STANDARDS COMMITTEE

                                                            9^TH NOVEMBER 2007

Present:

Mr N Briers (Independent non-Council Member); Chair

Councillors D J Cannon, J Hammond and R Jones            

Deputy Parish Representative:

Mr P Jackson

Officers in attendance:

Mrs L Carr                          Performance and Policy Officer

Mr C Henshall                     Borough Solicitor

Miss D Moulson                  Democratic Services Officer

Apologies:  Councillor P A Hallett, Mr R Pomlett and Mr J Ross.        

15.       DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

No Member made any declaration of interest in respect of any item of business on the agenda.

16.       RECORD OF MEETING

AGREED:  That the record of the meeting held on 17^th July 2007 be approved as correct.

17.       COMPLIMENTS, COMMENTS AND COMPLAINTS SCHEME

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, the Standards Committee was required to “receive regular reports on the customer complaints procedure and make recommendations to the Board on its operation”. 

A report outlining communications received by the Council over a given period of time was submitted to each meeting of the Committee for information. During discussions on this item, Members had raised concern about the operation of the Compliments, Comments and Complaints (CCC) Scheme and the manner in which the information received was utilised. This had prompted a review of the scheme to be carried out and the Committee’s concerns were presented to the Council’s Management Team in September 2007 by the Policy and Performance Officer.         

To address the concerns of Members, a remodelling of the CCC Scheme had taken place and revised documentation was tabled at the meeting. Form 1 was to be an amended version of the existing form (electronic version) but with responsibility for determining the type of comment submitted resting with the complainant rather than the officer. The form had also been designed to be compatible with the Council’s CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system and it was anticipated that recording of complaints would switch to the CRM system from December 2007.                           

Form 2 would be used to track complaints, the timeframe for dealing with correspondence to be reduced from 20 days to 15 days in line with good practice. Complaints would be submitted to nominated officers in each division and any action taken recorded.  Unlike the present scheme, an evaluation stage would be introduced; the aim of which was to monitor the way in which the complaint had been handled and to establish whether the complainant had been satisfied with the outcome. 

Discussion/Comment

A Member questioned whether there was scope for complaints received directly by Councillors to be added to the CRM system. It was noted that the system could record enquiries which might initially not warrant the status of a complaint but this could be changed if a resolution could not be reached and a more formal response was required. 

In answer to a comment made, the Policy and Performance Officer confirmed that comments received which were the functions of a partner organisation such as Wulvern Housing or Cheshire County Council would continue to be forwarded onto a nominated contact for action. 

The Chairman sought reassurance that the forms would be easily accessible and it was reported that work was being undertaken with the Communications Manager to ‘promote’ the availability of forms via the Access Shop, One Stop Shop and Council reception points. Discussions were also taking place with regard to the inclusion of an article in the next addition of the Council’s “News and Views”.

Members were supportive of the proposals put forward and discussed whether the frequency of reports to Committee should be extended from two to six months. No consensus was reached although it was suggested that, initially, reports should continue to be submitted at each meeting to allow the Committee to monitor the implementation process. 

AGREED: That progress work on the remodelling of the Compliments, Comments and Complaints Scheme be noted.   

18.       SIXTH ANNUAL ASSEMBLY OF STANDARDS COMMITTEE

The Sixth Annual Assembly of Standards Committee had been held in Birmingham on 15^th/16^th October 2007. One of the Independent non-Council Members had attended the event on behalf of the Council and would provide personal feedback to the Committee in due course.  In his absence the Committee noted the emerging issues.          

19.       LOCAL FILTER FOR CODE OF CONDUCT COMPLAINTS

The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill, which would transfer powers from the Standards Board to Standards Committees to determine local complaints, had recently received Royal Assent and the Committee was invited to identify its training needs in this area.  

The Standards Board had indicated its intention to provide Standards Committees with appropriate guidance and, with this in mind, the Committee agreed to defer the item to the January meeting. 

20.       DATE OF NEXT MEETING    

22^nd January 2007 

…………………….  Chair