The Principal Social Worker introduced the report of the Director of Care and Health which provided an overview and analysis of all Adult Social Care complaints received during the reporting period 1^st April 2020 to 31^st March 2021. This included the number of complaints received, the key themes, responses to complaints including performance data against statutory requirements and an overview of complaints escalated to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

The Social Care Complaints Annual Report was a statutory requirement and provided a mechanism by which the Council could monitor the quality and effectiveness of the services provided. It was reported that there had been an 8% reduction in complaints across the year and almost 50% of complaints received were regarding commissioned services. The complaints team had worked closely with providers to ensure responses drafted were fully quality assured prior to release. The key themes of complaints were financial charging issues and standard of care and services, with outcomes from investigations into these two areas used to determine whether service improvements could be made.

During the reporting period, 91% of complaints were resolved by the local resolution stage. On average, 50% of complaints were fully or partially upheld and 20 complaints were escalated to the Ombudsman with 12 upheld. The council was 100% compliant with recommendations from the Ombudsman and no public reports were issued against the council.

A discussion ensued where members queried how the key themes of complaints were shared with staff and the lack of root cause analysis in the report. It was stated that the team were constantly reviewing the key themes and that a review was undertaken of the Revenue and Benefits service looking at policies and procedures. A new system had been implemented whereby the recommendations from the local ombudsman could be tracked, shared with the professional standards team who would then share this with front line colleagues. It was further outlined that around 30% of complaints are deemed as serious or complex and that these were assigned to trained complaints investigators who drilled down into the details of the complaint and compared the experience to what should have happened and so a root cause analysis was undertaken.

It was clarified following a member query that the reason only 7.4% of complaints had been responded to within 6 months was that a number of cases had stalled for various reasons such as information being with the coroner or the police. Another member noted that the word concluded would be more appropriate than responded to.

On a motion by Councillor Yvonne Nolan, seconded by Councillor Mary Jordan it was

Resolved – That

(1)  the contents of the Annual Complaints Report (Appendix 1) relating to statutory Adult Social Care service delivery be noted.

(2)  complaint reviews, learning and impact on practice be included in future reports.