Shropshire Council receives more than 1,000 complaints in a year
Shropshire Council received more than 1,000 complaints over the last financial year.
The 1,119 complaints to the authority formed 51 per cent of all feedback, while there were also 448 comments and 541 compliments.
The number of complaints rose by 21 per cent compared to the year 2016/17.
More than two thirds of the complaints received related to four main service areas - highways and street scene, waste/recycling, adult social care and children’s services.
The council has said that the complaints reflect the size of the budget and number of staff, nature of services and number of people who come into contact with services.
A report, set to go before the authority's cabinet on Monday, says: "This is consistent with patterns for previous years and reflects the size of budget and number of staff, the nature of the services provided, and the number of people and/or organisations which come into contact with, or receive, these services.
"Complaints for most service areas relate to quality of services and failure to deliver a service or take action."
On average it took almost the same length of time to respond to stage one complaints in 2017/18 as it did in 2016/17, within the set timescale of 60 days.
The report says that a reduction in officer capacity may have impacted the response times.
The report adds: "Complex and long running cases can impact on this, and it is recognised that reduced officer capacity may also have an impact on the ability to respond to all comments and contacts in a timely manner.
Coordinating
"This is equally likely to be true for the time taken to respond to Freedom of Information and data protection requests.
"In light of the 21 per cent increase over the past 12 months, sustaining the timeliness of responses to stage one complaints at the same level as 2016/17 should be considered as positive performance by those investigating the complaints and those coordinating the complaints procedure.
"The learning and actions resulting from complaints are an important element of customer feedback reporting and improving services.
"Understanding the causes of complaints and common themes informs learning and the identification of actions to address the underlying causes of the complaint being made."
Communication and information provision are the most common themes within complaints, an range from responding to correspondence and comments in a timely manner and keeping people up to date, through to clear communication about the level and reach of services that were provided.
Service quality was another area covered, including issues such as access to services, the quality of work done, and the attitude and behaviour of those providing services.
The report will be discussed by cabinet on Monday in Shirehall.
