Decision Maker: Group Director of Operations
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Is Key decision?: No
Is subject to call in?: No
Following a joint consultation in late 2023
with the Housing Ombudsman, the Local Government and Social Care
Ombudsman (LGSCO) issued its Complaint Handling Code (‘the
Code’) which is to be implemented by Local Authorities.
The LGSCO has issued the Code as “advice and guidance”
for all local councils in England under section 23(12A) of the
Local Government Act 1974. This means that councils should consider
the Code when developing complaint handling policies and procedures
and when responding to complaints. The Code only applies to
complaints where there is no statutory process in place.
Updates to the Corporate Complaints, Compliments and Comments
Procedure:
The following amendments to the introduction:
1.3 This procedure sets out how we will deal with your complaints,
compliments and comments, in accordance with the Local Government
and Social Care Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code (the
Code)…
1.4 … Stage 2 complaints will usually be investigated by the
Complaints Investigator or Complaints and Information Governance
Manager...
1.6 The Council has appointed the Complaints and Information
Governance Manager in line with the Code to oversee its complaint
handling performance. The Complaints and Information Governance
Manager will assess any themes or trends to identify potential
systemic issues, serious risks, or policies and procedures that
require revision.
1.7 In addition to this, the Council has appointed the Assistant
Director, Law and Governance as a member of the governing body (or
equivalent), to have lead responsibility for complaints in its
governance arrangements, to support a positive complaint handling
culture. This person is referred to as the Member Responsible for
Complaints (‘the MRC’).
The following amendments to the definition:
3.1 Darlington Borough Council defines a complaint as:
‘An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the
standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation,
its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an
individual or group of individuals’.
The following amendments to ‘Complaints about contracted
services’:
(a) If you receive a service from a contractor on behalf of the
Council you can use the Council’s complaints procedure. We
would encourage you to contact the Council’s Complaints and
Information Governance Team in the first instance. We might deal
with your complaint under the adult social care, children’s
social care, public health or housing complaints procedure
depending on the service you are complaining about.
The following amendments to ‘7.3 Housing complaints,
compliments and comments’
a) Following the introduction of the Housing Ombudsman’s
Complaint Handling Code on 1 April 2024, we have to ensure
complaints about the Council in our role as a social landlord (as
well as in respect of our ownership and management of leasehold
housing) are dealt with in the manner set out in the Act that
Code.
The following amendments to Stage 1 (Local Resolution):
11.1 (b) At stage 1 we will acknowledgement and log your complaint
within five working days of the complaint being received. We will
appoint a Responding Officer to look into your complaint. This will
usually be the manager of the service you are complaining about or
the Housing Complaints Response Officer.
c) We will appoint a Responding Officer to look into your
complaint. This will usually be the a manager of the service you
are complaining about or the Housing Complaints Response
Officer.
The Responding Officer will contact you with a thorough response
within 10 working days of your complaint being acknowledged and
logged. If this is not possible, they will contact you with an
explanation and a date by when the stage one response should be
received. This should not exceed a further 10 working days without
good reason.
(f)When we inform you about an extension to these timescales, we
will provide you with the contact details of the Local Government
and Social Care Ombudsman.
(g) If you are unhappy with the outcome at stage 1 you should
contact the Complaints and Information Governance Team to request
moving your complaint to stage 2.
k) If your complaint is about the senior manager of the service
concerned we may ask a manager from another service to look into
your complaint. If your complaint is about the Housing Complaints
Response Officer, we may ask their line manager to look into your
complaint. Where appropriate we will investigate your complaint at
stage 2 of the corporate complaints procedure. This will depend on
the nature of your complaint
The following amendments to Stage 2 (Formal Investigation):
11.2 (b) At stage 2 we will acknowledge and log your complaint
within five working days of your escalation request being
received.
(e) The Investigating Officer will contact you with a thorough
response within 20 working days your complaint being acknowledged.
If it is not possible to respond within 20 working days, we will
provide an explanation and a date when the stage two response will
be received. This should not exceed a further 20 working days
without good reason.
(g) If it is not going to be possible to investigate your complaint
within 40 working days, the Investigating Officer will contact you
and explain the reason why. When we inform you about an extension
to these timescales, we will provide you with the contact details
of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman where
appropriate.
(i) Where your complaint is about the corporate complaints
procedure or where there is a potential conflict of interest we
will appoint a senior manager from another service or the MRC to
investigate your complaint..
The following amendments:
We may need to agree to extend the timescales where there is a good
reason to do so.
The following amendments to ‘Putting things
right’:
13.3 Remedies may also include:
- Apologising;
- Acknowledging where things have gone wrong;
- Providing an explanation, assistance or reasons;
- Taking action if there has been delay;
- Reconsidering or changing a decision;
- Amending a record or adding a correction or addendum;
- Providing a financial remedy;
- Changing policies, procedures or practices.
We will take account of the guidance issued by the Local Government
and Social Care Ombudsman when deciding on appropriate
remedies.
The following changes to ‘Recording and
reporting’:
We will produce an annual complaints performance and service
improvement report for scrutiny and challenge, which will
include:
a) an annual self-assessment against the Code to ensure this
procedure remains in line with its requirements.
b) a qualitative and quantitative analysis of our complaint
handling performance. This will also include a summary of the types
of complaints we have refused to accept.
c) any findings of non-compliance with the Code by the
Ombudsman.
d) the service improvements made as a result of the learning from
complaints.
e) any annual report about our performance from the
Ombudsman.
f) any other relevant reports or publications produced by the
Ombudsman in relation to our work.
14.2 The annual complaints performance and service improvement
report will be reported through our governance arrangements,
ordinarily to the relevant Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet and
published on the section of our website relating to complaints.
Cabinet’s response to the report will be published alongside
this.
To make the above amendments to the
Council’s Corporate Complaints, Compliments and Comments
Procedure.
To comply with the new Local Government and Social Care
Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code 2024 (the Code).
We considered delaying implementing the Code,
as the LGSCO does not expect Council’s to comply with it
until 1 April 2026, however, we come to the conclusion it would be
more efficient to implement it at the same time as implementing the
Housing Ombudsman’s Code which becomes statutory from 1 April
2024; and more desirable in terms of having a consistent set of
standards relating to both corporate and housing
complaints.
Publication date: 22/03/2024
Date of decision: 20/03/2024