Good progress has been made within the complaints service to strengthen a number of areas.
The Complaints, Compliments and Representations 2014-15 Annual Report was positively received by Scrutiny committee in October 2015. It reflected upon issues raised within the 2014 internal audit, and evidenced significant progress against the improvement action plan.
- Single Point of Access (SPOA) is now used to receive all SS complaints in the absence of the Complaints Officer.
- There is now a clear management structure. The complaints service sits within the policy and audit service within Quality Standards which has two tiers of management support available full time to the complaints officer.
- The Complaints Officer’s role has now been agreed and funded as a full time post (previously only part time funded).
- Complaints are recorded and monitored on a dedicated spreadsheet to manage timeliness effectively.
- Stage 2 complaints are sent to Section Managers which has improved their awareness, engagement and commitment with the process.
- The Complaints Policy has been updated to reflect issues identified in the audit.
- A programme of training is being delivered via team meetings.
- Delivered a workshop for Managers highlighting lessons learnt and areas for improvement.
- Complaints Officer will be attending Service Managers meetings.