Issue - meetings

For the Committee to consider and comment upon the Annual Feedback Report for Adult Social Care and Public Health covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

Pete Sidgwick introduced the annual feedback report for Adult Social Care (ASC) and Public Health covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

He was supported by Paul Aitken and Sandra Archer (Customer Relations) and Shannon Nicholls (Business Intelligence).

The report summarised the compliments, complaints, questions and comments received by the two services including lessons learned. The data, trends and themes had been collated over the last three years. 

Key sections of the report focussed on:

·       The complaints process

·       Analysis of the Customer Feedback Received During 2022 and 2023 

·       Methods of how the report had been collated

·       Trends in received cases over time

·       Complaints received

·       Complaints closed

·       Remedy

·       Outcome

·       Lessons learned

·       Compliments, comments, and questions

·       Customer platform 

Members reviewed the report and appendix, raising the following points:

• A discussion about the complaints process, being the written policy document, and the customer platform which was an IT solution used to log the feedback received. Pete Sidgwick summarised the difference between the complaints process for adult and children’s services, the latter having more stages. He mentioned referrals to the Ombudsman.
• Some complaints were mis-recorded as compliments and vice versa. More information was sought about data cleansing and the lessons learned. In over half the cases, no lessons learned were reported. It was asked whether this proportion could be improved. Paul Aitken, the Acting Complaints Manager responded. He spoke of the current Contact Us software system, and the move to a new Microsoft Dynamics solution. The system relied on input, which Business Intelligence then used to produce the data reports. There were ongoing discussions to ensure the new platform would include lessons learned feedback and to simplify the extraction of this information. Officers were encouraged to input as much information as possible, including the lessons learned, but this was an area which could be improved.
• It was quite common for customers to select the wrong feedback category recording a complaint as a compliment. More detail was sought on the numbers involved and whether changes were required to make this clearer to customers. Officers were able to correct the feedback category within the portal. A related point was the language used, given the proportion of people with functional illiteracy. There was a need to make this system as easy as possible for the public to use.
• A discussion on the statistical complaint data and the reasons for such complaints. Sections of the report explained the complaint categories, with the examples of finance issues and commissioned services being used. It was noted that the low number of complaints made it difficult to be too specific, due to data protection aspects. However, officers would seek to provide themes or identified issues, with hospital discharge being referenced as an example. Nigel Minns added from the report the section on practical examples and the three highest categories of complaints received.
• Positive feedback had been received about the hospital discharge arrangements at the George Eliot Hospital.
• It was noted that there had been no complaints about the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6