Issue - meetings

(1)       The report provided information on complaints and compliments received during 2009/10 and gave examples of where analysis of the feedback had led to service change across the Directorate.  The report also outlined complaint trends, the source of complaints, overall performance on handling complaints, diversity data and an update on Local Government Ombudsman complaints.       

(2)       Across EHW, 1641 complaints were received from April 2009 to March 2010 compared to the same time period in the previous year when 429 complaints were received.  As the two frontline services, Kent Highway Services (KHS) and Environment & Waste       (E&W) received the majority of the complaints with KHS receiving 1259 complaints     (77%) in 2009/10 and E&W receiving 380 complaints (23%).  2 complaints were        received within Integrated Strategy & Planning (ISP).  1559 complaints (95%) were acknowledged within the corporate standard of 3 working          days and 1601 complainants (98%) received a full response within 20 working days. 

(3)       In 2009/10, EHW continued to adopt a robust and effective approach to the ongoing management of complaints.  All complaints had been reviewed across the service areas and customer feedback had been used to improve  customer service delivery.  Several customer focused improvements had been implemented across EHW in 2009/10 and these were making a difference to the customer experience when they interacted with the Directorate and KCC overall. 

(4)       RESOLVED that the report be noted.