Interview with Angela Woodhouse, Head of Change and Scrutiny.

Angela Woodhouse, Head of Change and Scrutiny was welcomed to the Meeting.  Mrs Woodhouse was returning to update the Committee following the July meeting at which she had presented the Annual Review of Complaints 2010/11, along with her colleague Ellie Kershaw, Policy and Performance Officer. 

Mrs Woodhouse was able to provide the Committee with an update in response to a number of Members’ questions and recommendations by presenting the Committee the revised Complaints Policy.  The Officer explained that it had been revised for a number of reasons; for staff, to clarify the approach that should be taken with complaints and to ensure the policy was focused on service improvement.  Mrs Woodhouse advised Members that once the revised policy had been agreed by Cabinet, procedures would be revised and staff would receive training on how to deliver the policy.

The Committee was advised that since the last meeting a small focus group had been held which allowed customers to share their experience of the complaints process and provide suggestions on how it could be improved.

Whilst the policy had been shortened from 5 pages to 3 pages the Officer informed Members that a briefer document would be designed and made available to customers, in the form of a leaflet.  The Committee questioned whether training would be mandatory for all staff.  It was explained that it would begin with front-line staff and customer services.  Members felt that it was important that those who had been with the organisation for a long period of time were given a refresher, where necessary, in this area.  The Officer agreed that this would be possible and would be something that would have to be addressed with Heads of Service and Managers.

In response to Members’ questions regarding residents not having the opportunity to speak to an Officer regarding their complaint as part of the process, the Officer explained that the complaint process was a 2 stage process.  The Committee was assured that at the first stage the complainant would be able to contact the appropriate Head of Service.  If the complainant was unhappy with the response received at stage 1 it would become a stage 2 complaint which would be dealt with by the Head of Legal Services.  After this stage it could be progressed on to the Local Government Ombudsman by the complainant if they remained unhappy with how the complaint had been dealt with.  Members felt that dependent on the nature of the complaint there were other bodies that may be consulted before the complaint reached the ombudsman such as the Planning Inspectorate and this should be highlighted to the customer. The Committee questioned the complaints policy in terms of accessibility.  The Officer informed Members that efforts had been made to make it  as easy as possible to make a complaint to the council; the policy outlined that complaints could be made by telephone or through an advocate and stage 2 complaints no longer needed to be made in writing.

Members were informed that any recommendations made would be taken to Cabinet the following week for approval.  The Committee felt that Complaints was an area that would continue to develop and something that they would like to have continued input with.  Finally Members asked that ‘MEPs’ be added to the section 7 to read: ’Complaints from Councillors, MPs and MEPs.’

It was resolved that:

a)  MEPs should be added to section 7. of the Complaints Policy to read ‘Complaints from Councillors, MPs and MEPs’;

b)  Staff Training should be extended to include long serving Officers as well as front-line customer services;

c)  Members should be advised by email when the updates were made to the website and the leaflet being designed for customers would be circulated electronically; and

d)  That the Committee should be updated on the implementation of the Complaints Policy in 6 months time.