The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services presented a report on the corporate complaints process and for the Committee to determine whether it wished to make any recommendations in relation to the Authority’s ability to handle complaints effectively. 

She reported that the Authority’s Concerns and Complaints Policy is designed to deal with corporate complaints, whilst there are separate processes for dealing with social services complaints, Elected Member conduct concerns and school complaints.  She informed the Committee that in 2019 the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW) gained new powers under the Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Act 2019 in relation to complaints handling procedures and had published a Statement of Principles concerning complaints handling procedures and a model complaints handling policy together with associated guidance on the implementation of a new model Concerns and Complaints Policy.

The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services reported that the Ombudsman had written to all 22 local authorities in September 2020 explaining how the Ombudsman’s Complaints Standards Authority (CSA) created within the PSOW had engaged with representatives from all local authorities to put in place a raft of measures designed to support and enhance complaint handling.  These measures included bespoke training and support which has been taken up by officers and a process for all local authorities to report complaints statistics to the PSOW on a quarterly basis. All local authorities were encouraged to reflect on how their current practices and procedures comply with the Statement of Principles, model complaint handling process and guidance published on the PSOW website.  A review of the Concerns and Complaints Policy had taken place in November 2020.  The authority also has a separate Unreasonable or Vexatious Behaviour Complaints Policy which is rarely utilised, but provides officers and Elected Members with support and advice on managing situations when someone’s actions are considered unreasonable. 

The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services informed the committee that the Information Team is responsible for the management of the Authority’s corporate complaints process and she set out performance data in relation to corporate complaints for the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.  She stated that the number of complaints against the Authority for the period 2019-2020 was 34 compared with 33 in 2018-19, none of the complaints proceeded to investigation. 

The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services reported that Section 115 of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 sets out a provision for the Governance and Audit Committee to “review and assess the authority's ability to handle complaints effectively and to make reports and recommendations in relation to the authority's ability to handle complaints effectively".  It was proposed that the Committee receive an Annual Report on complaints under its Terms of Reference.  The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services reassured the Committee that complaints are treated very seriously.

The lay member asked if a complainant is not happy with the outcome, is there an opportunity on the conclusion of the process for the complainant to feed back to the authority.  The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services informed the Committee that the authority does not ask the complainant for feedback following the conclusion of the complaints process. 

A member of the Committee asked whether the number of complaints received is typical for an authority of this size.  The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services informed the Committee that the Ombudsman provide comparative data on the number of complaints received by each local authority and that Bridgend is second in the list out of 22 with 34 complaints received, which equates to 0.23 per 1000 residents. 

A member of the Committee on behalf of the Chairperson of the Committee asked if there is a definition of a complaint.  The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services stated that the definition is set out in the policy.  A member of the Committee asked whether Member referrals are recorded as complaints.  The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services informed the Committee that Member referrals are not recorded as complaints, complaints are logged if a resident requests it to be treated as a complaint. 

In response to a question from a member of the Committee as to the shortfall of 10 cases out of a total of 370 cases, the Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services stated that she would check on this with the Information Team.  

The Committee considered that the number of complaints recorded were low and whether there is a culture of recording complaints accurately.  The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services informed the Committee that it was down to residents whether they wish to take their complaint down the formal complaints process.  A member of the Committee asked whether themes of complaints had been identified.  The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services informed the Committee that the Information Team has begun work on identifying themes of complaints received. 

A member of the Committee, on behalf of the Chairperson of the Committee, stated that she would welcome the opportunity to meet officers or have a small working party of Governance and Audit Committee members set up to ensure all complaints are monitored and recorded accurately as the Committee considered there is an under recording of complaints.  The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services stated she would meet with Members, however there was not much leeway as complaints handling is a statutory function and there is not much scope for amending the policy. 

A member of the Committee expressed concern that schools appear to be sending complaints received to the authority when they should be following the same guidelines and dealing with the complaints themselves.  The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services stated that she would take this matter up with the Corporate Director of Education and Family Support that schools deal with complaints directly and not through the corporate

complaints process.   

A member of the Committee requested that in addition to Cabinet receiving a report on Corporate Complaints that Council receive a similar report.  The Chief Officer Legal, HR and Regulatory Services informed the Committee Corporate Complaints is a Cabinet function, but would present an information report on Corporate Complaints to Council. 

RESOLVED:           That the Committee noted the report and it determined that it wished to set up a Working Party to ensure all complaints are monitored and recorded accurately as the Committee considered there is an under recording of complaints and that an information report on Corporate Complaints be presented to Council.