The Overview and Scrutiny Committee met on Tuesday 22 September 2026 to discuss the Draft Annual Complaints Report for 2025/26. The committee resolved to note the report and identified several lines of inquiry to support learning and service improvement across the council.

Draft Annual Complaints Report 2025/26

The committee reviewed the Draft Annual Complaints Report for 2025/26, which detailed the council's performance in handling complaints and casework. Monica Butler, Casework and Complaints Improvement Manager, and Mark Ferris, Head of Corporate Customer Relations, introduced the report.

The report highlighted that the council received 15,859 complaints and enquiries in 2025/26, an increase from the previous year. A significant finding was that many submissions were misclassified as complaints when they were, in fact, service requests. This inflated the overall complaint volume and indicated issues with initial triage and communication channels. The report noted that the council's target of responding to 90% of complaints and enquiries within timescales was not met, with Stage One complaints at 87.5% and Stage Two at 56%.

Several lines of inquiry were identified to support learning and service improvement:

• Improving Communication: A key theme was the need to enhance communication with residents, providing clearer and more accessible information about services and complaints processes. Councillor Hilary Moore shared an example of a refuse collection change that caused confusion due to a lack of varied communication channels.
• Consistency in Complaints Handling: The committee stressed the importance of improving consistency in how complaints are handled across different council services.
• Joined-Up Services: Ensuring that complaints, customer service, and transformation work are integrated across services, rather than operating in silos, was deemed crucial.
• Officer and Member Training: Strengthening training for officers and members was recommended, focusing on supporting staff to resolve issues promptly and effectively.
• Capturing Compliments: The committee suggested considering how compliments and positive feedback can be captured alongside complaints to provide a more balanced view of service performance. Councillor Moore noted that residents found it difficult to submit compliments.
• Navigating Council Structures: Providing clearer information about relevant officers and council structures was proposed to help residents navigate services more easily.
• Utilising Technology: The committee recommended making appropriate use of technology, including artificial intelligence, to improve complaints handling and customer service. Nohaila Alavi, from the Transformation team, discussed the potential and challenges of AI in complaint handling.
• Addressing Structural Issues: Councillor Eleonora Aiello raised concerns about the report's lack of reflection on how council services are improving structural issues identified through complaints.
• No Wrong Front Door Strategy: Councillor Aiello also questioned the no wrong front door strategy in relation to complaints received via email that might not be formally recorded. David Austin, Director of Strategy, Transformation, Equalities and Performance, explained the ongoing work to revamp the website and call centre to improve initial responses.
• Documentation and Ombudsman Findings: Councillor Aiello highlighted concerns raised by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) regarding large volumes of unstructured documentation, missing key documents, and evidence of poor local complaint handling. The report indicated that this was a matter for services to respond to, with a view to centralising this function.
• Resource Allocation: The discussion revealed that many services have limited dedicated staff for handling complaints, with complaint handling often being part of officers' wider duties. The potential benefits and drawbacks of a hub and spoke model for complaints management were explored.
• Quality Monitoring: The report indicated an improvement in the quality of complaint handling, with 69% of complaints passing quality checks, up from 31% in the previous year. However, 31% still failed, with reasons including failure to log cases, incomplete responses, and data protection issues.
• Learning from Complaints: The committee emphasised the importance of using complaint data as a strategic tool for service transformation, not just performance measurement. Monica Butler confirmed that the council was working on improving the iCasework system to better track trends and themes.
• Named Officers: Councillor Oana Olaru-Holmes raised the issue of accountability, suggesting that having named officers for complaints could improve the process. This was noted as an area for further consideration.

The committee resolved to note the report and identified the lines of inquiry as detailed above to support learning and service improvement.