12 July (Part 1) - How not to handle complaints
A short discussion right at the end of
Andy Dourmoush’s
Scrutiny Committee meeting initiated by Labour Leader Stefano Borella was about
complaint handling which is topical for me in view of
the Kelly Wilkinson
fiasco. Councillors had been issued with some Performance Indicators which
Bexley Council didn’t want the public to see. Shame on them.
According to Stefano there is a recurrent failure to meet the complaints targets
- mine took five weeks to arrive instead of the promised five days - and in too
many cases they finish up with the Ombudsman. An investigation of some sort is
required “in case there is a systemic problem going on”.
The Chairman was in favour of a Task and Finish Sub-Group
and Councillor Borella volunteered to run it.
Cabinet Member Leaf reminded the Committee that the Customer Experience Strategy
was coming back to the Committee in October so the timing was good. Later there
was some back-tracking and I gained the impression that the
Sub-Group idea had been abandoned.
Councillor Slaughter thought that insufficient attention was being paid to
complaints “performance being as bad as it isְ”. The Chairman invited Councillor
Slaughter to ask more specific questions. As she did so the microphones muted
but part of the answer revealed that “lessons are being learned” and more
complaints are reaching Stage 2. Not satisfying complainants at Stage 1 is “not
good”. (†) Statutory Children’s Services complaints are particularly complex and take “much longer to respond to”.
Slow payment of Invoices is another problem area - a Capita responsibility.
Councillor Borella said the failure to answer complaints properly had been
reflected in the Performance Indicators “for a long time” and wastes a lot of
officer time and residents become very annoyed. He felt it should become an
Agenda item in October. The Chairman agreed and the Cabinet Member got behind
the idea too.
† My Wilkinson complaint was escalated from
Stage 1 to Stage 2 yesterday. I am aware it is at the trivial end of the scale
but one cannot accept that Bexley Council managers can put it in writing that
their staff are at liberty to break the law. Ideally such ignorance should not
be permitted at any managerial level.