Agenda item

Why are we centralising complaints?  The centralisation decision was made in 2022, initially as a national Ombudsman recommendation to improve consistency, quality and efficiency in all local authorities’ complaints services, with a deadline of April 2026.

What will centralisation achieve?  Within BCP the centralised service will ensure complaints are dealt with consistently across all departments, reduce costs and enhance accountability and transparency.  The centralised complaints service aims to streamline processes, utilising a user-friendly system, along with artificial intelligence technology and staff training to enhance efficiency, facilitate learning and improve customer experience.

The Chair and the Board agreed to bring this agenda item forward to enable the Portfolio Holder to attend.

The Portfolio Holder for Customer and Communications presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Portfolio Holder highlighted the importance of handling complaints correctly and learning from them in order to improve customer experience. It also had an impact on the reputation of BCP Council. He gave an example of recurring problems which had been experienced by residents in his own ward. The report provided an update on the work to centralise the management and oversight of complaints within the Council, due to be completed by April 2026. The centralised service aimed to ensure that complaints were dealt with consistently across all departments, with reduced costs and better accountability.  It also responded to the national Ombudsman recommendation to improve all local authorities’ complaints services. The Portfolio Holder referred to the key benefits of the proposal and the progress made to date, as set out in the report. In addition, it was noted that the Ombudsman required the Council to nominate a Lead Member for Complaints, a role which the Portfolio Holder had agreed to fulfil.

A number of points were raised and responded to including:

• Would staff be required to enter complaints received into the centralised system? Yes, as the aim of the single case management system was to ensure a consistent approach. There would also be a complaints lead in each service area. It was clarified that the oversight, guidance and monitoring of complaints would be dealt with centrally. Existing staff in each service area would respond to service specific complaints.
• Was the April 2026 launch date achievable? It was noted that work had been ongoing since 2022. The Board was informed that development of the requirements for the database had been completed. Dates for the build, completion and testing of the system had been scheduled. The timetable reflected the significant competing pressures in ICT services associated with the number and complexity of improvement programmes cross the Council.
• It was noted that there would be a threefold process for dealing with complaints, service requests and compliments which should make the system more effective. Services were being supported in differentiating between a complaints and a service request, to ensure that only complaints went through the formal complaints process, whilst simple requests for service could be dealt with and concluded promptly.
• Between now and the launch date staff continued to be engaged in the process and work was ongoing to develop and implement staff training.

• It was noted that a procedure for dealing with unreasonable and persistent complainants (UPCs) would be added to the Complaints Policy, including the creation of a new UPC panel.

The Portfolio Holder thanked the Director of Customer and Property and Head of Business Support and their teams for their work to date in developing the centralised complaints system.

The Board noted the progress made and the future steps required to deliver a more centralised complaints process.