Agenda item

Report from Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing attached.

Adrian Crook, Director of Community Commissioning presented a report

Providing members of the Health Scrutiny Committee with details of information relating to compliments and complaints within the Adult Social Care Services.

It is a statutory requirement to produce an Annual Complaints Report relating to Adult Social Care Complaints, received by the Corporate Core Department, Bury Council.

The report relates to the period 1^st April 2023 – 31^st March 2024, and provides comparisons between previous years, as well as detailing the nature, scope and scale of some of the complaints received.

The number of complaints received should be considered in context with the number of people actually having direct contact with Adult Social Care Services (excluding their relatives, friends or carers who might make complaints on their behalf).  The number of people to have direct contact with Adult Social Care Services during 2023/2024 was 8,343.  It is positive that the proportion of people wanting to make a complaint about the services received from the department is low at only 63.

Out of the 63 complaints received, 4 complaints came back to the department to advise they remained dissatisfied, meaning 59 complaints were resolved after the initial response. 

The nature of the complaints were set out within the. There has been a slight increase in complaints relating to ‘conduct of social care staff” (from 6 to 9).  Whilst there has been a slight increase in this area, no particular service area, team or individuals have been highlighted as a concern.

The number of complaints received was also set out by service area. The report has highlighted a slight increase from previous years in complaints for CAD Hub, Choices for Living Well, Prestwich Integrated Neighbourhood Team and the Safeguarding Team. Although the report highlights an increase the numbers are still relatively low, which does not indicate any area of concern.

The timescales to respond to complaints were reported. 49% of the complaints received were responded to within the 20 working day timescales, 27% of complaints were responded to outside of the 20 working day timescales, 13% of those were over 40 working days and 3% of complaints were responded to over 40 working days. Of the complaints responded to outside of the 20 working day timescales all complainants were kept updated on the delay, the reason for the delay and provided with a new response date.

The number of complaints investigated by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) has not increased and remained as the previous years of 5 cases in 2023/2024. All five cases received by LGSCO were closed after initial enquiries.

In addition to complaints, the department also records the number of compliments received. The number of compliments received had increased from 601 to 826.

Included within the report were some examples of the positive feedback that had been received.

Members of the Committee were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments and the following points were raised:-

·         Councillor Tariq referred to the report and thanked the Adult Care Services for their commitment and hard work.

·         Councillor Rubinstein asked whether departments and teams asked for feedback.

Adrian explained that this was not current practice across the teams but would be something that they were planning to promote.

It was agreed:

1.    That Adrian be thanked for his presentation.

2.    That the Adult Care Services staff be recognised for their hard work and commitment.