Agenda item

To receive and consider the Complaints Review report.

Michael Bateman, Complaints Manager presented the Complaints Review report.  He highlighted the following points:

·           The report contained information about the statutory Children’s Social Care complaints process and the corporate complaints process;

·           The volume of complaints in the first two quarters of the year were consistent with what was observed in the previous two financial years;

·           Most cases were resolved in the early stages of the process;

·           Those cases that could not be resolved at the early stages of the process were escalated to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman for the statutory Children’s Social Care complaints or to the Customer Relations Team for corporate complaints;

·           The complaints relating to Children’s Social Care were evenly distributed across the teams;

·           For Children’s Social Care, the number of the compliments received outweighed the number of complaints received;

·           Most of the corporate complaints received in the first two quarters of the year were in relation to SEND, and one of the themes was communication;

·           The leadership team was aware of the issues raised, and a bespoke training session had been held with SEND Teams to address this issue,  follow up catch up sessions had also been organised;

·           There were many compliments to the services received which were included in the report;

·           This was the first time the report was presented to the CSO&S Committee, and feedback was welcome to improve the report.

The Chairman thanked Michael Bateman and his team for the presentation and report.

During the discussion of the item the following comments were made:

·           Sarah Clarke asked how were complaints and compliments received via direct emails to managers or assistant directors registered and recorded?

·           Micheal Bateman explained that anything that could be classified as a complaint should be sent to the complaints team so that it could be logged through the correct complaints process;

·           Terry Walsh of SEND Voices stated that families felt that there were a lot complaints being raised via direct emails to officers which were not being logged into the system, therefore they believed that the figures were not correct;

·           Michael Bateman confirmed that the report contained information about formal complaints only.  He offered to be a point of contact for families who wished to raise concerns that they wanted to be recorded formally.  He confirmed the email addresses that could be used: Michael.bateman@wokingham.gov.uk or ChildrensServicesComplaints@wokingham.gov.uk

·           Councillor Bray stated that more clarity in the reporting system was welcome, however there was a distinction between people sending multiple emails about the same issue and different issues;

·           The Chairman suggested that future iterations of the report could include a couple of examples with anonymised cases so that the Committee could get a feel for what the complaints process looked like;

·           Terry Walsh suggested that information about the complaints process be included in the local offer website;

·           Ming Zhang stated that a Communications Plan was being developed, in co-production with SEND Voices, and the comments made would be considered in the development of the plan;

·           Sara Clarke stated that more clarity around the complaints process was needed, parents were not sure when to escalate to a formal complaint;

·           Richard Lamey asked for clarification on the statement made in page 31 of the agenda, in relation to the increase in number of SEND complaints.  He asked if the raise in complaints was because of the greater scrutiny of assessments or if it was because things that had been funded in the past were no longer being funded due to budget constraints?

·           Michael Bateman agreed to clarify this point with the SEND specialists and report back to the Committee;

·           The Chairman asked if there were any groups of people that were underrepresented in the data presented in the report, and if any measures were being taken to address potential inequalities?

·           Helen Watson stated that this question required reflection and would be a written answer would be provided to the Committee;

·           Sarah Clarke stated that families were exhausted and some felt that there was no point in complaining as they were not being listened to.  It was important to simplify the complaints process to facilitate it for parents;

·           Councillor Gray asked what actions were being taken to reduce the timeline for resolution of complaints;

·           Ming Zhang stated that it was a whole system effort, and this was a journey of improvement.

RESOLVED That;

1)     Officers be thanked for their work in the production of this report and that future iterations of the report will include the suggestions made during the discussions;

2)     The Committee supports the development of a co-produced Communications Plan with SEND Voices;

3)     The Committee suggests that the development of a survey to gather data on complaints and compliments relating to SEND be considered; and

4)     The complaints and compliments process be included in the local offer.