Agenda item

Consider report by Director - Resilient Communities. (Copy attached.)

4.1       There had been circulated copies of a report by the Director, Resilient Communities which presented a summary of Scottish Borders Council’s “Complaints Annual Performance Report for 2021/22”, which was presented as Appendix 1 to the report. That set out how many complaints had been received, how effectively complaints had been dealt with, trends over time and how Scottish Borders Council (SBC) compared to other similar rural Local Authorities and the national average.  It also provided a summary of the eight performance indicators that the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) required all Local Authorities to report against. The Annual Report was a requirement for all Local Authorities and allowed the SPSO to assess the effectiveness of Councils’ Complaint Handling Procedures (CHP).  It also ensured an ongoing focus on learning from complaints received, to inform continuous improvement.  During 2021/22, SBC received 1257 complaints, of which 849 were defined as valid.  In 2021/22 Scottish Borders Council’s performance relating to the processing of complaints performed well against the Scottish National averages in many indicators, but performance was poorer in relation to indicators that measured timeliness of responses.  In this area there had been a decline for a number of years. 

4.2       The Director of Resilient Communities presented the report, and drew attention to the fact that a high number of complaints, 83%, were handled and closed at stage one of the complaints process.  Complaints in general took SBC longer to deal with compared to its family group and Scotland as a whole.  Whilst it was a positive that the new complaints system had gone live, it was anticipated that performance would experience a temporary dip whilst staff gained competence and experience on an operational level. 112 unsolicited comments/compliments had been received in the reporting period.   It was hoped that formal methods of recording positive feedback would be explored and implemented in order to pass key feedback on to staff.  Members highlighted that the report represented a key part of feedback which the Council needed to learn from as part of its drive for continual improvement.   In response to a question regarding analysis of invalid complaints, the Director explained that work was regularly undertaken to assess the trends seen within invalid complaints received to ascertain whether Council communications or information needed to be amended to reduce the number received via improper channels.  Regarding analysis of instances where complainants had indicated that they were dissatisfied with the outcome of their complaint, the Director confirmed that no high level analysis was undertaken in that context, and undertook to assess whether further learning could be derived from a study of that.  In response to a question regarding the impact of lockdown and Covid on complaint statistics, the Director explained that whilst it may have had a bearing, the trends which had been seen nationally were generally reflected at a SBC level.  Regarding the digital customer access platform, the Director highlighted that records of complaints, including their history, could be kept.  Feedback had been positive on how simple to use that system was.  Guidance on what would represent a valid/invalid complaint was available on the SBC website. In the event that a complaint had been deemed invalid, then the individual who had submitted the complaint received an explanation, via post or email, outlining the reasons for the rejection and what steps they could take.  The Director confirmed that all of the Directors received weekly reports which outlined all of the complaints within their directorate and what stage they were at.  The Director undertook to explore the production of a breakdown of complaints by service and geographical area for Elected Members.   In response to a question regarding communication to the general public regarding the new complaints system, the Director undertook to carry out work to ensure that the public were aware that a new system was in place, and that responses could be delayed as a result.

DECISION

AGREED to note the performance of handling complaints for the periods 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.