Decision Maker: Cabinet

Outcome: For Determination

Is Key Decision?: No

Is Callable In?: Yes

Date of Decision: September 25, 2025

Purpose: Report highlighting Council complaints performance in 2024/5 including Annual reporting from Local Government and Social Care and Housing Ombudsman.

Content: (i)  To receive and review complaints outcomes and service based learning arising from the annual complaints reports 2024/5 (ii)  To approve the updated Complaints Policy (Corporate & Adult Social Care) (Appendix 1) to reflect changes required by the Housing Regulator and Ombudsman to comply with their new Codes of Practice

Reasons for the decision: It is a requirement of the Ombudsman’s respective Complaints Handling Codes (and good practice) for elected members to receive an annual report on the Council’s complaints service, performance monitoring against previous years and national comparators and to keep our complaints policy updated to comply with any Regulator / Ombudsman Codes of Practice. The report also provides a valuable insight as to where service failures have occurred and not been recovered as part of business as usual service delivery and where the Council can use learning from complaints to improve future service performance and outcomes for our residents and other service users.

Alternative options considered: N/A – It is a requirement of the Complaints Handling Codes to provide Members with an annual performance report in relation to complaints . In addition, the Council would not be compliant with the Codes if it failed to update its Complaints policy in line with the recommendations made by the Housing Ombudsman.