council functions

The request was partially successful.

Stuart Hardwicke CARRUTHERS

Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like to know the average proportion of time the elected representatives of your authority spend as part of their duties for 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 on their main activities. The activities that form their duties (employment) as an elected representative are:

1 directly resolving complaints against the executive (Council Staff) of the Council by residents;
2 sitting on committee's;
3 acting for the political parties that they represent and/or ceremonial duties (i.e. all time not spent on sitting on a Committee or resolving a complaint against the executive);

The total time spent by an elected representative for a Council on these three activities should be 100 per cent of the time they spend 'working for a Council' as an elected representative.

I would additionally like to know how much in total was paid to local councillors to meet all their duties (including expenses) for 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 by your authority, and how many elected representatives are (and were) represented on your authority for these years.

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.

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.

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.

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) 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)

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). Please also provide details of your total administrative costs for 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 and the total number of staff employed by your authority, as well as any pay increase (including increments) made to the Council's Chief Executive (Head of Paid Service) in pounds sterling for each of these years. Please additionally identify if the Chief Executives wages included performance related payments.

If you do not have this reasonably basic management information related to complaints and/or identify that the costs of accessing the information requested will be more than £450 please state this and identify that your Authority does not have either a functioning or accountable complaints system, and does not maintain any basic management information related to this issue.

If you have a complaints system not fit for purpose please identify which political party currently controls your Council, and if this political party has appointed the current Electoral Registration and Returning Officer through its control of the Council (with date of their formal appointment). Please name the current Electoral Registration and Returning Officer, and identify if they are also Head of Paid Service, and Clerk to your Authority. Please additionally provide any documentation maintained by your Local Authorities Head of Paid Service identifying that they personally do not believe it to be appropriate for your Council to have a complaints system that is fit for purpose. This documentation should be in existence due to the provisions of s4 of the Local Government Act 1989.

Yours faithfully

Stuart HARDWICKE CARRUTHERS

Dorset County Council

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Dorset County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Carruthers
I am writing further to your email below. I will take each of your
questions in turn:

we do not record the time spent by councillors on their various council
activities (and there is no requirement to do so).
the total expenses paid to county councillors for each of the three
years mentioned was:

2005-06 £620,948
2006-07 £689,098
2007-08 £713,345

the number of complaints submitted each year is contained in the
attached Word document. Members are not involved in the complaints
process other than when they consider the annual committee report or if
their constituent involves them from their perspective.
links to the relevant reports to committee are as follows (the
information you require is contained in these reports):

complaints annual report 2006/07
http://www1.dorsetforyou.com/council/COM...
complaints annual report 2005/06
http://www1.dorsetforyou.com/council/COM...
the complaints report for 2007/08 is currently in draft and will go
to committee in October

N.B. no staff ceased employment, during the period in question, at
Dorset County Council as a direct result of a complaint

2005/06 - £11,000, 2006/07 - £nil, 2007/08 - £2,500
A link to the LGO's report on Dorset County Council for the year ended
31/3/08 is as follows (the report includes statistics for 2005/06 and
2006/07):

http://www.lgo.org.uk/letters/2007-08/pd...

There is no central figure available as to costs for complaints handling
at the moment, but our new RESPOND system has the capacity to record
costs. If there is a policy decision taken to do this it will happen
from 1 April 2009. We have only been using RESPOND for a few months
although it now holds data about all complaints received since 1 April
2008. To date we have not been recording costs. RESPOND is also being
used to handle complaints being dealt with by the LGO, and complaints
about elected members (previously directed to the Standards Board for
England) and we have also set it up to deal with FOI/DPA complaints to
the Information Commissioner. We are also looking at using CDR RESPOND
Customer which will provide a web based system enabling people to log
and track their own complaints and compliments online.
In our Adult & Community Services Directorate there is a Quality
Assurance and Complaints Manager, Dorset Grade 10 (current salary
£26,835) and a Quality Assurance Administrator,
Dorset Grade 7 (current salary £17,781). These posts do include other
duties and our estimate of the overall cost for the last 3 years for
complaints work is in the region of £75,000.
In our Childrens Services Directorate there are 2 Complaints Officer
posts, one is Dorset Grade 11 and the other is Dorset Grade 6. For the
3 years in question, the estimate of costs for complaints work in this
Directorate is in the same region, i.e. £75,000.
We do have liaison officers in our other 2 Directorates but their time
spent on complaints is minimal and, as stated previously, not currently
recorded on the RESPOND system.

N.B. the total number of people employed in the authority is (FTE) 9,348
(including teaching staff). Details of the Chief Executive's
remuneration can be found on the Taxpayers Alliance website under the
heading 'Town Hall Rich List' for March 2007 and March 2008 (the March
2007 list includes the figure for the previous financial year) -
http://tpa.typepad.com/home/research-by-... Dorset County
Council does not operate a policy of performance related payments.

The LGO has been complimentary in its reports about our management of
complaints so we obviously consider that we have a complaints system
that is fit for purpose, although improvements will inevitably be made
as we progressively use more of the RESPOND system's capabilities.

I hope this information is useful to you. If you are not completely
satisfied with my response, please write to the Complaints Officer at:
Dorset County Council, County Hall, Colliton Park, Dorchester, Dorset DT1
1XJ or follow the complaint procedure that can be found on our website at
http://212.104.140.176/index.jsp?article... If your appeal is not
resolved to your satisfaction, you have the right to apply to the
Information Commissioner for a decision.

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Team
Dorset County Council

(See attached file: complaints statistics.doc)


Stuart Hardwicke
CARRUTHERS
<request-2016-296 To
f139f@whatdotheyk FOI requests at Dorset County
now.com> Council <[Dorset County Council request email]>
cc
23/08/2008 16:31
Subject
Freedom of Information request -
council functions





Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like to know the average proportion of time the elected
representatives of your authority spend as part of their duties for
2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 on their main activities. The
activities that form their duties (employment) as an elected
representative are:

1 directly resolving complaints against the executive (Council
Staff) of the Council by residents; 2 sitting on committee's; 3
acting for the political parties that they represent and/or
ceremonial duties (i.e. all time not spent on sitting on a
Committee or resolving a complaint against the executive);

The total time spent by an elected representative for a Council on
these three activities should be 100 per cent of the time they
spend 'working for a Council' as an elected representative.

I would additionally like to know how much in total was paid to
local councillors to meet all their duties (including expenses) for
2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 by your authority, and how many
elected representatives are (and were) represented on your
authority for these years.

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.

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.

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.

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) 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)

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). Please also provide details
of your total administrative costs for 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and
2007/2008 and the total number of staff employed by your authority,
as well as any pay increase (including increments) made to the
Council's Chief Executive (Head of Paid Service) in pounds sterling
for each of these years. Please additionally identify if the Chief
Executives wages included performance related payments.

If you do not have this reasonably basic management information
related to complaints and/or identify that the costs of accessing
the information requested will be more than £450 please state this
and identify that your Authority does not have either a functioning
or accountable complaints system, and does not maintain any basic
management information related to this issue.

If you have a complaints system not fit for purpose please identify
which political party currently controls your Council, and if this
political party has appointed the current Electoral Registration
and Returning Officer through its control of the Council (with date
of their formal appointment). Please name the current Electoral
Registration and Returning Officer, and identify if they are also
Head of Paid Service, and Clerk to your Authority. Please
additionally provide any documentation maintained by your Local
Authorities Head of Paid Service identifying that they personally
do not believe it to be appropriate for your Council to have a
complaints system that is fit for purpose. This documentation
should be in existence due to the provisions of s4 of the Local
Government Act 1989.

Yours faithfully

Stuart HARDWICKE CARRUTHERS

show quoted sections

Dorset County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Carruthers
I am writing further to my email below. I have since received details from
our Legal Services team who have been through previous copies of LGO
reports.

They have been through our LGO complaints records which go back as far as
the financial year beginning April 2002. Since then there have been a
total of 12 local settlements and 2 formal findings of maladministration
resulting in injustice to the complainants.

We can also provide some breakdown of the 12 local settlements. In 2 of
these cases the local settlement involved an apology and agreement to
review a social work assessment and the issue of a parking fixed penalty
notice. In one other case a payment was made of £1,535, in another a cost
of £12,000 had to be incurred on road making works and in a third case the
local settlement was the issue of an apology on its own. The most
significant local settlement involved the County Council agreeing to waive
fees and to carry out design work in connection with an agreement under
Section 278 Highways Act 1980 at a cost of £46,000. The remaining 6 cases
all involved school admission appeals decisions and apologies were given
together with a rehearing of each appeal.
In the 2 cases involving maladministration and injustice the Council was
asked by the Ombudsman to give apologies, review procedures and to make
payments of £750 and £100. In both cases the County Council accepted the
Ombudsman's recommendation and made the payments. The local settlements
referred to above were an agreed approach between the Ombudsman and the
Council.

I hope this information is useful to you. If you are not completely
satisfied with my response, please write to the Complaints Officer at:
Dorset County Council, County Hall, Colliton Park, Dorchester, Dorset DT1
1XJ or follow the complaint procedure that can be found on our website at
http://212.104.140.176/index.jsp?article... If your appeal is not
resolved to your satisfaction, you have the right to apply to the
Information Commissioner for a decision.

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Team
Dorset County Council

show quoted sections