Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Director of Governance and Pensions.

The Assistant Director (Policy, Performance and Communications) submitted a report that provided a summary of the annual Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report on complaints received about local authorities and other social care organisations.

It was reported that the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman was the final stage for complaints and information was published on complaints, enquiries and decisions that had been made on individual local authorities in July for the preceding financial year.  It was important to note that high volumes of complaints did not necessarily indicate the quality of a council’s performance but instead could be a sign of an open, learning organisation.

The number of complaints about Tameside Council was in line with Greater Manchester and slightly lower than the national average.  Complaints about Tameside Council had remained consistent over the past two years (78 in 2016-17 and 79 in 2017-18) with an increase of over a third from 57 complaints received in 2015-16.  There was no clear driver for the increase however, complaints relating to Environmental Services increased significantly in 2017 before falling in 2018 and there had been a gradual increase in complaints relating to Planning and Development over a three year period.  The percentage of Tameside Council complaints that had been upheld was lower than the Greater Manchester and national average.

The report outlined the four key national complaint themes, which were as follows, and a summary was provided on Tameside’s position against the themes:-

1.    Mental Capacity and Deprivation of Liberty

2.    Bin Complaints

3.    Education, Health and Care Plans

4.    Bed and Breakfast Accommodation

Members commented that scrutiny could assist with the four national themes and requested that an analysis of internal complaints be provided to give scrutiny panels an opportunity to examine areas of local concern. 

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.