Agenda item

Report of the Strategic Director, Corporate Services and Governance

A report was presented to Committee on the analysis of complaints and compliments recorded by the Council and the Gateshead Housing Company in the year ended 31 March 2017.

The Council sees comments, complaints and compliments as an important part of being open and honest and using the feedback to improve services.

At the year end 31 March 2017, 307 complaints were recorded and 754 compliments were recorded. 18 complaints were the subject of an independent review by the Chief Executive of the Council and the Managing Director of the Gateshead Housing Company undertook 20 reviews.

A number of points can be noted arising from the statistics for 2016/17:

·        307 complaints were recorded in 2016/17 compared with 387 in 2015/16 a decrease of 80.

·        754 compliments were recorded for the year 2016/17 compared to 723 in 2015/16 – an increase of 31.

·        The number of complainants requesting a review of their complaint by the Chief Executive decreased by fourteen to 18 in 2016/17. The Managing Director of the Gateshead Housing Company carried out 20 reviews in 2016/17 compared to 14 in 2015/16.

·        73.3% of all complaints were recorded against the category of quality of service.

·        The proportion of complaints found to be fully justified decreased from 41% in 2015/16 to 36.9% in 2016/17.

·        In addition, the proportion of complaints found to be partially justified increased from 13.6% in 2015/16 to 15.6% in 2016/17.

·        Most importantly, the Council’s managers used the information gained through the monitoring of complaints to improve the provision of services.

·        The computerised recording system made it easier to track and respond to complaints. However, this system now requires an upgrade that reflects the new structure of the Council and provides improved statistical interrogation and analysis.

·        There has been a decrease in the number of complaints recorded by the Council during 2016/17. Additionally, there has been an increase in performance of the percentage of complaints resolved within target timescales for the both the Council and the Gateshead Housing Company from 82.7% in 2015/16 to 85.2% in 2016/17.  

During 2016/17 the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) investigated 17 complaints.  Of these 7 were closed following a detailed response from the Council, 2 were not upheld and 8 were upheld partially or fully. 

In 2016/17 of the 307 Step 2 complaints 38 progressed to Step 3 and 23 to the Local Government Ombudsman and the Housing Ombudsman.

The Committee was informed that it is recognised that the system requires an upgrade and work is currently being undertaken with the implementation of the Council’s new digital platform to include a new system for managing complaints.  It is hoped that the new system will improve how complaints are managed and analysed and have an ability to identify themes.

It was queried whether the new system will be able to identify those who make multiple complaints.  The committee was advised that whilst the Council do have persistent complainers, each complaint could be about different service areas and issues and therefore may still be counted as separate complaints even if they are from the same person.

It was queried whether the information is also taken to the Housing Company.  The Committee were informed that the complaints information relating to the Housing Company goes to the Housing Company Board meeting.

RESOLVED - That the report on complaints and compliments be endorsed.