Agenda item

1.     The report was introduced by the Customer Experienced and Relationship Manager, Ms Pascale Blackburn-Clarke, who highlighted the key points to Members.

2.     In answer to Member comments and questions, the following was said:

        a)     Ms Blackburn-Clarke referred Members to Appendix A which contained the details of the services that received complaints.  It was confirmed that the number of complaints were relatively low, in comparison to the number of residents served in Kent, by way of example; for Adult Social Care, the level of complaints equated to approximately 1% of Kent Residents who used the service.  The most appropriate comparator for complaints was the Ombudsman, who had started to benchmark Councils against population sizes, given that Kent was the largest council in the UK, this was helpful.

        b)     Complements had been provided about many services and Ms Blackburn-Clarke confirmed that a concentrated effort has been made to log all positive feedback.

        c)     Complainants could still go to the Ombudsman and challenge how the outcome of a decision was reached, however it was pointed out to Members that officers managing complaints revert to the individual to explain how and why policy decisions were made. 

        d)     Ms Blackburn-Clarke confirmed that workload was problematic which effected the turnaround of dealing with complaints and a backlog had existed for a number of years in particular areas of the Council, however this was now starting to reduce.

        e)     It was confirmed that Quality of Service was being reviewed to explore whether the topic could be broken down further when reporting, in order to make it more useful in terms of lessons learned. Complaints tended to be individual, although it was possible to deal with numerous complaints about the same issue and therefore trends could be reflected for learning purposes.

        f)      A sign off delay (referenced in the report on page 50) related to the time taken by a Head of Service or Asssistant Director to review a complaint response.  Whilst this delay could be grouped within workload, it was set apart because officers wanted to see whether the delay in response was within the service or from senior management. 

        g)     Mr Watts confirmed that he was content to bring a report back to Committee which covered employment increase and level of staff for the period of March 2024 to March 2025.

        h)     The concerns raised by the Ombudsman were recognised and acknowledged.  It was explained to Members that the delays and instances of noncompliance predominately stemmed from significant backlogs within the service. This backlog impacted on the service’s ability to meet agreed timescales, even for Ombudsman cases.  Substantial improvements had been made to service delivery to reduce volume of complaints; the changes have allowed officers more time to complete their core work and response to new complaints.

        i)      Mr Watts confirmed that issues around complaint handling was an area of focus during the past financial year.  He confirmed that, whilst there were recognised pressures and resources issues in the areas responding, it continued to remain a priority and would be highlighted to the Corporate Management Team.

        j)      Ms Blackburn-Clarke confirmed that it was not mandatory for Councils to comply with the Ombudsman’s Code of Complaints.  In terms of addressing complaints within 15 days, this would not be appropriate at the present, the Council were not meeting their own designated standard of meeting complaints within 20 working days.  By reducing the amount of time to address complaints, could generate an increased level of complaints, due to timeliness.

        k)     It was confirmed that an updating paper would be provided in six months’ time to update Members on the status of complaints and responses.

        l)      Ms Blackburn -Clarke confirmed that the Ombudsman stipulated that good practice would be to acknowledge a complaint within 5 working days, whereas her team provided acknowledgement within 3 working days.  KCC’s focus was on a robust stage 1 response and any reduction in time to do this could resulted in a rushed investigation. 

        m)    A Member commented that the culture of continuous improvement and making a difference was yet to be embedded and therefore it would assist the Committee if efforts of continuous improvement could be shared with Members for review and comment.  Mr Watts commented that a report containing the requested information could be brough to the Committee for future review and discussion.

        n)     The Ombudsman had reported an improvement in KCC’s timeliness of responding to complaints and therefore improvement work continued I this area, as well as ensuring the officers took forward agreed actions.

        o)     Staff and service user comments were captured for service improvement elements and to be able to examine trends and learn from feedback to shape services going forward.

        p)     It was confirmed that complaints handling was difficult and there were current back logs as the team were struggling to both log and resolve complaints. In addition, staff vacancies impacted on timeliness. Ms Blackburn-Clarke confirmed there were currently 4 vacancies and although these have been filled, it could take up to 6 weeks to fully train new officers.

        q)     It was confirmed that there was no mandatory training for complaints handling however investigation training was conducted on a regular basis. Recently the Complaints Team had been realigned with an Organisational Learning Development Officer, who worked across the organisation to promote robust and timely responses to complaints.

        r)      Mr Watts confirmed that complaint training was not mandatory, and the previous approach was to address the areas of concern and need.  In reference to the Annual Governance Statement, it was expected that Corporate Directors would provide assurance that officers within their service had received the relevant training and expertise.  Mr Watts confirmed that he would review the delivery of complaints training with the Corporate Management Team to ensure that the appropriate officers were receiving the correct training.

        s)     It was confirmed that all senior complaints officers had undertaken the Ombudsman LGSCO training, with relevant sections being used to create KCC specific training for the different directorates.

        t)      In answer to a question relating to Compensation Payments, it was confirmed that there was an extraordinary payment made in the last year as a reimbursement of services rendered. 

3)     RESOLVED Members NOTED the contents of the report for assurance

RESOLVED Members Reviewed the self-assessment form attached as Appendix C and COMMENTED on the Council’s commitment with regards to the LGSCO’s code of complaint handling.