The Board
considered the Compliments and Complaints Service Annual Summary
2022-23which was presented by Nick Libell, Service
Manager – Children and Families.
Nick
Libell advised that the purpose of the report was to inform
the Board of compliments and complaints in relation to children
looked after during the period of 1st April 2022 to 31st March
2023. It was advised that:
- Under the
Children’s Act 1989, the provision of an annual Complaints
report was a statutory requirement.
- 366 compliments
and complaints were registered during this financial year.
- 52 of these were
compliments, 158 were enquiries and 85 complaints were remedied via
the local resolution procedure.
- 23 complaints were
responded to via the statutory Stage 1 process (an increase from 15
the previous year).
- There were four
Stage 2 investigations, two Stage 3 investigations and four cases
were referred to the Local Government Ombudsman.
- In relation to
children looked after and care leavers, there were ten Stage 1
investigations during the 22/23 year out of a total of 23.
- The service worked
hard to work in a restorative manner to resolve complaints at the
earliest opportunity.
- The Compliments
and Complaints Team continued to ensure that the complaints process
was open and accessible to young people both directly and through
an advocate from the Children’s Rights Service.
- 52% of all
complaints registered at Stage One, were from young people, with
the support of Childrens Rights Service.
- 34.8% of all
complaints registered at Stage One, were from Parents.
- Of the 23 stage 1
complaints received, 10 related to Looked After Children.
- Most of the
complaints received related to an issue with service provision a
delay in communication or to disagree with a particular
decision.
- There had been a
small increase in the number of stage 1 complaints, but the overall
position was that complaints were being resolved at the earliest
possible stage.
- There was a focus
on learning lessons from complaints and integrating this with
broader quality assurance work across the directorate to improve
outcomes for young people.
- This work
included:
- At all stages, any
lessons and findings identified from complaints were expected to be
followed up by managers with staff to inform individual learning
and development.
- Themes and
patterns for learning identified from complaints were to be shared
with the Learning and Development Service.
- To strengthen
embedding learning across the service, the Complaints team and
Learning and Development team had strengthened pathways to review
complaints and compliments to ensure that key messages influence
practice.
In the discussion
to follow, questions and comments were invited from Board Members,
with the following issues being covered:
- Failure to
communicate was present in all complaints and the Board wanted to
understand how this had been translated to action to improve
outcomes.
- It was important
to highlight the compliments to share where there had been good
practice and it was requested that this information be provided to
the Board at a future meeting.
- When prioritizing
workload, the Board highlighted that consideration should be given
to what was most important to young people noting
that this was a key element in maintaining strong
relationships.
- That the outcomes
of the 4 complaints which were considered by the Local Government
Ombudsman for children and young people be shared with the Board.
In
relation to improving outcomes Nick Libell advised that when a
complaint was formally received the local resolution part of the
complaint was referred to the responding manager to contact the
young person or parent by phone or in person with the aim of
intervening as early as possible. It was also noted that
expectation management in terms of social worker workload was also
a key element of this learning.
In
relation to the prioritisation of workload Nick Libell advised that
there was a pathway to fast track and prioritise complaints from
young people. Where complaints come directly from a young person,
or their advocate, these were responded to on an accelerated
timescale with the ambition of attaining local resolution through
quick action and response.
RESOLVED:
The Board noted the Compliments and
Complaints Service Annual Summary 2022-23, and it was agreed
that:
- Details of the Compliments received, and examples of good
practice be provided to the Board at a future meeting.
- The
outcomes of the 4 complaints considered by the Local Government
Ombudsman for Children and Young People be shared with the Board.