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Issue - meetings

3Cs POLICY UPDATE

Meeting: 13/09/2022 - Cabinet (Item 112)

112 3Cs POLICY UPDATE pdf icon PDF 179 KB

REPORT OF THE CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER

 

This report proposes amendments to the Comments, Compliments and Complaints (3C’s) policy, based on experiences, learning and discussions since the last policy review in 2019.

Additional documents:

Decision:

RESOLVED:

 

(1)  That Cabinet adopted the Updated 3Cs Policy, Appendix A – Complaint Flow Chart and Appendix B – Unreasonable Complainant (& Contact) Policy.

 

(2)  That Cabinet agree to delegate any minor changes in relation to the 3Cs policy to the Service Director – Customers in consultation with the Executive Member for the Customer Service Centre.

 

REASONS FOR DECISIONS:

 

(1)  The recommendations are being made to ensure the 3C’s policy stays current and reflects learning since the last review date. The policy continues to remain in line with Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) best practice.

 

(2)  Some of the specific updates and amendments address matters that have arisen for the first time and therefore adding them now helps to ensure the policy is clear for all going forward.

 

(3)  The updates ensure the Council has a robust policy to refer to when required, and customers are clear on how the policy works.

 

(4)  The policies and associated report have been seen by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 06 September 2022.  

Minutes:

Audio recording – 24 minutes 13 seconds

 

The Customer Service Manager presented the report entitled ‘3Cs Policy Update’ and advised Members of the following:

 

·         The report detailed the updated 3Cs Policy, which was due for renewal in September 2022. Included in the appendices was the Complaints Flowchart and the Unreasonable Complainants policy.

·         The overall 3Cs policy had been strengthened through this update and the word was updated to be as customer friendly as possible.

·         Major changes to the policy had been detailed at point 8.1. Other updates were generally to the look and feel of the document.

·         The Unreasonable Complainants (& Contact) Policy had been audited by SIAS and benchmarked against policies from other authorities and was deemed to be suitable for its purpose. It was not expected that this policy would be used frequently.

·         The Overview and Scrutiny Committee had reviewed the policy and were happy to support the changes.

·         The days to respond would be standardised to 10 working days across the document, and this would be updated and communicated to staff.

 

The Chair commented that the document was more accessible and more customer friendly. It provides details of what is not a complaint and removing the more difficult policies away from the main Customer Service Strategy was positive.

 

Councillor Steve Jarvis noted that this was an impressive document, which was clear and easy to understand, and went above and beyond other local authorities. He noted that 10 working days seemed a short period to respond and suggested that this could be extended to 20 working days, as is the case at other authorities, and that escalation to Stage 2 could be extended to 28 days. This would ensure that the policy is not set up to fail by setting unachievable targets.

 

Councillor Elizabeth Dennis-Harburg, as Chair, proposed and Councillor Sean Prendergast seconded and, following a vote, it was:

 

RESOLVED:

 

(1)  That Cabinet adopted the Updated 3Cs Policy, Appendix A – Complaint Flow Chart and Appendix B – Unreasonable Complainant (& Contact) Policy.

 

(2)  That Cabinet agree to delegate any minor changes in relation to the 3Cs policy to the Service Director – Customers in consultation with the Executive Member for the Customer Service Centre.

 

REASONS FOR DECISIONS:

 

(1)  The recommendations are being made to ensure the 3C’s policy stays current and reflects learning since the last review date. The policy continues to remain in line with Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) best practice.

 

(2)  Some of the specific updates and amendments address matters that have arisen for the first time and therefore adding them now helps to ensure the policy is clear for all going forward.

 

(3)  The updates ensure the Council has a robust policy to refer to when required, and customers are clear on how the policy works.

 

(4)  The policies and associated report have been seen by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 06 September 2022.