Agenda item

That the self-assessment against the LGSCO Code is agreed (Appendix A) and updated annually

The Executive Member for Corporate Services presented the report. He said that the report provided an update on complaint handling for 2023-24 and that the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) had launched a new complaint handling code.

The Executive Member for Corporate Services highlighted that the council had received 159 complaints at stage 1 in 2023-24 and only 26 had been escalated to stage 2. He said that the common themes from the complaints were issues with communication and a lack of supporting evidence such as telephone interactions.

The Executive Member for Corporate Services said that the new complaint handling code had been launched by the LGO in February 2024 and was designed to bring a consistent approach across all councils towards complaints. He said this code introduced new timescales for handling complaints which would need to be adjusted in the council’s own policy. East Herts were already compliant with the Code but adjustments needed to be made on the Unreasonable and Persistent Behaviour Policy which was attached to the report.

Councillor Dumont proposed that the recommendations in the report be supported. Councillor Goldspink seconded the proposal.

Councillor Wilson asked if there were plans to communicate to residents about the role of the LGO.

Councillor Dumont said the council’s complaint policy was on the website and it explained the three stages of the complaints process. He said the Stage 2 response template made the complainant aware that if they were still not satisfied, they could refer their complaint to the LGO.

Councillor Brittain said that the number of complaints that had been upheld were low. He asked if the council had benchmarked themselves against other councils.

Councillor Dumont said that had not been done but all councils were now required to publish their complaint data.

The Customer Services Manager said he would be able to provide benchmarking data in the Annual Review.

Councillor Glover-Ward referred to the Unreasonable and Persistent Behaviour Policy and said it specifically referred to front line staff. She said that she attended public meetings with planning officers which could involve lots of members of the public. She asked if this policy could be extended to cover that work and councillors.

Councillor Dumont said it was a valid point and said the new community forums were not necessarily a customer service responsibility but would take the point away and see how it could be incorporated.

Councillor Daar noticed that a lot of complaints referred to the LGO were around planning and therefore can’t be upheld. She said it would be interesting to see if the number of planning complaints decreased with the new mechanisms for the public to have their say. She asked what else could be done to make clear to the public what constituted a legitimate complaint.

Councillor Dumont said that he would look at the webpage and see how the council were communicating with residents.

Councillor Glover-Ward said the planning team were extending the information on the website around planning and how the public could interact in the forums and try to explain the complexities of the planning system.

Councillor Goldspink referred to paragraph 1.5 and felt the figures were misleading.

The Customer Services Manager responded and said that the Local Government Ombudsman dictated how they measured the data.

Councillor Jacobs referred to the Persistent and Unreasonable Behaviour Policy and it mentioned the Cautionary Persons Database. He asked if this was available to councillors.

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services said he would need to understand the level of sensitively around the information included on the database before he could provide clarification on whether councillors could access this information.

The motion to support the recommendations having been proposed and seconded was put to the meeting and upon a vote being taken, was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that (A) a) the self-assessment against the LGSCO Code is agreed (Appendix A) and updated annually; and

(B) the updated Persistent and Unreasonable Behaviour Policy is recommended for adoption by The Council.