Agenda item

The Committee received an annual report and analysis of complaints, Ombudsman cases, Member Enquiries and FOI requests for the 2018/19 municipal year. The report was introduced by Andy Briggs, AD Customer Services and Debbie Darling, Acting FIG & Business Support Manager as set out in the agenda pack at pages 123-136. The following was noted in discussion of the report:

a.    The Chair set out that the classification of reasons for a Member Enquiry of general information/service requests needed to be better explained and reflect the fact that many Member Enquiries were requesting a service because there had been an initial failure the deal with a problem. In response, officers acknowledged these concerns and advised that management were planning to upgrade the Respond system and would give some further consideration on how to implement this. Action: (Andy Briggs/Debbie Darling).

b.    The Committee noted that the Information Commissioner was pushing back on local authorities who did not meet the 90% response time target.

c.    The Committee also noted with concern the fact that Haringey had the highest number of upheld Ombudsman cases and one of the highest number of cases in total. In response, officers acknowledged this and advised that the establishment of a partnership reporting group would help the organisation to learn from complaints across the Council and that Corporate Board had agreed to its establishment at a meeting earlier in the week.

d.    The Committee sought assurances around what was being done with staff on the ground to ensure learning from Ombudsman cases and learning from Stage 1 complaints  before they escalated to Stage 2. In response, officers advised that learning was captured and feedback across the Council through directors and that the FIG team offered onsite training with teams across the organisation. It was suggested that the partnership group would hopefully drive learning from complaints and provide an impetus at a senior level.

e.    In response to a follow-up question around whether there was sufficient capacity within the service to implement the learning from complaints, officers acknowledged that they were stretched at present but set out that in future they were aiming to have a much more proactive service offer and shift their focus towards learning from complaints. The Chair set out that the role of culture was important in all of this. As an organisation, the Council needed to make sure that it listened to its residents and their complaints.

f.     In response to concerns that Children’s Services had the highest number of upheld cases  by the Ombudsman, the Committee sought assurances about what review mechanisms were in place to improve performance. In response, officers advised that the service needed to get a good understanding of the context of the individual cases and understand the year on year performance to understand whether improvements were being made. The AD for Customer Services and Libraries agreed to feedback to the Committee an update on what was being done around review mechanisms, to ensure that under-performing services were being monitored and improvements were made. (Andy Briggs/Debbie Darling).

g.    The Committee enquired about the structure of the partnership reporting group and whether it was cross-service. In response officers acknowledged that it would be made up of representatives across different Council services and would include relevant Heads of Service, and Assistant Directors where that was felt appropriate. Officers also advised that they were working on ensuring that service ambassadors and learning champions were central to the process.

h.    In response to concerns around the number of complaints around staff and what was done as a result, officers advised that these were investigated in the same way as any other complaint and that where fault was found cases were usually remedied with an apology and further training. 

*Clerk’s note – Cllr Dogan left the meeting at this point.*

i.      The Committee raised concerns about proposals to remove paper forms and delete postal address details, in favour of an online compliant system as this would unduly affect older residents and those without internet access. In response, officers acknowledged this and advised that paper forms would still be available. The Committee drew officers attention to Paragraph 3.3 of the report where it was expressly stated that paper forms had been removed from public access points. Officers agreed to look into this and update the Committee. (Action: Debbie Darling).

j.      The Committee requested a breakdown of complaints received ward by ward and that this also include information on trends. (Action: Debbie Darling).

k.    In respect of the 1433 FOI requests outlined in the report, officers clarified that this represented the number of requests rather than the number of people who had submitted an FOI request, and that it was highly likely that a number of people made more than one FOI request.

l.      The Committee raised concerns that the 95% response target within 10 days for Member Enquiries had not been met in four years. The Committee commented that they were keen to understand the performance for those cases that did not meet the ten day target and how late those cases were. Officers agreed to send the Committee further details of the 8% of cases in 2018/19 that missed the target time and how many days each case took for a response. (Andy Briggs/Debbie Darling).

m.  The Committee enquired whether there was a way to prioritise urgent Member Enquiries so that a response could be received much sooner. Officers advised that there were no plans to reduce the target, or to introduce a two tier system, at present. Haringey was one of very few London local authorities that had a 10 day target time. Officers were not aware of any other London authorities that had a lower target response time than this. Instead, officers suggested that they were working to upgrade and improve software and the Respond system used by the FIG team. Officers suggested that if a response was urgent then the relevant director of the service should be copied in.

n.    In response to a question, officers advised that the 10 day target was a maximum and that a number of responses were done before ten days. Officers also emphasised that there was a balance between the speed of response and the quality of that response.  The Committee requested that future reports also include details of how many Member Enquiries were responded to before the ten day target time and that a breakdown of those cases and the number of days taken be provided.  (Action: Debbie Darling).

o.    In respect of Ombudsman cases and the fact that 69% of investigations were within benefits and tax, the Committee sought assurances about what was being done to link up with HfH around Universal Credit and ensuring that information was being shared. Officers acknowledged these concerns and advised that this would be covered as part of the wider impetus on learning from complaints.

RESOLVED

The Committee noted the contents of the report and the proposed next steps.