Complaints over social care in Dudley rise by over 25 per cent in the last year, report says

Disabled provision and staff behaviour were two of the most complained about areas.

This is according to a report seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which showed a “significant increase” in complaints over a one-year period.

The highest number of complaints received related to provision for special educational needs or disability (SEND).

Over the last year, 44 complaints were received during this period in relation to SEND, compared to 38 for the previous period from 2021-2021.

A large number of issues recorded, were related to Quality of Service-support followed by a lack of communication and staff behaviour.

The number of corporate children’s complaints has also more than doubled since 2018.

Out of a total of 244 corporate complaints received 36 were upheld and 54 were partially upheld.

There was also a decrease in the total number of people being nice to the council. A total of 132 compliments were received over 38 teams compared to 238 for the same period the previous year.

It should also be noted that Children’s Services received 17,325 contacts during the period in question, meaning that less than 1.6 per cent of all contacts result in a complaint being raised.

Dudley has a higher proportion of children and young people with SEND than the average across all local authorities in England. A recent spike in cases could also be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dudley Council has said it will use the complaints to identify and make improvements across the service. Councillor Ruth Buttery, the cabinet member for children’s services, said: “It’s important people have the opportunity to come forward and share their thoughts on the services they receive, whether that’s when they think we have done well or when we need to improve.

“The complaints we’ve received represent just one per cent of all contact with the service. We investigate all complaints seriously and where they are upheld we use the findings to identify learning opportunities and make improvements across the board.”