Shropshire Council failing to investigate highways complaints fully - report

Managers and complaints handlers are to be given extra training on the importance of dealing with grievances appropriately after the high number of investigations concluding with “no finding” was picked up.

The council’s annual customer feedback report for 2019/20, published ahead of a cabinet meeting next week, says there were 1,487 complaints made to the council during the year.

Some complaints were passed to more than one council department, meaning there were 1,833 complaint investigations – a 43 per cent increase on 2018/19.

The report says: “Overall there are growing numbers of customer feedback cases and a significant increase in the number of complaints investigations being undertaken.

“In many service areas, a review of complaints suggests there are few opportunities to address this growing volume of cases.

“Many service areas do not receive clusters of complaints on one topic, nor are large numbers of complaints upheld, both of which would suggest a need for improvement.”

The report identifies the highways department as the one exception, with complaints to this service area making up 34 per cent of last year’s total.

This was followed by adult services and housing at 17 per cent and finance and governance at 16 per cent.

The report says: “Highways and transport received a significantly larger number of complaints than any other area of service.

Potholes

“Complaints refer to a lack of response/communication, lack of action or delays, complaints about condition of highways such as potholes, parking, road closures/road works and flooding/drainage.”

Of the completed investigations, 29 per cent were withdrawn or addressed through another route, such as appeals or insurance.

A further 14 per cent were upheld, 12 per cent were partly upheld and 28 per cent were not upheld, while the rest recorded no finding.

The report says: “There is a concern that 16 per cent of complaints investigations resulted in no finding.

“In some circumstances, there is a genuine reason for recording a ‘no finding’ outcome. A complaints investigator may find that not enough evidence or information is available to draw a conclusion, or they may be unable to obtain enough information from the complainant to fully complete the investigation.

“However, the large number of ‘no finding’ outcomes in 2019/20 (254) appear to be largely a result of a failure to investigate allocated complaints.

“56 per cent of ‘no finding’ outcomes are recorded for Shropshire Council’s highways and transport department with very small numbers spread across other services.”

The report recommends that “work takes place with service managers and all investigators within the highways department to highlight the importance of responding to allocated complaints and completing investigations in line with the corporate procedure”.

As well as complaints, the council also received 719 comments and 405 compliments during 2019/20. Adult services received the highest number of compliments, with 183.

The report adds: “There has been a steady decline in the number of compliments received.

“In 2016/17 646 compliments were recorded for Shropshire Council in 2017/18 the council received 541 compliments, and in 2018/19 460 compliments.”

Cabinet members will discuss the report at a meeting on Monday.