Increase in social work complaints

THE number of complaints lodged against Perth and Kinross Council’s social work department has risen by more than 50% in 12 months.

However, council chiefs claim the large increase is mainly down to more “robust recording”.

Figures released by the local authority show there were 99 “stage one”complaints about social work services lodged in the 2017-18 financial year, compared with 65 in 2016-17 – an increase of 52.3%.

And the statistics, which were included in a council paper on housing and adult social care complaints and customer feedback, also showed that there were 522 stage one complaints about non-social work services – an increase of 0.1% from the 2016-17 financial year.

The council now records complaints about its social work department in the same way it deals with complaints about other departments following the introduction of a new complaints handling procedure for social work in April 2017.

A report by Barbara Renton, executive director of housing and environment, gave details of the number of complaints submitted by the public.

It stated: “Although the numbers of complaints recorded has increased significantly within social work services, this is likely to be as a result of more robust recording as opposed to a decrease in the quality of services.”