Spikein council service grumbles

Council staff have had to deal with a rise in complaints from the public about its housing and community care services in the last 12 months, a new report shows.

Frontline staff dealt with 65 “stage one” complaints about the local authority’s social work services between April 1, 2016 and March 31 this year, compared with 46 in 2015/16, according to the report. It says a further 20 complaints also required further investigation at “stage two” in 2016/17, compared with 13 in 2015/16.

The report, which will go before Perth and Kinross Council’s new housing and communities committee tomorrow for noting, says that of the 20 “stage two” complaints that were investigated in 2016/17, only three were upheld.

Putting the number of complaints in context the report states: “The main areas of complaint related to learning disabilities, Perth City team and care at home services. The reasons were primarily due to provision of services.”

Agenda papers also show there was a rise in the number of complaints about the council’s “non-social work” services such as its housing, finance and business support services in the last 12 months.

There were 521 “stage one” complaints about these services in 2016/17 - 115 more than in 2015/16 - and a further 50 that had to be investigated at “stage two” 24 more than in the previous year.

It explained: “Housing repairs had the largest number of the 50 stage two complaints, followed by some of the area teams, which reflects the volume of services provided in these areas.

“The main reason for the complaints was provision of services or issues with employees.”

Councillors will also hear of moves to improve services. The paper says staff have been reminded of their responsibilities to return telephone calls and correspondence and that an improved process has been implemented for calculating charges for services.

It adds that staff have also been “challenged” about “inappropriate parking of council vehicles.”