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Annual Complaints Report 2020/21

Meeting: 15/11/2021 - Audit, Governance and Standards Committee (Item 51)

51 Annual Complaints Report 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 229 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Corporate Insight, Communities and Governance Manager introduced this report providing an overview of (a) how the Council had performed in responding to complaints in 2020/21 and (b) the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s (LGSCO) Annual Review Letter 2020/21.  It was noted that:

 

·  The Council received 567 stage 1 complaints in 2020/21 compared to 720 in the previous year, a decrease of 21.25%.  It was likely that this decrease was due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The number of stage 1 complaints received accounted for 0.18% of the total volume of calls and online forms received by the Council in 2020/21.  This had decreased compared to 2019/20 when the number of stage 1 complaints received accounted for 0.28% of all calls and online forms received by the Council.

 

·  Of the 567 stage 1 complaints received in 2020/21, 59 were escalated to the second stage of the Council’s complaints process.  This was an escalation rate of 10.4% compared to 15.3% in 2019/20 and the performance target of 15%.

 

·  Whilst the overall number of complaints had reduced, there had been a slight increase in response times at both stage 1 and stage 2 compared to 2019/20 which could be accounted for by the absence and redeployment of staff due to the pandemic.

 

·  The Council received 58 written compliments in 2020/21 compared to 47 in 2019/20, an increase of 23.4%.

 

·  The LGSCO Annual Review Letter 2020/21 was positive for the Council.  There was no comment or critique of its complaints handling and the LGSCO did not issue any public reports regarding the Council in 2020/21.  The LGSCO had made decisions on 32 complaints in 2020/21.  This represented a decrease of 11 decisions compared to the previous year.  The number of upheld complaints had stayed the same as in 2019/20 (7), but the upheld rate had decreased.  All recommendations made by the LGSCO had been complied with by the Council.

 

Members thanked the Officers for the Council’s performance in responding to complaints and for the actions which had been implemented to improve the Council’s complaints handling process.

 

The Chairman then took the opportunity to update the Committee on the position with regard to the drafting of a revised Kent Code of Conduct for Members.  He explained that a document was being worked on by the Kent Secretaries (Monitoring Officers), but they were unable to provide a draft at this stage.  He would continue to liaise with the Monitoring Officer on this important issue.

 

In response to a question, the Chairman undertook to ensure that when the new Constitution is being drafted for the new Executive Model of Governance either the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee or Maidstone KALC are asked to comment on the section relating to the arrangements for dealing with alleged breaches of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

 

RESOLVED:  That the Council’s performance on complaint management in 2020/21 and the information contained in the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s Annual Review Letter 2020/21 be noted.