Agenda item

Report of the Director of Children's Prevention, Family Help and Safeguarding.

This report provides information about complaints made to the Children’s statutory services in the London Borough of Camden during the twelve months between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023. It is a statutory requirement to produce an annual report which is published on the Council’s website.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Children's Prevention, Family Help and Safeguarding.

The Director of Children's Prevention, Family Help and Safeguarding summarised the report. The Council had a single policy and procedure for managing complaints, which included the statutory Social Services complaints process, following the introduction of a new Council-wide system. The service focussed on resolving issues informally outside of the formal complaints procedure. It was noted that there had been a time-lag in complaints being responded to in 2021 due to a key colleague sadly falling ill. Based on the reports of young people and advocates, over the reporting period, the main issues identified were Housing, concerns about allocated social workers and personal advisors, and finance benefits and debt. The report covered the following areas: the complaints procedure; context - services users and provision; overview of complaints data; volume and performance data by service area; outcomes by service area; complaint source; types of complaint; case studies; learning outcomes; Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) cases and comments; Compliments; comments from the service; and the Coram Voice Advocacy Service Annual Report 2022/23.

The Chair thanked officers for the report and invited questions and comments from the Committee. The following was discussed:

-       A Member asked if service users were confident in the complaints process working fairly. In response, it was confirmed that it was a constant endeavour of the service to maintain a fair process and was always looking in how to improve systems. The low number of formal complaints could be accounted to the service offering proper opportunities for families to raise issues before the formal complaint stage. The service had invested in an advocate role which they were appointing soon and a named person to send complaints to. They would be procuring an advocacy contract in April.

-       In relation to the types of complaints based on the process and communication failures since the new complaints system had been in place for 1.5 years, it was confirmed that the new complaints system was Council-wide and there was a period to account for where colleagues were being trained on the new system and the allocation of complaints was not always accurate, slowing down the process. The delays and timely responses were now improving. There would always be some complaints, which was important for the service to learn and improve and be open to scrutiny and concern from families.

-       It was confirmed that the main issues affecting young people ages 17-25 were: the time it took to secure permanent accommodation; a young person not being ready to manage their own tenancy and tasks that came with independence; and issues of debt when starting work.

-       In relation to section 4.13, Children's Safeguarding and Social Work (CSSW) Summary, a Member asked if the corporate target was realistic for the service, due to the complexity of some cases, and if the targets would ever be achieved. In response, it was confirmed that despite the targets being set Council-wide, it was important for the service to be ambitious. It was noted there would be improvements shown in the next iteration of the report. The nature of the complaints meant that there were often complexities to getting a fast resolution, which could be seen in case studies which told a story rather than a hard pass or fail in response target.

-       A Member stated that alongside the positives that could be drawn out from the learning, it must be noted that a high threshold of frustration must be reached for a family to make a formal complaint. Members asked for a breakdown of specific issues and complaints. Officers confirmed in the next iteration of the report they would set out the type of cases more explicitly and in a more meaningful way to demonstrate the complexities.

-       A Co-opted Member asked if complaints could be made by schools, and not just individuals, and if they could complaint about structural issues. In response, it was confirmed that complaints could be made by professionals, however it would be hoped that concerns were addressed at board level or through senior officers rather than the corporate complaints process. It was confirmed that professionals could raise concern about structures, however there were existing forums to work through strategic issues. There was work taking place to see if there were themes which required structural responses, and there could be reporting how processes changed following those responsive restructures. The Council worked with the statutory strategic partners as part of the quality assurance work, expanding feedback data and capturing a greater picture of thematic issues.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.