Agenda and minutes
Venue: Surrey County Council, Woodhatch Place, 11 Cockshot Hill, Reigate, Surrey, RH2 8EF
Contact: Angela Guest Email: angela.guest@surreycc.gov.uk
Media
No. | Item |
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APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS
Additional documents: Minutes: There were none.
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MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING [23 March 2021] PDF 212 KB
To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 23 March 2021 and to note the record of the informal meeting held on 18 June 2021. Additional documents: Minutes: The Minutes were approved as an accurate record of the previous meeting. |
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DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
All Members present are required to declare, at this point in the meeting or as soon as possible thereafter (i) Any disclosable pecuniary interests and / or (ii) Other interests arising under the Code of Conduct in respect of any item(s) of business being considered at this meeting NOTES: · Members are reminded that they must not participate in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest · As well as an interest of the Member, this includes any interest, of which the Member is aware, that relates to the Member’s spouse or civil partner (or any person with whom the Member is living as a spouse or civil partner) · Members with a significant personal interest may participate in the discussion and vote on that matter unless that interest could be reasonably regarded as prejudicial. Additional documents: Minutes: There were none. |
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QUESTIONS AND PETITIONS
To receive any questions or petitions.
Notes: 1. The deadline for Member’s questions is 12.00pm four working days before the meeting (15/09/2021). 2. The deadline for public questions is seven days before the meeting (13/09/2021). 3. The deadline for petitions was 14 days before the meeting, and no petitions have been received.
Additional documents: Minutes: There were none. |
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RECOMMENDATIONS TRACKER PDF 120 KB
To review the Committee’s recommendations tracker. Additional documents: Minutes: Speakers: Mark Hak-Sanders – Strategic Finance Business Partner
Key points raised during the discussion:
Action/Further information to note: None.
RESOLVED: That the tracker be noted.
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EXTERNAL AUDIT: ANNUAL AUDIT LETTER
The Council’s external auditors will give a verbal update.
Additional documents: Minutes: Speakers: Ciaran McLaughlin, Grant Thornton
Key points raised during the discussion:
Actions/ further information to be provided: None.
Resolved: That the update be noted.
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To give the Audit & Governance Committee an overview of the Council’s complaint handling performance in 2020/21 and to demonstrate how feedback from customers has been used to improve services.
Additional documents: Minutes: Speakers: Sarah Bogunovic, Head of Customer Strategy and Futures Jo Lang, Head of Customer Engagement
Key points raised during the discussion:
1. The Head of Customer Strategy introduced her report and highlighted the following: a) That there were three different complaints procedures managed by three different teams (adult social care, corporate and children’s social care). There were different statutory requirements for each, which was why adult social care only had one stage, corporate two stages and children’s had a three stage process. b) That it was important not to just look at the numbers when considering complaints handling performance, because low numbers might mean that a council was not open to receiving complaints or customer feedback. However, the overall number of complaints had increased in the last year due to an increase of 49% in complaints about education and children’s services. Numbers had fallen in other areas. c) There had been a general dip in performance with response timescales, with the exception of adult social care. The Covid-19 pandemic and complexity of complaints received, particularly about education & children’s services, had been factors. d) The Children’s Customer Relations team were adopting an early resolution model, in line with the corporate approach. e) There was a significant increase in the amount of financial redress paid in the last year. The majority of this related to education & children’s services. Payments over £1,000 were agreed in conjunction with the Cabinet Member. f) Pension complaints were included within the report but were managed through a different process. g) She drew the Committee’s attention to information included within the report about Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) complaints. h) That the report highlighted what had been done well last year and where improvement was needed. It was pointed out that more compliments than complaints were received and that it was important to present a balanced view of services.
2. Member questions and responses:
a) Why the response times were not being met in 24% of cases and what was being done to improve this? The Head of Customer Strategy responded that this was reliant on service areas having capacity to respond to complaints and that a number of staff had been redirected for Covid. The Head of Customer Engagement stated that children’s services needed to do more, that cases could be very complex dealing with different agencies and the numbers of complaints in this area had doubled in the last five years. She went on to explain the early resolution process being brought in this year and that staff training was underway. She also highlighted the importance of building relationships with families, which could take time.
b) What was the total cost of complaints including other costs such as staffing? The Head of Customer Strategy responded that an exercise was done a few years ago to establish this but that it was complex to calculate. The previous estimate of the cost of an Ombudsman complaint to the organisation was approx. £1,500 per complaint (not taking into ... view the full minutes text for item 36/21 |
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INTERNAL AUDIT PROGRESS - Q1 PDF 322 KB
The purpose of this progress report is to inform Members of the work completed by Internal Audit during Quarter 1.
Additional documents: Minutes: Speakers: David John, Audit Manager Russell Banks, Chief Internal Auditor David Mody, Strategic Risk Business Partner
Key points raised during the discussion:
Actions/ further information to be provided: None.
Resolved: That the report be noted.
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To receive an update on the current corporate risks and approve the risk strategy.
Additional documents: Minutes: Speakers: David Mody, Strategic Risk Business Partner
Key points raised during the discussion:
Actions/ further information to be provided:
Resolved: 1. That the strategic risks were noted and that comments regarding ST26 be relayed back to the Corporate Leadership Team. 2. That the Risk Management Strategy be approved. 3. That the Committee Manager arrange a virtual informal meeting for Committee to discuss forward planning of in-depth consideration of risks.
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DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting of Audit & Governance Committee will be on 29 November 2021. Additional documents: Minutes: The date of the meeting was NOTED. |