for the following two reasons:-

(i)to incorporate the vast organisational and operational changes which had taken place since the last policy review in 2015, which included the

centralisation of the Complaints and FOI Service; and

(ii) to ensure that the Council’s arrangements for managing corporate concerns and complaints was compliant with the requirements stipulated by the Complaints Standards Authority (CSA), which was introduced under the Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) 2019 Act.

In line with the Model Concerns and Complaints Policy issued by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW) the Policy document provided complainants with information about how their concern/complaint would be managed by the Council.  This includes guidance on the timescales of the two-stage policy, how members of the public can make a complaint if they were unhappy with the services provided (or not provided) by the Council and how they can refer their complaint for independent, external consideration by the PSOW or the Welsh Language Commissioner.

It was reported that the Concerns and Complaints Procedures document was an internal document and provides guidance for staff with regards to the operational arrangements that must be followed upon receipt, and during the investigation, of a concern or a complaint.  This includes information on the escalation of a complaint from Stage 1 (informal resolution) to Stage 2 (formal investigation) and the role played by Services and the Complaints and FOI Service in resolving and learning from complaints. 

In the main, the arrangements outlined within both the Policy and Procedures documents were reflective of current working practices, particularly since the formation of the central Complaints and FOI Service in late 2016.  However, due to recent changes to legislation, these documents also comply with Council’s statutory obligations to ensure an effective mechanism of governance to oversee all complaints activity within the Council – as detailed below:

                  i.        Bi-annual reporting to the Cabinet of Elected Members (including the Council’s Annual Report); as per the Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) 2019 Act.

                ii.        Information on complaints performance and the Council’s ability to handle complaints effectively would be reported to the Audit and Governance Committee at least twice a year; in accordance with the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021.

Whilst the Concerns and Complaints Policy and Procedures being reviewed at this time relate only to the Council’s corporate services (i.e. Planning Service, Highways & Environmental Service, Finance Services etc.) separate policies exist for the management of Social Services Complaints received by the Council.

Following questions from the floor and discussion on the Clic service in relation to complaints, it was AGREED:-

(ii) to congratulate the service on an excellent report;

(ii) to note that an appropriate mechanism to record compliments within  services was being developed;

(iii) the need to remind all Officers of the need to adhere to the Customer Charter in relation to acknowledging correspondence; due to the number of complaints received by Members that this was not the case;                               

(vi) to recommend the draft Concerns and Complaints Policy and the accompanying Procedures be presented to the Council Meeting for approval on the 23^rd September 2021.