The Committee considered the report on the updated Corporate Complaints Policy, which has been revised to align with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code and best practice standards.
Members noted that the updated policy aimed to provide greater clarity for residents, improve accessibility, and ensure a consistent approach to complaint resolution across all services. Key changes included clearer definitions of complaints, streamlined processes for escalation, and enhanced monitoring and reporting arrangements to support learning and service improvement.
It was highlighted that the address for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) would need updating following their move from Wilmslow to Manchester. Officers agreed to amend this before publication of the new policy.
The committee noted the revised policy still reflected the 2-stage process, however included extended timeframes for acknowledging complaints from 3 working days to 5 working days. The complaint investigation Service Level Agreement (SLA) would commence from the date of acknowledgment as opposed to the date the complaint was received. This update would provide the Customer Feedback Team more time to acknowledge the complaint and ensure that Council services were able to utilise the full 10 working day SLA to investigate and respond to the complaint providing better investigations and responses for complainants. The Committee noted that acknowledgements to complainants would include updated timescales. It was agreed that the updated timescales would be shared with all Elected Members once live.
RESOLVED (unanimously):
That the Corporate Policy Committee