Council faces rebuke over its handling of complaint investigations

The council’s annual feedback letter from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGCSO) has been published as part of the authority’s 2022/23 customer feedback report.

It also reveals the council failed to implement the ombudsman’s recommendations within the required timescales in more than a quarter of cases.

The letter says 81 complaints were referred to the LGCSO last year, of which 20 resulted in investigations.

The ombudsman upheld 16 of the complaints, or 80 per cent, which the report says is higher than the average 72 per cent uphold rate for similar authorities.

The letter, from interim ombudsman Paul Najsarek, says: “In last year’s letter, concerns were highlighted about your council’s timeliness responding to our enquiries.

“Unfortunately, the issue has persisted during the year with delays recorded on 94 per cent of our investigation enquiries.

“In addition, more than a quarter of the recommendations your council agreed to were not completed within the agreed timescales.

“This is the third time in four years we have needed to raise our concerns with your council’s ability to provide timely compliance with our recommendations.

“Delay by the council adds to the frustration experienced by complainants and can cause further avoidable distress and uncertainty.

“I ask that you contact my office to arrange a meeting with my officers to discuss what steps the council can take to improve and any support we can offer you to do so.”

Addressing the ombudsman’s concerns, the council’s feedback report says: “Generally, the council is given 28 days by the ombudsman to respond to an investigation, whether the issue is current or an historical complaint with no immediate implications.

“Unfortunately, it is not always possible to comply with these timescales given that service areas need to deal with these ombudsman’s enquiries on top of day-to-day responsibilities to the public and local communities.”

Despite the delays in complaints which reach the ombudsman, the report says the council has worked to bring down the time it takes to resolve stage one complaints.

The average number of days taken to resolve initial complaints last year was 26 days, down from 32 days the previous year. This brings the timescales back in line with the council’s target of 30 days.

But the report adds: “However, several long-term outstanding complaints, usually linked to highly complex issues, in some service areas continues to be a concern and one closely monitored within internal customer feedback performance reporting.”

It also details the total number of complaints, compliments and comments recorded by the council in 2022/23.

There were a total of 1,796 complaint cases resulting in 1,187 complaint investigations, which the report says is similar to the previous year.

The report notes a significant reduction in the number of complaints relating to highways, which made up 19 per cent of the total, down from 27 per cent the previous year.

The feedback report will be presented to the council’s cabinet at a meeting next Wednesday.