Amy Caple 04/08/2015

Children, Families & Community Health Complaints, Comments and Compliments Annual Report 2016/2017

Swindon Borough Council

1 | P a g e

Children, Families & Community Health Complaints, Comments and Compliments Annual Report 2016/2017

Contents 1. Background and Purpose………………………………….……… 2 2. Total number of complaints received……………………….……. 3 3. Who Complains?........................................................................ 4 4. Diversity Monitoring…………………………………………..….… 5 5. Why did people complain?......................................................... 5 6. Outcome of complaints………………………………………….…. 6 7. Complaints by Team or Practitioner Group……………………… 7 8. How did you complain?.............................................................. 7 9. Timescales for responding to your complaints………………….. 8 10. 2016/17 – What have we learnt from your feedback?................ 9 11. How have we supported children to make complaints?............. 10 12. Comments…………………………………………………………… 10 13. Compliments………………………………………………………… 11 14. Summary…………………………………………………………….. 11

2 | P a g e

1. Background and purpose 1.1. This report provides a summary of complaints, comments and

compliments made by, or on behalf of children who receive support or services from Swindon Borough Council’s Children, Families and Community Health services. The report covers the period from 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017.

1.2. The complaints covered in this report are dealt with under two different procedures, depending on the nature of the complaint and the service area involved. These are as follows:

Children’s Social Care Services complaints

Early Help Services complaints which comprise Children’s Community Health and Other Early Help Services.

1.3. The Children Act (1989) as amended by the Adoption Act and Children

Act (2002) requires Local Authorities to operate a complaints procedure to consider all representations by children about the Social Care Services provided to them. The process is also open to parents, carers and other adults who have sufficient interest in a child’s welfare.

1.4. The Department of Health guidelines on dealing with complaints

covers complaints about wider Early Help Services. These guidelines require the operation of a complaints procedure to consider representations by children and their representatives about the services provided to them.

1.5. Complaints not covered by the Children’s Social Care or Early Help

procedures may be dealt with under the Swindon Borough Council Corporate complaints procedure.

1.6. The Children’s Social Care complaints procedure is in three stages:

Stage 1 - Local Resolution

Stage 2 - Independent Investigation

Stage 3 - Review Panel Hearing If complainants remain dissatisfied after completing this process, the

complaint can be raised to the Local Government Ombudsman by the complainant to review the complaint on their behalf.

1.7. The complaints process for Early Help Services (including Children’s

Community Health, have just one stage - Local Resolution. If the complainant remains unhappy they can refer the matter direct to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman.

3 | P a g e

1.8 The Council and the service welcome and encourage complaints, comments and compliments as they are a useful way of monitoring the standard of service provided, and help to know what service users feel works well, and what aspects need to be improved. Where things have gone wrong, they also give the Council an opportunity to put things right.

2. Total number of complaints received 2.1 In 2016/17, a total of 88 complaints were received. This compares with

a total of 117 in the previous year. Comparisons have been included from periods 2014 to 2016. The total numbers of complaints are shown in Table 1 below:

Table 1: Total number of complaints

Service Area 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

Children’s Social Care 95 101 75

Early Help Inc. Children’s Community Health

11 16 13

Total 106 117 88

The level of complaints and the number of cases open to social workers in 2015/16 and 2016/17 is shown in Table 2 below:

Open Cases March 2016

Open Cases March 2017

% Change

1825 1689 -7%

Complaints Received 2016

Complaints Received 2017

% Change

101 75 -26%

As can be seen, there has been a significant decrease in the number of complaints received for Children’s Social Care in 2016/17 compared with 2015/16 (26% decrease). This decrease is due to both a reduction in complaints received as well as further improvements in recording and monitoring complaints into the service.

2.2 In 2016/17 there were a total of 3 Children’s Social Care complaints that were at Stage 2 (1 withdrawn). These have been resolved under the statutory process for Children’s Social Care complaints.

2.3 In 2016/17, 1 complaint was dealt with at Stage 3.

2.4 The outcome of the complaints upheld has resulted in valuable learning points being considered that is shared amongst the teams and included within section 10 of our report.

4 | P a g e

3. Who complains? 3.1 Data for 2016/17 shows that the greatest number of complaints were

raised by parents of children, many of whom were not caring for their children, either because they were non-resident parents or because their children were in care. The second largest group to complain were family members, whereas in 2015/16 the second largest group to complain were carers; 2016/17 is broadly similar to 2014/15 in terms of who the complainant is in relation to the Service. Full details are shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2: Number of all complaints by complainant group

Complainant 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

Parent 72 87 54

Family member (grandparents,

aunts etc…) 13 9 16

Carer/Special Guardian 5 10 6

Child 6 6 5

General public 4 0 1

Professional 3 - 6

Advocate 3 5 0

Service Provider 0 0 0

Total 106 117 88

3.2 5 of the 88 complaints received about the service in 2016/17 were from

children; one child complained twice, both in relation to their foster care placement. Of the 4 children who complained through the formal complaints process:

1 was in care; 1 of these was about to leave care.

2 were living with parent(s).

2 of the children who complained made use of an advocate. 2 children wrote a letter of complaint themselves.

3.3 Whilst only 4 children used the formal complaints process, many of the

complaints were from parents, wider family members or carers of children in care, complaining about some aspect of our corporate parenting. This does not however mean that all of these complaints were endorsed by the children themselves.

3.4 Coram Voice provides advocacy and support, helps facilitate informal

complaint resolution work for children and is commissioned by Swindon Borough Council. This intervention means that in all cases issues were resolved before reaching the formal complaints process. Details of the numbers of children and issues involved are shown in Table 3 below.

5 | P a g e

Table 3: Advocacy and support provided by Coram Voice

Year Number of children Number of issues

2013/2014 45 52

2014/2015 57 79

2015/2016 77 160

2016/2017 119 177

4. Diversity monitoring 4.1 The Council holds information on the ethnicity, gender and disability of

all children with whom it is in contact, so we can monitor whether the complaints process is open to all. Table 4 below shows the information held for this reporting year and the previous year for comparison.

Table 4: Diversity monitoring for complaints from children

2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

White British 5 4 2

Other 1 2 1

Disabled 0 0 0

Male 1 3 3

Female 5 3 1

4.2 Diversity monitoring of adults who complain is more difficult as we do

not hold this information and the numbers of complainants from whom we have been able to obtain this information is too limited to be useful.

5. Why did people complain? 5.1 Complaints are grouped into a number of categories, as shown in Table

5 below. These categories provide some detail of the types of complaints received and an example of the detail for each category:

Table 5: Reasons for complaints

Category’s No of Complaints Detail (examples)

Communication 11 Unhappy with Social Worker lack of communication, feels they are not listened to.

Policy and Procedure

15 Not happy about fine relating to taking child out of school

6 | P a g e

Discrimination 9 Not happy with treatment by social worker made to feel intimidated.

Data Protection or Confidentiality

6

Disclosure of information to a third party.

Employee Behaviour

12

Social Workers having unsuitable skills for the job. Social worker attitude

Financial 2

Payments not received on time for looked after child.

Other 10

Various aspects of foster placement not suitable.

Service Delivery

22

Failure to give information and support for Special Guardianship.

Health and Safety

1

Equipment not provided for child to travel

6. Outcome of complaints 6.1 Complaints are recorded as upheld, not upheld or partially upheld.

Complaints may also be withdrawn by the complainant before the investigation is concluded. Details of the outcomes of the complaints in 2016/17 are shown in Table 6 below, along with the corresponding information for 2015/16. Any complaints which were withdrawn by the complainant before the investigation was concluded are also shown in Table 6 below. Table 6: Outcome of complaints 2015/16 and 2016/17

Outcome

Children’s Social Care

Early Help inc. Children’s Community Health

2015/16 2016/17 2015/16 2016/17

Upheld 27 10 4 2

Partially upheld 5 16 1 0

Not upheld 54 46 10 11

Withdrawn by complainant

4 3 0 0

Outcome not yet available (complaint still in progress at the end of the year)

11 0 1 0

6.2 Of the 10 social care complaints that were upheld, the complaint reasons were as follows:

7 | P a g e

1. Not happy that SW has contacted her at her place of work and left a message - now work are aware of her involvement with Social Services

2. Not happy that details Child Protection plan and address were disclosed to ex-partner

3. Not happy with lack of support and plan for contact between foster child and mum

4. Not happy with age assessment

5. Not happy with allocated social worker due to death of family member

6. Not happy with social workers broken promises and lack of action/progress around child protection plan

7. Feels that social worker doesn't care about transition to 18 and no report and no attendance to meetings and no plan going forward

8. Not happy that social worker has allegedly disclosed personal details to unknown number

9. Feel social services have not supported a child in need and their family due to lack of communication

10. Feels Children’s services have let down two young children, not attending meetings, breaking promises, keep changing social worker

7. Complaints by team or practitioner group 7.1 Table 7 below shows figures for complaints for this reporting year

broken down by team or practitioner group. 7.2 Social Work Teams: Central South, Central North, South and North

received a total of 39 complaints cumulatively. Social Work Team South received the highest number of complaints registered at 15. Family Contact Point & the Assessment & Child Protection Team, received the third highest complaints, a total of 13 across the year.

8 | P a g e

Table 7: Children’s & Families and Community Health Complaints by team or practitioner group

Team 2016/17

Social work Team - Central South 9

Social work Team - Central North 14

Social work Team - South 15

Social work Teams - North 4

Children's Community Health 7

FCP/A&CP 13

Fostering & Adoption 7

Disabled Children's Team 7

Other Early Help Services 6

Safeguarding & Quality Assurance 2

Independent Review Team / Disabled Team 1

Withdrawn 3

Grand Total 88

Abbreviations explained: FCP & A&CP – Family Contact Point and the Assessment and Child

Protection Team.

8. How did you complain? 8.1 Complaints can be made to anyone in the Council, and are accepted in

any form. Table 9 below shows how complaints were received. Some complaints were received via the Council’s online complaints form, and these have been included in the figures for email complaints.

Table 8: How complaints were made

8.2 The complaints process is promoted on-line and with two leaflets, one

targeted towards children and designed by them, and the other targeted towards parents and carers. The former has a freepost address and is given to all children on entering care.

9 | P a g e

Access Channel 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

Email 48 51 40

Face to face 1 7 7

Freepost leaflet 0 1 1

Letter 24 26 26

Telephone 32 32 14

Text 1 0 0

TOTAL 106 117 88

9. Timescales for responding to your complaints 9.1 In the case of Children’s Social Care, the regulations require the local

authority to attempt to resolve complaints and address representations as soon as reasonably practicable and within specific timescales. The guidance states that complaints should be resolved within 10 days at Stage 1 (with a further 10 days for more complex complaints or additional time if an advocate is required).

9.2 With regard to Early Help complaints, the Department of Health

guidelines do not set down definite timescales in which complainants should receive a response, but encourage a speedy response and agreement on timescales with the complainant at the outset with the focus on continuing the dialogue to find a resolution acceptable to all.

9.3 All complaints are handled in line with the Duty of Candour, ensuring

openness and transparency is at the heart of all responses.

9.4 We recognise that there is always room for improvement. There are a number of reasons why complaint resolution takes longer than the timescales specified, for example, during the course of this year complaint resolution has been delayed at times due to the complainant’s or staff availability where a key worker may be off on annual leave or sick leave. This issue has been addressed by ensuring the assistant team manager is made aware of any outstanding complaints that may need to be reallocated.

9.5 Details of the timescales in which complaints were closed for Children’s

Social Care and Children’s Community Health, based on statutory timescales are shown below and exclude Other Early Help Services.

10 | P a g e

Table 9: Response timescales 2016/17

Complaint Stage 0-10 days

10-20 days 21+ days Withdrawn

Stage 1 Social Care 17 20 32 2

Stage 1 Children’s Community Health & Early help

7 3 3 0

Complaint Stage <25 days

26-65 days 65> days Withdrawn

Stage 2 Social Care 2 1

Complaint Stage <25 days

26-65 days 65> days Withdrawn

Stage 3 Social Care 1 0

10. 2016/17 – What have we learnt from your feedback 10.1 The Complaints Manager reports quarterly to the Children, Families

and Community Health Senior Management Team. This information is then circulated to the team managers who then disseminate appropriate learning and undertake actions for improvement within their teams.

You said Our Pledge to you Communication - You feel that

regular, consistent communication is not as you would expect, that promises of contact are not always followed up and this leaves you with a feeling of being lost, unsupported & lacking of trust in us.

We have developed an audit tool that will enable

‘mystery shopping’ to commence in July 2017. We have continued to complete telephone surveys

with you so that you can feedback to us about the service you receive from social workers. We share this feedback with social work teams so that they can hear what you tell us.

We received feedback from you, parents, after attending child protection conferences in order for us to learn what might help you and how we can improve these meetings. The feedback you provided was very positive.

We also spoke to you, young people, about your attendance at child protection conferences and you told us what would help you (for example, an invitation letter being sent to you in relation to your conference that includes a photograph and pen picture of the chair. Also a photograph of the conference room to understand what it looks like.

11 | P a g e

We are continuing to develop and monitor the reports that will be shared with you not only by social workers but by all professionals in conferences to ensure that these are received in advance of the meeting.

Accuracy of written communication – Similarly to

2015/16, you’ve told us that at times, you have questioned the accuracy of some of the documentation & reports produced by Children’s Services & that at times, you have viewed them as possibly being biased or not of equal weight.

We have increased the number of case file / work

monthly audits that will continue to assist in robustly reviewing and scrutinising the documentation in support of your, children’s, journey through the service. We want to make sure that it contains your correct information. We are also increasing the quality assurance of reports to conference and over the next year we will be looking at the quality of assessment and care plans to make sure we capture and analyse your lived experience within your family or placement in order to get the very best outcomes for you.

11. How have we supported children to make complaints? Each time a child makes a complaint, it’s hugely important to us, and only proper, that we ensure that the child feels fully supported and knowledgeable about the process. Below are the kinds of things we’ve done to ensure this happens:

Given an explanation of what an advocate is and shared their details; Made contact with advocates on behalf of the child;

Facilitated the exchange of details between the child and advocate - telephone, text and email;

Given out leaflets which help explain the process; Complaints have been taken by SBC professionals and passed to

complaints manager on behalf of the child.

12. Comments

There were no comments recorded in 2016/17, compared to 4 in 2015/16. However, whilst volumes of comments are zero, it should be noted that many people contact our teams directly to offer comment and feedback which is always taken on board and shared amongst teams in order to maximise our learning.

12 | P a g e

13. Compliments 13.1 There were 16 compliments formally recorded from our service users

this year. This is a significant increase based on last year’s figure of 8. Work continues to promote and share the process of logging compliments from service users centrally, with both existing and new members of staff. Some examples of compliments received are shown below:

Very complimentary about the support you have given them. Child was asked what had help to reduce his ‘worries’ about his mum, his reply was “I am much happier living here with my mum and also knowing that staff member is visiting her a lot, it is really helpful – I really like her she is so nice and always listens” Mother stated “she is really nice – I really like her she has helped so much”

She did the most wonderful job. It was a very tricky conference with difficulties and challenges relating to Children's Services in another area. She managed the meeting very well by balancing Mum's opportunity to have her say and also attending to the seriousness of the concerns. She also very successfully in my view kept the children's voices at the heart of the meeting which was fantastic.

Thanks & praise received for staff member attending a public services course held at Swindon College. Feedback and thanks from Associate Lecturer.

“Thank you so much for coming along, we are very grateful to have found you”

14. Summary 14.1 In the year 2016/17, there were 88 complaints, 0 comments and 16

compliments from service users received within the Children, Families and Community Health service.

Outcomes of closed complaints, 88 at year end (all complaints)

57 (65%) of those complaints resolved during the year were not upheld

16 (18%) were upheld partially

12 (14%) were upheld in full

3 (3.4%) of complaints were withdrawn outside of the complaints process

13 | P a g e

Children’s Social Care and Children’s Community Health Stage 1 response timescales (closed cases at year end - excluding Other Early Help Services)

17 (24%) of stage one complaints received a full response within the 10 day statutory timescales

20 (28%) received a response within the 20 day statutory timescale for more complex complaints

32 (45%) of complaints were in excess of 21 days.

Children’s Social Care Stage 2 response timescales – N/A for Children’s Community Health

0 (0%) received a full response within the 25 day statutory timescales

0 (0%) received a full response within the 26-65 day statutory timescales

2 (100%) received a full response in excess of the 65 day statutory timescales

Children’s Social Care Stage 3 response timescales – N/A for Children’s Community Health

1 (100%) received a full response within the 30 day statutory timescales

Please note that outcome data does not include complaints which have been withdrawn.

14.2 Progress will continue to be monitored, with the feedback identified

from the 2016/17 complaints analysis, and to ensure that they are linked into the Council’s Improvement Plan for Children’s Services.