Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to give the Audit & Governance Committee an overview of the council’s complaint handling performance in 2018/19 and to demonstrate how feedback from customers has been used to improve services.

Witnesses:

Sarah Bogunovic, Customer Relations and Service Improvement Manager

Key points raised during the discussion:

1. The Customer Relations and Service Improvement Manager introduced the report and informed the Committee that Surrey County Council operated three complaints procedures: one for Adult Social Care and one for Children’s Services, which were statutory procedures, as well as one covering all other Council services – the Pensions Service was also included for the first year.
2. It was important that the Council was a learning organisation responsive to feedback and the measurement of its performance should be based on escalation rates - resolving complaints early - and uphold rates - where fault was found - rather than the volume of complaints received. 1,408 complaints were received in 2018/19 (6% increase from previous year). This was compared to 1,980 compliments received in that year. There were also 1,396 wider customer enquiries of which 16% escalated to the complaints procedure.

In response to Member queries the Customer Relations and Service Improvement Manager explained that:

3. She would look into how many Members used the Councillor’s email service which logged and coordinated responses to residents’ enquiries, as Members noted it as useful. A Member stated that responses were prompt but mixed depending on the issue.
4. That the Council’s online self-service complaints form for residents was different to sending them by email directly to the contact centre because it was automated and the form went directly into the electronic complaints system - reducing the bureaucratic process and allowing greater oversight as to the distribution of, and responses to, complaints.
5. To ensure timely and full responses would be provided to Ombudsman enquiries, a new complaints case management system was in place and workshops were being planned for service managers. Proactive reminders of deadlines were also being sent. 
6. Roll-out of the new complaints case management system was underway, with Corporate and Children’s Services already live and plans in place to roll the system out next to Adult Social Care, Pensions and Member / MP enquiries. It was anticipated that this would be completed by April 2020, pending user testing and refinement.
7. She recognised the genuine fear that complaining could hinder the service a person received from the Council. Individuals who complained could choose to remain anonymous, but the difficulty in that was that they would not receive a response. It was important to ensure that residents felt confident to complain and that the process was transparent.
8. She would review how to make it easier for staff members to make complaints on behalf of residents.
9. Members were informed that complaints reporting needed to be refined and that real-time dashboards open to service managers and Members to see complaints and feedback - possibly by Division - were being developed and suggested that it would be good to get Members involved in testing.
10. She noted the Chairman’s comment of the past initiative called ‘Rapid Improvement Events’ where potential areas of concern were highlighted and areas of risk were investigated by a group of staff who had the knowledge within that service.
11. That it was difficult to align the number of complaints with the total number of enquiries that the Council received, as not all enquiries were centrally received.However, it was noted that there were approximately 250,000 calls through the contact centre and 5.3 million web hits last year.
12. That there was an employee’s recognition system within each department with localised awards, as well as a centralised way to recognise good customer service with the TOWER awards - which was in the process of being rebranded.
13. That a Member comment on an application which would randomly select positive comments made about staff to their managers was useful, as was mention of a flagging system allowing trend analysis of common areas of complaint dealt directly with the service area.

Actions/ further information to be provided:

A10/19 - The Customer Relations and Service Improvement Manager would look into how many Members used the email service which would send and log residents’ enquiries to the relevant contact centre.

RESOLVED:

That the Audit and Governance Committee noted the report.