The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing reported on the 2020/21 Annual Report on social services representations and complaints as required by Welsh Government guidance.

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing informed Cabinet of the requirement for local authorities to have in place procedures for considering any representations or complaints made in relation to the discharge of their Social Services functions.  She highlighted the key elements of the Social Services Representations and Complaints Procedure and where complainants have exhausted the complaints procedure, they have the right to refer their concern for consideration by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing informed Cabinet that the Annual Report places a strong emphasis not just upon complaints, but also on the comments and compliments received from service users to give a balanced view.  She stated that services are keen to learn from the information gathered and use this to inform future service developments and any service improvements.  It also contained statistics relating to complaints addressed in accordance with the Authority’s Corporate Complaints Procedure, with the majority of complaints addressed and resolved informally (prior to reaching Stage 1 of the complaints procedure).  This ensured that concerns are resolved quickly and prevents complainants from being subjected to using the formal complaints procedure unnecessarily.  The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing highlighted examples within the Annual Report where the families of service users had provided very positive feedback and compliments to staff in Adult Social Care and Children’s Social Care for going above and beyond in a year which had been blighted by Covid-19 and considerable restrictions in place.  Higher volumes of complaints could have been anticipated, however staff had adapted to new ways of working    

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing informed Cabinet that the 2020/21 report contained statistical information in relation to the representations and complaints received during the year for both Adult Social Care and Children’s Social Care.  She stated that majority of the work carried out within the Social Services Representations and Complaints Procedure was undertaken in consultation with either the Monitoring Officer and/or Legal Services and there is a strong working relationship between the social services complaints staff and the legal services staff team.

The Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help thanked the whole Social Services team for the exceptional work it had undertaken in the last year to support the most vulnerable residents.     

The Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations asked what happens when a complaint is received and what does the service do to respond to a complaint.  The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing informed Cabinet that it was important to meet with the complainant and to resolve the matter at an early stage and equally important to support staff and to ensure staff are trained and empowered.  It was also important to resolve the complaint at an early stage to avoid the matter being referred to the Ombudsman.  The Leader commented on the importance of an early resolution to complaints as otherwise, it rarely led to satisfaction.  He also commented on the importance of residents being engaged in the complaints process.  He stated that the process is a reminder that the Council is there to provide support at the most important time in peoples’ lives.

RESOLVED:            That Cabinet approved the Annual Report on social services representations and complaints procedures for 2020/21.