Agenda and minutes

There were no items on the agenda.

There were no declarations made.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 1^st June 2023, be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

[A period not exceeding 20 minutes for statements from up

to 5 members of the public on matters within the

Committee’s remit, proposing action(s) which may be

considered or contribute towards the future development of

the Committee’s work programme].

There were no members of the public in attendance at the meeting therefore no public statements were made.

The Committee was presented with a report setting out the complaints and compliment information relating to 2022/23 for Doncaster Council (CDC), St Leger Homes of Doncaster(SLHD) and Doncaster Culture and Leisure Trust (DCLT).  The following areas were addressed by the Committee:

Complaints in the most important service areas – a Member stated that the report seemed to paint an overall positive picture but compared to data from 2020/21 the overall number of complaints was much higher and in some of the most important service areas was not ideal and questioned if further scrutiny or investigation was required.

It was explained that during the year DCLT had received 244 complaints, a 64% decrease on the previous year. The reason for his was due to a significant change in the method of reporting complaints, bringing it’s process in line with the Council’s corporate complaints procedure. Previously DCLT had reported all negative feedback as a complaint regardless of whether there was any allegation of fault. DCLT now record dissatisfaction as customer insight if there has been no allegation of failed service.

The Committee noted that the number of complaints received in 22/23 was much higher than in 20/21, this was due to the impact of COVID in 20/21 which saw the number of complaints and communication to the Council drastically reduce overall.  A more applicable comparison would be to pre-Covid 18/19 where the number of complaints for the council were 796 and Post Covid 21/22 there were 815, identified that the 22/23 figures of 736 was a more comparative amount.

Members were informed that complaints and compliments were invaluable feedback from customers, with lessons learnt being used to improve the services provided.

It was highlighted that the Place Directorate received the highest number of complaints, (450 a reduction of 100 complaints compared to previous year).  It was noted that this was to be expected due to the nature of services provided, for example, Waste & Recycling, Highways, Street Lighting and Street Scene services.  However in contract, it was recognised that this Directorate also received the highest number of Compliments.  During discussion it was highlight that the Waste & Recycling service received 128 complaints in 22/23, a reduction of 21.5% on the previous year, but it made approximately 10 million waste collections a year.  The figures also included the Household Waste and Recycling Centres.

In response to a statement relating to the Annual Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Letter where it evidenced one particular response to a complainant was ‘very poor’.  This related to a complaint where a request for a statutory complaint to go to Stage 2 was denied by the previous Doncaster Children’s Service ‘s Trust.  It was noted that City of Doncaster Council has process in place where any requests for a Stage two are reviewed by a Customer Experience panel, which includes the Head of Service.

High level of housing complaints – a Member questioned if this statistic was reflective of the national picture and had external factors been and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Senior Governance Officer presented the Overview and Scrutiny Work Plan and Council’s Forward Plan of key decisions for the committees attention.

RESOLVED:  That the report, be noted.

Signed:         Chair __________________________

Dated:                    ___________________________