Issue - meetings

The Board was presented with the Annual Reports for Comments, Complaints and Compliments relating to Children’s Social Care Services from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019.   The report provided analysis on complaints processed under the Children Act 1989 Representations Procedure, and evidenced how feedback from service users had been used to improve service delivery.

It was reported that the aim of the Children Act 1989 Representations Procedure was for children and young people to have their concerns resolved swiftly and wherever possible, by the people who provided the service locally.  It was noted that a complaint may generally be defined as an expression of dissatisfaction or disquiet in relation to an individual child or young person, which required a response.

Members were advised that there were four categories to the representation process: Statutory Complaints; Representations; Customer Care Issues; and Compliments.  Commentary on these were provided in the report which also presented detailed information and data relating to the numbers of complaints received between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019.

Members queried:

·       The meaning of partially upheld – when a complaint consisted of more than one part, for example if a complaint had 5 parts to it, 3 could be upheld and 2 could be not upheld;

·       How does a young person actually make a complaint – there were the usual routes via telephone and email and more recently via text.  Sometimes a relative or friend would do it for them.  When a complaint was made the complainant was visited by a caseworker and every effort would be made to resolve the matter without engaging the formal process; and

·       In 2016/17 the number of complaints was relatively low in comparison with 2018/19 – this could be due to having a  more stable workforce in place at that time.

On behalf of the Board the Chair welcomed the positive comments and compliments they had read in the annual report and passed on their thanks to all the staff involved in Children’s Social Services for their hard work and dedication to their roles.

RESOLVED:  That the reports be accepted as the mechanism by which Senior Management and Elected Members could monitor and scrutinise Children’s Social Care complaints and compliments.