Agenda item

To receive the annual update of complaints.

Reporting person: Joanne Mcintosh

Joanne Mcintosh introduced this report, noting that the report sets out brief details of the complaints received by the Council, New Vision Homes and Joint Waste Solutions. It was highlighted that the purpose of the report was for the Committee to identify any areas they wish to scrutinise in the future.

It was stated that complaints some explanations for the increase in complaints were: some service areas were impacted due to departments suffering from staff shortages due to Covid-19, some complaints related to the same issue, such as a traffic issue relating to the Mcdonald’s on Goldsworth Road. It was noted that it was not unusual that some areas had been receiving complaints given these areas take enforcement action. Joanne stated that based on the data there was not a recommended area for the Committee to conduct further scrutiny on.

Following a discussion on New Vision Homes it was stated that in the long-term it is expected that the number of complaints relating housing services would decrease when the service is brought in-house however in the short-term they could rise given the contract with New Vision Homes is coming to an end and therefore there are difficulties in performance managing such a contract. Joanne added that a review was taking place on the complaints system to ensure everything was in place and noted that, with the permission of the Head of Housing and the Chairman, a report on the review may be brought to the Committee in the future.

It was stated that if there was a service failure which was the fault of the Council then the Council would in the first instance seek to rectify the service failure. Joanne added that in some cases an apology is issued and compensation is provided however this is done on a case-by-case basis.

Following a question on complaints relating to the Breyer group Joanne stated the issue may be a current issue but is not likely going forwards given where the Council is in the housing services process.

Councillor Davis provided some insight on explanations for missed collections, noting that there are areas that do get missed and the causes typically relates to crews not having extensive local knowledge, as was the case during the pandemic when alternative crews were used to cope with staff shortages. It was also added that some issues relating to missed collections were due to local access issues and said that crews would return the next day where a collection could not be made. Councillor Davis added that when there are repeated missed collections officers from Joint Waste Solutions would monitor the issue and take actions to resolve the issue.

A request was made for the Committee to be provided with the previous years’ data for New Vision Homes to allow for comparison and a further request was made for the Joint Waste Solutions data to be simplified so that trends could be identified.

Following a discussion in the Committee on the frequency of the report it was resolved that changing the report to be a biannual report would be a decision to be taken by the 2022/2023 Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

            RESOLVED

            That (i) The Overview of Complaints Received Annual Update be noted.

(ii) Changing the report to a biannual report be added as a potential addition to the work programme for the 2022/2023 Overview and Scrutiny Committee.