The Committee
considered the report of the Head of Change and Scrutiny reviewing
the Council’s performance in dealing with complaints during
the period January to March 2011. The
Officers undertook to investigate and correct a number of numerical
discrepancies in the Appendix to the report.
In response to
questions by Members and Co-opted Members, the Officers explained
that:-
·
Complaints arising from Council decisions were classified as policy
complaints. It was important to
differentiate between a request for a service and a complaint which
could, for example, result from the Council’s failure to
respond to such a request. Also,
complaints about the conduct of Members were dealt with separately
by the Monitoring Officer. It was
proposed that staff be reminded about what constituted a
complaint.
·
The complaints procedure permitted a period of ten days in which to
investigate and respond to complaints.
Failure to close a complaint in the prescribed timescale could be
due to the complexity of the subject matter, but a holding response
would be sent.
RESOLVED:
1. That the Council’s
performance in responding to complaints during the period January
to March 2011 be noted and that the
recommendations made in the report to bring about improvements in
complaints handling be endorsed.
2. That the broad categories of
complaint be noted as well as the service area to enable easier
trend analysis.
3. That staff be reminded of what
constitutes a complaint.