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Hertfordshire County Council

Annual Compliments & Complaints Report

Children’s Services (CS)

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st April 2017 – 31

st March 2018

Respond

Improve

Listen

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Contents

Feature

Page(s)

Key Statistical Summary 3

Purpose and Summary of Report

4

Background

4-5

Compliments

5-6

Children’s Services Representations and Main Themes

6

Representations submitted by Young People and Adults

7

Representations by Ethnic Groups

8

Overall Acknowledgement & Response Timescales

8-9

Social Care Complaints (Stage 1, SMR, Stage 2 and 3)

9-11

Education Complaints (Stage 1, SMR and Stage 2 )

11-12

Local Government Ombudsman Complaints & Financial Remedies

12

Learning Points and Actions taken

13-16

Complaints Developments in 2016-17

16-17

Future Complaints Developments for 2017-18

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1. Key Statistical Summary

2017/18 2016/17 Percentage change

Direction of Travel

Number of compliments 201 154 31%

Total number of Representations 379 352 8%

Number of Stage 1 Complaints (Social Care) (Education)

217

(156) (61)

221

(154) ( 67)

-2%

1% -9%

Number of Social Care Stage 1 Complaints expressed as a percentage of the total number of contacts received

1.3% 1.2%

Complaints dealt with informally 116 69 68%

Stage 2 Complaint Investigations

0

0

Stage 3 Complaint Review Panels 0 0

Acknowledgement timescales met 98% 95%

Response timescales met Responses within 10 working days

92%

82%

86%

75%

Overall Outcomes: Upheld Partially Upheld Not Upheld

11%

14%

31%

8%

26%

26%

Senior Management Reviews 17 13 31%

Local Government Ombudsman 28 35 - 20%

96% of all representations were submitted by Adults and 4% by Young People.

41% of all representations were received from people identifying themselves as White-British. Such information was not available for 39% of the representations. The remaining 20% were submitted by people identified as from other ethnicity groups.

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2. Purpose and Summary of Report

2.1 To report on the numbers, themes and learning points arising from complaints received in respect of Children’s Services (CS) between 1st April 2017 and 31st March 2018.

2.2 To meet the requirements of The Children Act 1989 Representations

Procedure (England) Regulations 2006 and Getting the Best from Complaints, the accompanying guidance to the regulations.

2.3 This report provides analysis and commentary for Children’s Services on all

complaints managed under the Statutory Complaints Procedure or the Corporate Complaints Procedure. The vast majority of children’s social care complaints are dealt with under the statutory complaints procedure as they relate to the discharge of the Local Authority’s statutory functions under the Children Act 1989. All education complaints and some social care complaints do not qualify for a response under the statutory regulations and so they are dealt with under the Council’s own Corporate Complaints Procedure.

2.4 The main objective of the Children’s Services Complaints Team is to ensure

that service users’ complaints are handled appropriately and to ensure that CS resolves them wherever possible. In addition to this, the Complaints Manager and Complaints Officer highlight key trends that emerge each year and any recommendations that would improve how the department operates. The Children’s Services department retains overall responsibility for implementing any such learning and improvements, with assistance from the Complaints Team which is an ‘arm’s length’ service and is situated in the Resources Department to provide independence in the complaints process.

3. Background

3.1 All complaints are taken seriously by the Complaints Team on behalf of

Children’s Services, which has robust processes for considering and implementing learning from them.

3.2 The Complaints Team promotes complainants’ rights to be heard whilst

bearing in mind the Local Authority’s duty to ensure the effective and proportionate expenditure of public funds.

3.3 There is a statutory 12 month time limit for making a complaint to the Local

Authority. The Complaints Manager may exercise the discretion to consider a complaint made outside of this time frame on a case by case basis, but this is not guaranteed.

3.4 Recurring issues – Complaints will not be accepted if they are a repeat or

substantively the same as complaints that have already been investigated and responded to.

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3.5 Throughout the complaints process the Complaints Team liaises regularly with the following:

Complainants.

Advocates.

Children’s Services Board and Operational Service Managers.

The Council’s Legal Department.

Independent Investigators.

Learning and Organisational Development (L&OD) Section.

Hertfordshire Safeguarding Children Board (HSCB)

Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO)

External Agencies on a case by case basis, such as Ofsted and the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

4. Compliments

4.1 Service users and external professionals are actively encouraged to register any positive feedback that they have about Children’s Services. This forms part of the reporting process to highlight the good work undertaken by officers and teams. Compliments are shared with teams and across the wider department to highlight good practice and appreciation from service users. This positive feedback will also contribute to learning from complaints.

4.2 A total of 201 compliments were received in respect of Children’s Services. This was an increase of 31% on the previous year, when a total of 154 compliments were received.

4.3 141 compliments related to Social Care and 60 related to Education

services. In the previous year, 80 related to Social Care and 74 related to Education services.

Education 30%

Social Care 70%

Children's Services Compliments 2017-18

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4.4 The vast majority of compliments were praise for individual workers and services and how their actions had improved outcomes and prospects for children, young people and their families.

4.5 The main reason for the rise in compliments is increased awareness,

through complaints training across Children’s Services, of the importance of registering them with the Complaints Team so that they may be reported on and good practice shared.

5. Children’s Services Representations

5.1 Although the total number of representations received, 379, increased by 8% compared with the previous year (352), the number of Stage 1 Complaints, 217, decreased by 2%. This reflects a new approach being implemented whereby an increasing number of complaints were resolved quickly and informally. The result was an increase of 68% in the number of informal complaints, 116, when compared with the previous year (69).

5.2 The main themes of the representations received were:

Response delays.

Issues regarding Assessments, Reports and Education, Health & Care Plans.

Conduct of Workers/Communication issues.

Late complaints from Care Leavers.

Breach of confidentiality.

For information on learning points from these themes and actions taken to improve services please refer to Section 10.

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Total received Informal Stage 1 Refused

2016-17

2017-18

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5.3 Representations submitted by Young People and Adults

5.4 The number of young people raising concerns/complaints directly or via

advocates remains low compared with the overall number of representations received. Complaints training with Children’s Homes staff has shown that complaints are resolved locally and informally without instigating the formal complaints process

5.5 The Council has a contract with the National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS)

to provide free advocacy to young people. NYAS advocates regularly visit young people placements to promote/offer their services.

5.6 Various Complaint Factsheets and leaflets for both children and young people

are available either online or from all main offices of the Council. 5.7 Young people can also raise general issues and themes through the Children in

Care Council (CHICC), which has been in place since 2009. CHICC creates opportunities for young people to tell us what is important to them and for the Council to improve services through their experiences within the care system. Additionally when young people come into care, they receive a resource pack, which includes information on how to make a complaint.

5.8 In 2017-18, the Council introduced a social worker contact card for young

people in response to a number of concerns raised within CHICC regarding communication issues. The card has information on how to contact workers and who to contact if workers are unavailable, e.g. worker’s managers.

Young People 4%

Adults 96%

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5.9 Representations by Ethnic Groups

5.10 Almost half of the total number of representations received were submitted

by people identifying themselves as White-British. A large number of complainants did not provide such information either because they preferred not to say or because they were not service users and therefore such records did not exist on our system.

6. Overall Acknowledgment and Response timescales

6.1 98% (95%) of all representations received were acknowledged within 3 working days.

41%

4%

1% 1% 2%

2% 2% 1%

2% 2%

1%

2%

39%

White-British

Other White

Black or Black British-Caribbean

Black or Black British-African

Mixed White and Black African

Mixed White and Black Caribbean

Other Mixed

Asian or Asian British - Pakistani

Asian or Asian British-Indian

Mixed White and Asian

Other Asian

Other Groups

Not provided

2%

98%

Acknowledgments 2017-18

Out of time

In time

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6.2 92% (86%) of all representations received were responded to within the statutory timescales of 2 – 4 weeks (10 – 20 working days).

6.3 82% (75%) of the total representations were responded within 2 weeks (10

working days).

7. Social Care Stage 1 Complaints

Services Area 2017-18 2016-17

Family Safeguarding 36 41

Assessment (inc MASH, Out of Hours & JCPIT) 45 44

0-25 Together & Residential Services 26 19

Academy & Children Looked After 14 18

Services for Young People 13 13

Adoption, Fostering & Family and Friends 5 5

Child Protection & Statutory Review 9 9

Intensive Family Support 3 1

Others 5 2

Total 156 154

8%

92%

Responses 2017-18

Out of time

In time

23%

29% 17%

9%

8%

3% 6% 2% 3%

Social Care Stage 1 Complaints 2017-18

Family Safeguarding

Assessment

0-25 Together

Academy & CLA

Services for Young People

Adopt, Fost &FFriends

CP & Statutory Review

Intensive Family Support

Others

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7.1 A total of 156 complaints were accepted and responded to as Stage 1 in respect of Children’s Social Care. This represents an increase of 1% from the previous year, when 154 Stage 1 complaints were processed.

7.2 A total of 12,127(12,454) new contacts were received and referred to the

appropriate teams within Children’s Services. The services in question were, Assessments (including Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and Joint Child Protection Investigation Team (JCPIT)), Services for Young People and Intensive Family Support Teams.

7.3 The total number of Stage 1complaints in respect of Children’s Social Care

services was 156. Therefore, complaints expressed as a percentage of the contacts received equates to 1.3% (1.2%).

7.4 Although the 0-25 Together Service had an increase of 37%, compared with the previous year, this figure corresponds to only 5% of the number of contacts received, which was 484.

7.5 Social Care Senior Management Reviews (SMRs) 7.6 Senior Management Reviews have been introduced in recent years to help

resolve complaints as swiftly as possible and to avoid delays in resolving complaints where the initial Stage 1 response may not have addressed all of the issues.

7.7 SMRs are significantly quicker than a Stage 2 process, in that they can take up

to 20 working days, whereas a Stage 2 process can take up to 65 working days.

7.8 There were a total of 11 Social Care SMRs during 2017-18, which is a slight

increase compared with the previous year, when 10 SMRs were undertaken.

7.9 Social Care Stage 1 Complaint Outcomes

56% 25%

18%

1%

Not Upheld

Partially Upheld

Upheld

Withdrawn

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7.10 Stage 2 and Stage 3 Social Care Complaints

7.11 Similarly to previous year, there were 0 Stage 2 Social Care Complaint Investigations and 0 Stage 3 Complaint Review Panels. This has been due to better management of expectations and desired outcomes of complainants at the first point of contact.

8. Education Stage 1 Complaints

Service Subject of complaint 2017-18 2016-17

Admissions & Transport 10 27

Integrated Services for Learning 49 39

Other 2 1

Total 61 67

8.1 There were a total of 61 complaints accepted and responded to as Stage 1 Complaints for Education Services. This is a decrease of 9% from the previous year when a total of 67 Stage 1 Complaints were processed.

8.2 The decrease in the total of Stage 1 Complaints is justified by a significant

number of complaints being dealt with quick and informally by the service.

8.3 Education Senior Management Reviews (SMRs) and Stage 2 Complaints 8.4 6 (3) SMRs for Education Services were undertaken, which represents a

significant increase compared with the previous year. This was due to the complexity of complaints received which resulted in having more complainants challeging the responses they received to their Stage 1 complaints.

8.5 There were 0 (0) Stage 2 Education Complaints.

17%

80%

3%

Education Stage 1 Complaints 2017-18

Adm&Transp

Integrated Services for Learning

Other

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8.6 Education Stage 1 Complaints Outcomes

9. Local Government Ombudsman Complaints and Financial Remedies 9.1 A total of 28 (35) complaints were received from the Local Government

Ombudsman in respect of Children’s Services. 16 (20) were related to Social Care services and 12 (15) to Education services.

9.2 Additionally 4 decisions were received regarding complaints from the

previous year (3 with no fault and 1 with some fault identified). 9.3 Out of the total of 28 complaints received, 9 were progressed as

Investigations. There were 18 cases that the LGO decided not to investigate and 1 was withdrawn.

9.4 LGO Investigations Outcomes: 1 awaiting decision, 1 had no fault identified and 7 necessitated a financial remedy in recognition to fault, injustice, distress or time and trouble. Complaints with fault identified, including decisions regarding previous years, saw a total of £2,800 being awarded. This is a significant decrease compared with the previous year, when the total amount awarded was £7,350. This illustrates the benefits of the Complaints Manager having early discussions with the LGO to ensure full clarity from the outset resulting in low numbers of adverse findings.

9.5 All of the financial remedies paid out featured LGO involvement.

9.6 Overall, adverse Local Government Ombudsman findings against the Council

have remained low. Accordingly, the complaints processes in respect of Children’s Services are robust and fair.

9.7 In addition to this the department’s implementation of learning from complaints is thorough and timely in respect of all action plans. This is evidenced by the extremely low number of repeat complaints to the Ombudsman.

49%

28%

21%

2%

Not Upheld

Partially Upheld

Upheld

Withdrawn

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10. Learning Points arising from Complaints & Actions taken to improve services.

Clearly advising Service Users/Families about

realistic timescales for more complex tasks and updating

accordingly.

Ensuring that contingency plans are

put in place due to staff absence.

Correspondence to be reallocated

and customer informed in a timely

manner.

Minimising delays by adhering

to HCC’s published Customer

Services Standards

Issues regarding Assessments, Reports and Education, Health & Care Plans

Clearly advising family

members that, although their

circumstances are considered

during the process, the aim of

the service is to meet actual

needs of Service Users.

Workers to identify potential

issues and seek advice from

Managers to prevent

escalation of matters.

Workers to explain to Service Users/Families that in

most cases it is not possible to amend case records or

change professional opinions simply because of

disagreement. Their comments however can be filed

alongside reports to be read in context, if they wish.

Response Delays

Teams to work closely with

parents and ensure that Section

F provision within EHCPs is fully

delivered by schools/settings.

Implementation meetings within

schools have been set up.

Teams to prioritise process of

ECHP’s Annual Review

paperwork to ensure that

children’s needs are

documented and being met

without delays.

Managers to work with team

members through PMDS process to

identify any training needs and to

implement service improvements.

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Conduct of Workers/Communication issues

Each individual case to be

discussed with the Service to

try and identify the reasons for

Care Leavers not raising their

complaints earlier.

Workers to ensure that concerns

are discussed with parents prior

to CLA Reviews and relevant

documents/information provided

to parents in a timely manner.

Breach of Confidentiality

Managers to remind staff to peer check correspondence before

sending it out and that consent should be obtained before

sharing information. To be monitored through Performance

Management and supervision meetings.

Late Complaints from Care Leavers

Managers to address matters during 1:1

Supervision Meetings and to advise staff to go

on specific training sessions.

Workers to be more tactful

during conversations with

members of the public and

mindful about the language

they use to avoid any

misunderstanding.

Review complaints decision

making in respect of

complaints regarding events

that happened more than 12

months ago and request

further information.

Service to ensure that Care Leavers in prison

have regular visits and are very much part of

a clear pathway plan for when they are

released.

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Learning/service improvements undertaken: So What ……….

10.1 It is important to note that learning is not always possible from individual worker errors and this type of learning is generally undertaken in 1 to 1 Management Supervision. Where trends arise this is then reviewed by the Complaints Manager.

10.2 The learning points identified through trends are regularly discussed with individual officers, within Team meetings and will also form part of the staff complaints training delivered by the Complaints Manager (CM) across CS. The CM attends Heads of Service meetings to support Senior Managers in processing the learning and ensures they demonstrate how this will evidenced.

10.3 Quarterly meetings with the Learning and Development Manager are also held by the CM to discuss trends in complaints in order to agree and identify future training needs.

10.4 Learning trends are then reported to Senior Boards on a quarterly basis.

The CM presents this report to Senior Board Officers, who then share with their teams and managers to ensure learning from complaints is embedded and added into practice development (alongside L&OD interventions).

10.5

You Said:

We did:

Difficulty in contacting allocated Social Workers.

New process implemented in 0-25 Together Service: Service users to continue to contact allocated SW direct as first point of contact but advised to contact the call centre on urgent issues to avoid delays.

Delay in checking that provision set out in Section F of an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) was fully in place for a period of 3 months.

Council has implemented the following service improvements: • When a new or significantly amended EHCP is issued the allocated SEN officer will send a provision checklist to the named school’s SENCO at the time of issue and ask the school to return it within 15 school days confirming how provision is being implemented; • When the Council receives concerns provision in Section F is not being made by a school then: a) Where it is obvious key elements of provision are not in place, the Council will

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expedite an investigation to ensure provision is made at the earliest possible opportunity. b) Where further enquiries are required to establish whether provision is in place, the SEN service will convene an initial implementation meeting within one month of concerns being raised including parents and the school concerned. If the concerns are not resolved a follow up implementation meeting with be convened, again within a month of continued concerns being raised. Notes will be taken at each meeting and actions agreed and circulated to both parties.

Some confusion expressed by complainants when the Corporate Complaints Policy is applied for those complaints relating to Children’s Services but not made on behalf of children and for non-statutory complaints.

Developed and implemented a Corporate Complaints factsheet which is sent out with all Corporate acknowledgements letters to avoid confusion.

Concerns regarding quality of letters and report writing.

Letter writing toolkit developed and shared with Officers. Peer to Peer support also identified and available to managers via L&OD.

Delays in responding to complaints. Complaints Training and guidance on early resolution has resulted in 82% of complaints resolved in 2 weeks (10 w/ds)

11. Complaints Developments in 2017/18

Full annual review undertaken and completed of the CS Complaints Procedure, factsheets and templates.

An Intranet page was developed for Complaints, where policies, guidance and templates can be found to assist Managers whilst dealing with complaints.

Automated acknowledgements were revised with increased signposting to reduce avoidable contact.

Four Complaints Training sessions were delivered by the Complaints Manager throughout the year, where process, best practice, trends and learning from complaints were addressed. A total of 68 officers attended the sessions, which has resulted in increased ownership of complaints by Managers. This in turn has led to earlier resolution of complaints, illustrated by 82% of all representations being resolved within 2 weeks.

Further improvements to the Complaints Database and BOBj Reports were implemented to provide more accurate data for periodic reports.

Detailed Quarterly Reports were delivered for each HOS to identify and look at trends and learning within their teams as well as to support Managers to pull out

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data for short notice inspections. This has enabled Managers to have more oversight of their service areas, and to identify learning and implement actions for service improvement.

Quarterly overview reports were provided and presented to the CS Board. This enabled the Complaints Manager to forge good working relationship with Senior Managers, including Heads of Service and Directors.

A Have your Say Factsheet for Corporate Complaints was devised by the Complaints Team for those complaints relating to Children’s Services but not made on behalf of children and for non-statutory complaints.

Complaints Manager met with Advocates to discuss early resolution for complaints from young people and clarify the differences between complaints process for Adults and Children’s Services.

Closer working arrangement with Learning & Development to discuss recurring trends and to implement learning from Complaints.

The Team received a large number of response letters from Managers asking for them to be reviewed before they were sent out. This matter was addressed by the Complaints Manager during the Complaints Training sessions undertaken throughout the year. Training covered the statutory complaints process and letter writing techniques for all Managers.

12. Future Complaints Developments for 2018-19

Review of all complaints materials, including the complaints procedure, factsheets and templates following GDPR coming into effect on 25th May 2018.

Complaints Training to be undertaken by all Team Managers and Service Managers. Ensuring Managers are able to translate complaints into service improvements through the roll-out of root cause analysis techniques. Training will include trends identified to ensure learning is shared across CS.

Complaints Training for Advocates.

Complaints Manager to attend Heads of Service Team Meetings on a Quarterly basis to discuss complaints data and to identify trends and learning points.

Complaints Manager to attend and present Complaints Reports to Children’s Services Strategic Board.

Review and improve Complaints Reporting data.

Raise the profile of compliments with all staff so that our good work can be shared across teams. This forms part of the learning from complaints process.

Provide guidance to Managers to improve the quality of complaint responses.

Improve response timescales for Stage 1 Complaints so that more complaints are responded to within 10 working days rather than the maximum allowed timescale of 20 working days.

Continue to ensure that the complaints procedure is as accessible as possible, particularly for children and young people.

Continue to promote alternative dispute resolution, notably to complainants seeking escalation to Stages 2 and 3.

Due to the high number of Communication issues identified in Complaints, Customer Service Standards training is currently being developed by Learning and Development and will be available to all staff as an e-learning module.

Link to overview of CS Complaints Procedure: Factsheet Have your say