Council complaints fall as pandemic increases investigation times
The number of complaints received by Telford and Wrekin Council fell last year but the amount of time spent investigating some categories rose, a report says.
Writing for Telford and Wrekin’s Audit Committee, Customer Relationships Service Delivery manager Lee Higgins says 424 “corporate stage one complaints” were received in 2020-21, 11 per cent fewer than the previous year.
He says the authority’s average response time to those was 12 working days, well within the 15-day policy deadline, but investigations into “stage two complaints” took 29 days to complete, a five-day rise on 2019-20.
“The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic did affect these timescales,” he writes, but adds that they stayed “well within” the 65-day maximum and a review of procedures led to a reduction in investigation lengths in from autumn 2020.
The committee will receive his report on Tuesday.
Mr Higgins writes that the 424 corporate stage one complaints represent the lowest total in the previous seven years.
“Forty-two percent – 180 – were partly or fully upheld,” he adds.
“This is where services have acknowledged that we could have done better.
“Eighty-two per cent of complaints were responded to within the 15-day timescale, an improvement on 81 per cent achieved in 2019-20. There has been a sustained improvement since 2017-18.
“Of the 29 stage two complaints, 20 resulted in full investigations. This is a 43 per cent decrease on the 35 stage two investigations completed in 2019-20.
“Forty percent of full investigations were upheld.
“The average number of days to complete a full investigation was 29 working days, an increase on the 24 days taken in 2019-20.”
Mr Higgins adds that 29 complaints came in about children’s services in 2020-21, with 15 upheld.
Stage one complaints in this area should be resolved within 10 working days but this is extendable to 20 “in exceptional circumstances with prior agreement with the customer”, he notes.
“The average timescale for all children’s statutory stage one complaints was 23 working days, which exceeds the timescales outlined in the regulations,” he adds.
“A review of procedure has taken place and, as a result, there is a clear improvement since November 2020, where complaints were responded to in an average of 17 working days.”
Four of the stage one complaints progressed to stage two for more thorough investigation.
“The average number of days to complete a stage two investigation was 66 working days, which is an increase on 37 days in 2019-20,” Mr Higgins writes.
“Timescales were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the availability of complaints to meeting investigators.”
Adult social care services attracted 38 complaints between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021, “a 34 per cent decrease on the 58 received in 2019-20 and the lowest number received in five years”. Twenty-six were upheld.
“We aim to respond to all adult statutory complaints within 25 working days,” said Mr Higgins, adding that this can be extended up to 65 days in complex cases.
“In 2020-21 the average number of days to respond to an adult statutory complaint across all portfolios was 53 days, and increase on 51 in 2019-20,” he added.
“There has been a significant improvement in timescales since October 2020, which has seen the average number of days reduce to 32 during the last two quarters of 2020-21.”
