Issue - meetings
Ombudsman Review
Meeting: 21/09/2011 - Standards Committee (this Committee has now been combined wit the Audit, Standrds and Governance Committee and no longer meets) (Item 31)
PDF 66 KB[To provide Members with information regarding the Local Government Ombudsman's Annual Review of Bromsgrove District Council for the period ending 31st March 2011.]
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Members considered a report which presented the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) Annual Review Letter. The Annual Review Letter provided a summary of statistics on the complaints made to the LGO about the Council for the year ending 31st March 2011.
A Member noted the slight increase in the average number of days it had taken the Council to respond to complaints in comparison with previous years. Officers detailed the types of issues which impacted on response times and it was noted that the Council fell within the 65% of district councils that responded to complaints within 28 days (as opposed to those who took between 29-35 days or 36+ days to respond). It was also noted that there had been a relatively small number of complaints received during the period, in addition to which that there had been neither any findings of maladministration nor any agreements to pay compensation.
The Deputy Monitoring Officer (DMO) added that over the last 12 months there had been a significant amount of work undertaken throughout the organisation relating to customer service and in raising staff awareness of the importance and benefits of good customer service, which would ultimately impact on complaints made to the Ombudsman.
Members agreed that it was key for any staff involved in gathering information in response to Ombudsman complaints to understand the significance of doing this as quickly as possible and of proving this to the Council's Ombudsman Link Officer in the required format, particularly given the complex nature of some complaints which could require responses from a number of different Officers.
RESOLVED that the contents of the report and the Local Government Annual Review Letter be noted.