Issue - meetings

The report of the Executive Manager – Finance and Corporate Services is attached.

The Service Manager – Finance and Corporate Services presented the report of the Executive Manager – Finance and Corporate Services, which summarised the customer feedback received by the Council during 2018/19 and provided a comparison to previous performance as well as to other authorities. Key points included:

·         51 complaints were received by the Council during 2018/19 at Stage 1 of its complaints process

·         The percentage of complaints escalated to Stage 2 had decreased from

32.5% in 2017/18 to 17.6% (9 from 51)

·         Consistency in handling complaints has stayed at a high level, as has the number of complaints that are responded to within target time – 49 out of 51

·         Analysis of the 51 complaints received in 2018/19 showed that 62.7% were unjustified

·         The Council received 105 compliments about its services in 2018/19 – 36 more than the previous year

·         The number of complaints received by the Local Government Ombudsman in relation to Rushcliffe Borough Council were the lowest in Nottinghamshire.

The Group praised the officers for dealing with complaints efficiently. It was explained that complaints raised on social media were often short-term issues such as a missed bin and were dealt through a direct conversation with the resident. The Group suggested that the Council should reply to a resident directly on Twitter to let them know that their complaint would be dealt with over private message so that other followers of the Council on social media would be able to see that the Council responds to its complaints timely.

It was RESOLVED that the key points highlighted in this report were noted.