COMPLAINTS INFORMATION

COMPLAINTS INFORMATION

Background information

The complaints figures referred to in this response cover formal complaints only. Informal complaints, i.e. those cases where a problem can be resolved without recourse to a formal investigation, are not recorded here. Performance statistics on formal complaints are reported quarterly to the council's Performance Portfolio Holder.
Complaints handling and investigation are dealt with by the council departments responsible for the service being complained about. They also hold the individual complaint files. Should a complaint need to be reviewed by elected member(s), this is also arranged by the department concerned.
Complaints about the conduct of officers which might lead to their dismissal are not dealt with through the corporate complaints procedure. If it became apparent that a complaint investigation was moving into areas which are covered by disciplinary proceedings, then the investigation would be closed and the disciplinary procedure initiated. Similarly if a complaint revealed concerns about fraudulent or illegal behaviour by council officers, the complaint investigation would cease and the matter would be dealt with by the police and through legal channels. The majority of complaints dealt with through the complaints procedure are about the failure to provide a service or the poor quality of a service.
Not all the information that you have requested is readily available. Using the statutory rate of £25 per hour as set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection(Appropriate Limit & Fees) Regulation 2004, it is estimated that it would cost in excess of £600 to collect all the information you require, which exceeds the appropriate limit of £450. Your request would involve the checking of 223 formal and 69 Ombudsman complaint files. Allowing 5 minutes per file, the cost of answering this part of your request alone would be £608. The figure of 5 minutes is taken as an average to include those files which are quickly checked as well as those which will require further queries with investigating officers, the Finance Division etc. We are therefore refusing several parts of your request under Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I am unable to offer you any advice or assistance as to how you might narrow down your request so that it does not exceed the £450 limit due to the need to go through all relevant files to check for the information you have requested.

Information about complaints

a. I would also like to know how many Complaints in total were submitted to your Council in 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 for each year. I would further like to know how many of these complaints were formally considered by an elected representative for each of these years.

Table 1 Number of formal complaints

	2006/07	2007/08	2007/09	Totals
No of complaints	49	122	52	223
No. of complaints upheld in part or in full	14	11	18	43

We do not have readily available the number of complaints formally reviewed by elected members.

As explained at point 2 above, each department is responsible for dealing with its own complaints and organising any member reviews. The collection of this information would require the checking of all complaints files for each of three years by officers in 5 council departments. See point 4 above.

b. I would further like to know how many complaints against the Executive (Council staff) led to the elected representatives formally identifying that the Executive had acted wrongly for the years 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008, and how many of these formal determinations by the elected representatives identify that there was no wrong-doing by the Executive. How many staff employed by your authority in 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 ceased to be employed by your authority as a direct result of a complaint against the Executive, and the Councillors identifying this to be the case.

As at point a. above, the decisions made by elected members at complaint reviews is not currently available. See point 4 above.

Also, see point 3 above. The corporate complaints procedure is not used for the investigation of “wrong doing” by, or dismissal of, council officers. These matters are dealt with through other channels.

c. I would further like to know how much money the Council has paid to a complainant (i.e. victim of a Council's wrongdoing) through its own complaints system (i.e. excluding any intervention by the Local Government Ombudsman, Valuation Tribunal or similar body) in 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008.

The collection of this information would require the checking of all complaints files over a period of three years. This information is not currently available. See point 4 above.

d. I would like to know how much money either in the form of local settlement or additional formal finding of maladministration causing injustice the Local Government Ombudsman has recommended that your Council pay in 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 (for each year).

The collection of this information would require the checking of all Ombudsman's files over a period of three years. This information is not currently available. See point 4 above.

e. ............. and if the Local Government Ombudsman's recommendations have been met in full (including any non-financial recommendations for each year)). Please detail any recommendation that has not been met in full and provide a copy of the Elected representatives decision. Please additionally identify if these costs were met directly by Council Tax Payers or the Council's insurers (excluding self insurance by a Council)

All financial and non-financial recommendations made by the Local Government Ombudsman have been met in full.

Information on from where the costs have been met is not currently available. See point 4 above.

f. Finally, please provide details of the financial cost of administering all your complaints systems (including FoI and DP) by the Executive for 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 and the number of staff employed in administering complaints and resolving these (Full time equivalent staffing levels

The financial costs of administering the complaints procedure are not readily available. The council does not have a central complaints section and there are no officers within the authority whose role is solely devoted to complaints handling. The complaints procedure is co-ordinated centrally by the Corporate Strategy Division and a senior officer in each department is responsible for organising complaints handling for their department. A range of other officers will be delegated to carry out complaints investigations. As the number of complaints received varies from department to department and from year to year, it is not possible to generalise about these costs or the number of staff/full time equivalents involved.

NB We do not consider compliance with the Freedom of Information Act or the Data Protection Act to be part of our complaints system and we do not separately record the cost of handling requests in relation to these pieces of legislation, so this information is not held by the council.

We consider our complaints system is fit for purpose and therefore have no further information to provide to you on this matter.