Agenda item

That the report as an overview of the administration and outcomes of the Social Services representations and complaints procedure be accepted.      

The Complaints Officer introduced the report to provide Members with information on the compliments, representations and complaints received by Adult and Children Social Services for the year April 2012 to March 2013. 

He provided a detailed breakdown and explained that 51 complaints for Adult Social Services were received in the year which was a significant decrease compared to 89 received during 2011-12 and 76 during 2010-11.  Information was provided on the number of complaints which progressed to Stage 2 of the procedure and the Complaints Officer added that one complaint was considered at a Stage 3 Panel Hearing.  Social Services for Adults received 140 compliments in the year 2012-13 and details of the work areas which received the compliments were reported.   Tables in the report provided a breakdown of the services which had been complained about or complimented on and further details were reported of the complaints and the methods used to resolve them.  For Children’s Social Services, 57 complaints were received which was a slight increase on the previous years.  A breakdown of the services which had been complained about or complimented on were reported and further information was shown on how the complaints had been resolved.  The service also recorded that 57 compliments had been received from families and the Courts with an additional 10 compliments relating to the work of the Youth Justice Service. 

Councillor H.J. McGuill welcomed the reduction in the number of complaints for Adult Social Services and praised the work of Susie Lunt, Service Manager Intake and Reablement and the team for listening and acting on the complaints received to improve the service.  She raised concern at complaints which were received following patients being discharged from hospital and in response, the Partnership Manager Health Social Care and Wellbeing Strategy said that structures were in place and due to lessons learned from previous complaints, they were now more robust.  She added that it was important that the health service monitored the element of the report that affected them.  The Director of Community Services said that if the complaints were only about health issues then they would not be accepted under the authority’s procedures.  Councillor McGuill said that she would like to see if an element of complaints were about hospital discharges. 

Councillor P. Shotton queried whether the half day workshop run by the Complaints Officer was having a positive effect.  He also asked who the independent Investigating Officers for Stage 2 complaints were.  In response the Complaints Officer advised that they had a social care background and would be selected from a shared pool of resources across North Wales. 

Councillor M. Bateman felt that it would be useful to have a breakdown of the number of service users to compare to the number of complaints or compliments received.  The Complaints Officer confirmed that he could provide this information in future reports.  The Chair felt that the small number of complaints was a credit to the staff. 

RESOLVED:

That the report as an overview of the administration and outcomes of the Social Services representations and complaints procedure be accepted.