Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Self-assessment

­­The Authority describes the difference between a service request and complaint in its Complaint Procedure and provides detail as to what they mean and how they are managed. 

North Tyneside Council Corporate and Housing Complaint Procedure (The Complaint Procedure) page 3: 

A complaint is defined as an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the Authority, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting a resident or group of residents and which requires a response.

North Tyneside Council Corporate and Housing Complaint Procedure page 4:

A service request is a request from any customer to the Authority requiring action to be taken to put something right. Service requests are not complaints, but are recorded, monitored and reviewed regularly.

A guide on Service Requests is in place for officers within the Customer First Office, who are the first point of contact for Customers raising complaints 

The North Tyneside Council Corporate and Housing Services Complaint Procedure sets out the reasons and circumstances where the Authority would not consider a complaint. The Authority considers the individual circumstances of each complaint and does not take a blanket approach to excluding complaints or refusing to escalate a complaint through all stages of the complaint process. 

Each complaint is considered on its own merits. When a complaint is not accepted, a detailed explanation is provided to the customer setting out the reasons why the matter is not suitable for the Complaint’s Procedure or the next Stage and their right to refer that decision to the relevant Ombudsman at any point.

Currently complaints that are refused are recorded outside of the Complaint Management system. This is part of future development of the system. 

North Tyneside Council Corporate and Housing Complaint Procedure pages 14/15: This Procedure does not apply when:

• the person wishing to complain does not meet the requirements of ‘who can complain’
• matters over one year old, unless there is good reason and will be at the discretion of the Authority’s Complaint Manager. For example, someone who has been unable to lodge their complaint earlier due to incapacity, or where new information has come to light which could have affected the original investigation
• legal proceedings have started; typically defined as details of the claim, such as the Claim Form and Particulars of Claim, having been filed at court
• complaints about the Authority’s policy
• where the same complaint has already been dealt with at all Stages of this procedure and/or by the Local Government or Housing Ombudsman
• the complaint is unclear, frivolous, or vexatious, and
• matters which should be dealt with under other proceedings, e.g.
• disciplinary proceedings
• complaints from staff about personnel issues
• services for which alternative statutory appeals process already exists, including the statutory ‘social services’ complaints procedures.

The Authority is committed to ensuring that everyone has equal access to all of its services and aims to make it easy for customers to complain by providing different channels for them to do so. Customers can make a complaint direct to the service in person, by telephone or email or by calling the Customer First Office, or by writing to the Customer First Office using our online form or letter.

An Equality Impact Assessment is reviewed annually, to ensure any barriers are addressed. 

The Authority gives due regard and consideration to our duties under the Equality Act 2010 and aims to anticipate the needs and reasonable adjustments of customers who may need to use the Complaint’s Procedure. Customers wishing to complain in person at one of our Community Hubs, Leisure Centres, Family Hubs or any other council building are supported by those teams who will attempt to resolve issues as service requests, where this is right to do so and where this is the preference of the customer. Where this is not possible, Authority teams will signpost customers to the Complaints Procedure and offer to put the customer in direct contact with the Customer First Office.

North Tyneside Council Corporate and Housing Complaint Procedure page 12/13:

To support this:

• complaints are accepted through the channels stated above
• the Authority’s Complaint Procedure is available in a clear and accessible format including the Two Stage process, the timeframes for responding and what customers can expect to happen
• the Complaint Procedure is published on the Authority’s website
• the Authority can provide information and responses in alternative formats including, Braille, large print, easy read format, BSL (British Sign Language) video, audio formats and other languages where needed
• the Authority can provide interpreters (including sign language translators) where needed
• customers can be supported through the complaints process by a representative, such as a family member or friend, if it will help facilitate full and effective consideration of their complaint, and
• the Customer First Office can signpost customers to local advocate services.

The Authority requests name, address, date of birth, telephone number and email address for all complaints and service requests. Customer satisfaction and additional equality and diversity information is requested as part of a survey sent to all customers who have raised a complaint and service request.  At this point, responses to the satisfaction are very low and as a result, monitoring information to assess accessibility, equality and diversity extremely limited.

All Authority teams are responsible and accountable for the services they provide. The Authority’s Complaints Manager is responsible for managing the Complaints Procedure. 

The Customer First Team, introduced in June 2022, increased the Authority’s capacity to manage complaints effectively and support customers who want to complain about its services. This resource reflects the importance of complaints to the Authority and the value they have in delivering services.

Officers within the Customer First team are managed by the Customer First Manager and supported by the Complaints Manager.

The Customer First Officers, are responsible for registering complaints, ensuring complaints are referred to the correct department for consideration, and that the response to the complaint is dispatched to the customer within the allocated response time. Customer First Officers quality assure responses before they are dispatched to the customer. This is to ensure that all points of the complaint are addressed, and the response is of a good quality. 

The Complaints Manager is responsible for effective complaints governance, ensuring the Authority meets its obligations to customers, relevant regulators, Ombudsman, the Authority’s Constitution and procedures and policies. In April 2024, the Authority introduced a Complaint Governance Framework, ensuring complaints are managed effectively, with the right oversight. 

The Complaints Manager is the named contact for the LGSCO and HO. To contribute to fairness and objectivity, the Authority’s Complaints Manager does not directly deliver front line council services. While fostering good working relationships with key parties, e.g., complainants, council service areas and other agencies, the Authority’s Complaints Manager will contribute towards promoting the rights of customers to challenge the Authority about the quality of the services it provides. 

The Authority’s Complaints Manager takes an active role in encouraging and facilitating resolution of complaints. The Complaints Manager produces the Authority’s Annual Corporate Performance Assessment and Service Improvement Complaints Report and Self-Assessment and is responsible for ensuring the Governing Body for complaints and Member Responsible for Corporate Complaints, Cabinet, and other Committees have regular oversight of complaint activity in line with local governance arrangements. In addition, they provide regular monthly data reports to Directors and the Member Responsible for Complaints, they meet with Directors and the MRC regularly to discuss complaint activity and outcomes, as well as with the Assistant Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer to discuss Ombudsman investigations and findings. In addition to this, Housing Services have similar arrangements, this is managed by the Director for Housing and Property Services.

The Authority introduced the Customer Service Programme in May 2019 – March 2024, focused on improving the way the Authority works with and responds to customers. The Programme consisted of 35 distinct projects that would make improvements to current systems and processes, or create new systems and processes, based on feedback from customers. The Programme focussed on delivering the Authority’s Customer Promise, the Authority’s commitment to delivering great customer service. All complaints are managed in line with the Authority’s Customer Promise principles of ‘we listen, we care’, to ensure the best possible customer experience of using council services. 

North Tyneside Customer Promise

A new complaint management system was introduced in June 2024, providing improved monitoring and tracking of complaints. It ensures effective recording of complaint outcomes alongside lessons learned and service improvements, to inform regular reporting to our Governing Body, Cabinet. 

The Corporate and Housing Services Complaints Procedure was refreshed in line with new guidance from both the Housing Ombudsman and Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman for all complaints, excluding children’s and adults’ statutory complaints, which each have their own Procedures. 

Procedure page 3:

A complaint is defined as an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the Authority, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting a resident or group of residents and which requires a response. It may relate to one or more of the following: 

• quality of the service

• delay in service

• non provision of service

• refusal to provide a service

• communications related to the provision of a service, and / or

• manner and attitude of staff engaged in the delivery of a service.

However, this is not an exhaustive list, and the Customer First Office can provide guidance.

The Authority have Link Officers within each Directorate. they ensure that any complaints that are submitted to the service direct, which cannot be resolved informally and received by the Customer First Team to process in line with the Corporate and Housing Services Complaints Procedure

Procedure page 6/7/8/9:

When a complaint is made, the Customer First Office will contact the complainant and ask them to write a statement of complaint, describing the complaint and what outcome they would like to see; help is available. This will be completed and acknowledged by the Customer First Office, within five working days of the first contact.

The statement of complaint will be typically investigated by a manager of the service or team being complained about. The Authority will issue a full response to Stage One complaints within 10 working days of the complaint being acknowledged. The Complainant has 10 working days to request escalation of their complaint to Stage Two.

If additional time is needed to compete a robust investigation and provide a full response, then a holding response will be issued to the complainant explaining the reasons why, and the date when they can expect their response. 

Procedure page 6/7/8/9:

If all or part of the complaint is not resolved to the resident’s satisfaction at Stage One, it must be progressed to Stage Two; Stage Two is the Authority’s final response. 

The complainant is not required to give a reason to ask for the complaint to be progressed to Stage Two. Requests for Stage Two must be acknowledged, defined and logged at Stage Two within five working days of the escalation request being received. 

The person considering the complaint at Stage Two must not be the same person that considered the complaint at Stage One. Stage Two complaints will typically be considered by a Head of Service or Senior Manager. The Authority will issue a final response to the Stage Two within 20 working days of the complaint being acknowledged. 

If additional time is needed, then contact will be made with the complainant explaining the reasons why, and the date when they can expect their response. 

The Complaint Procedure, introduced in April 2024, details how the Authority will take action to put things right, when something has gone wrong. The Procedure has been shared with all services

Procedure page 10:

Where something has gone wrong the Authority will acknowledge this in complaint responses and set out the actions it has already taken, or intends to take, to put things right. These can include:

• saying sorry

• acknowledging where things have gone wrong

• providing an explanation, assistance or reasons 

• taking action if there has been delay

• reconsidering or changing a decision

• amending a record or adding a correction or addendum 

• providing a financial remedy, and / or

• changing policies, procedures or practices. 

Any remedy offered must reflect the impact on the customer because of the fault identified. The Authority will look beyond the circumstances of the individual complaint and consider whether service improvements can be made as a result of any learning from the complaint. The Authority will take account of the guidance issued by the Ombudsman when deciding on appropriate remedies.

Procedure page 10:

The Authority’s key objective in relation to complaint handling for all relevant employees or third parties, reflects the need to: 

• have a collaborative and co-operative approach towards resolving complaints, working with colleagues across teams and departments
• take collective responsibility for any shortfalls identified through complaints, rather than blaming others, and
• act within the professional standards for engaging with complaints as set by any relevant professional body.

When the Authority identifies that things have gone wrong, it ensures that lessons are learned and that service improvements are not only made but are also shared across the organisation. This is carried out through regular meetings with Directors and the MRC. We share key learning from complaints within our annual report and in the performance and service improvement reports we produce every 6 months. 

In addition to learning from our complaints, we also learn from other Authority’s complaints and share the learning from Ombudsman findings reports in our regular updates with Directors and MRC.

The Authority is in the process of introducing good practice complaint handling guides, and a dedicated resource area for those who respond to complaints within each of it’s Directorates. These are based on the good practice guides which the Ombudsman has produced for key staff members within the Authority. 

The Authority currently offers a session to service teams on the basics of responding to a complaint and points of consideration, to enable officers to provide a robust response. 

The Authority produces an annual and further six month follow up Annual Performance Assessment and Service Improvement Report and Self-Assessment, for all corporate and housing complaints, for scrutiny by the Governing Body. These reports form part of the Authority’s complaint governance framework which details how it monitors, reviews, reports, actions and learns from complaints. This self-assessment, and the Housing Ombudsman self-assessment is also part of the Authority’s governance arrangements.

Procedure page 17:

Annually, the Authority will complete self-assessments against both the LGSCO and Housing Ombudsman Codes, to ensure its complaint handling remains in line with requirements.

The Authority has a Complaint Governance Framework which sets out how corporate complaints are monitored, reported, reviewed and escalated. The Framework also shows the minimum standards for the Authority to report wider learning and improvements from complaints to stakeholders, such as residents and relevant committees.

This is in addition to service specific requirements from individual inspecting or governing bodies such as the Housing Ombudsman or landlord services. Individual Authority services will have records of these requirements and activities.

The Complaint Governance Framework is kept under constant review by the Authority’s Complaint Manager.

Procedure page 17:

The Authority has a Complaint Governance Framework which sets out how corporate complaints are monitored, reported, reviewed and escalated. The Framework also shows the minimum standards for the Authority to report wider learning and improvements from complaints to stakeholders, such as residents and relevant committees.

This is in addition to service specific requirements from individual inspecting or governing bodies such as the Housing Ombudsman or landlord services. Individual Authority services will have records of these requirements and activities.

The Complaint Governance Framework is kept under constant review by the Authority’s Complaint Manager.

Procedure page 18:

The Authority will use complaints as a source of intelligence to identify issues and introduce positive changes in service delivery. 

• The (MRC) Member Responsible for corporate complaints is the Authority’s Lead Cabinet Member for Corporate Strategy, including Customer Service.
• The Governing Body for corporate complaints is Cabinet. Cabinet will:
• receive the annual complaints performance and service improvement report for corporate complaints and its self-assessment for compliance with the LGSCO Code of Practice, annually, and
• publish its response to the annual complaint’s performance and service improvement report for corporate complaints and its self-assessment for compliance with the LGSCO Code of Practice, on the Authority’s website, and
• receive at least one further update, annually, of:

a. corporate complaints volumes, categories, and outcomes of complaints, alongside complaint handling performance, and 

b. review of issues and trends arising from complaint handling

o  can receive or request any additional reports deemed necessary which provide insight and effective governance, on the Authority’s corporate complaint handling performance.

• The Authority’s Regulation and Review Committee (Council) will scrutinise and challenge the annual complaints performance and service improvement report information from the MRC, for corporate complaints, prior to Cabinet’s annual review.

• The (MRC) Member Responsible for housing services complaints is the Authority’s Lead Cabinet Member for Housing.

• The Governing Body for housing services complaints is Cabinet. Cabinet will:

o  receive the annual complaints performance and service improvement report for housing services complaints and its self-assessment for compliance with the HO Code of Practice, annually, and

o  publish its response to the annual complaints performance and service improvement report for housing services complaints and its self-assessment for compliance with the HO Code of Practice, on the Authority’s website, and

o  receive at least one further update, annually, of:

c.  housing services complaints volumes, categories, and outcomes of complaints, alongside complaint handling performance, and 

d. review of issues and trends arising from complaint handling

o  can receive or request any additional reports deemed necessary which provide insight and effective governance, on the Authority’s housing services complaint handling performance. 

• The Authority’s Regulation and Review Committee will scrutinise and challenge the annual complaints performance and service improvement report information from the MRC, for housing services complaints, prior to Cabinet’s annual review.