The Leader and Assistant Solicitor Mid-Kent Legal Partnership have been invited to attend for these items.

The Chairman welcomed the Leader and the Team Leader – Corporate Governance (Solicitor) to the meeting, and invited them to introduce the item.  The Leader invited Members to give comments on the Policies.

Members gave feedback on each of the Policies, and a summary of their feedback is set out below.  The Leader and Team Leader answered Members’ questions throughout the debate.

Complaints Policy

General comments - add paragraph numbers in the document, as the document refers to paragraph 3.1; review wording to make it consistent (either generalised or personalised);  Include reference to make it clear how complaints about the Chief Executive will be handled;

Page 1 – ‘What is a complaint’ – Members suggested that either the words ‘formal’ or ‘however made’ should be removed; and asked for the third sentence to read ‘A request for a service may be escalated to a complaint if the complainant considers the Council fails to meet our service standards….’

Page 2 – How you can make a complaint:

First bullet point – clarification was sought that this referred to complaints made on Swale Borough Council’s website only, however it was explained that we may have to also accept complaints made on Facebook or Twitter pages in the same way we have to accept Freedom of Information requests.  Reassurance was given that these were monitored.

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Last bullet point – add the words ‘or a Councillor’.

Page 2 – second section, fourth bullet point – review the term ‘respond in plain English’ to ‘plain language’ or ‘any language’.

Page 2 – Stage 1:

Second sentence – amend it to read ‘….the relevant Head of Service to investigate and respond to’.

Clarification that reference to 10 working days is that response should be within 10 working days, not in 10 days.

Clarification that if a complaint was not responded to within 10 working days, could the complainant request that it automatically be escalated to a Stage 2 complaint?

Page 3 – Stage 2:

Remove the words ‘You can request’ from the first sentence.

Whether reference needs to be made to ‘in writing’ given that earlier in the document it sets out the ways to complain.

Page 3 – Local Government Ombudsman

Remove the words ‘most’ in the last sentence.

During the debate, the Team Leader – Corporate Governance (Solicitor) clarified that whilst the complaint was referred to the Head of Service, it was likely that more junior members of staff would be asked to respond, although it would still remain the responsibility of the Head of Service.  The Leader and the Policy and Performance Officer also outlined the duties under the Corporate Equalities Scheme in terms of providing information in different languages.

In terms of monitoring complaints, the Committee welcomed a more detailed report on the complaints received (which would be anonymised). 

Unreasonably Persistent and Vexatious Contact Policy

The Team Leader – Corporate Governance (Solicitor) clarified that the term vexatious was a legal term and was used by the Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, and could only be used to describe a contact (not a person).

General Comments: Whether the name of the Policy could be changed, and whether it should read ‘or’ instead of ‘and’; whether it should be made clearer that the Policy is for complaints on the same subject over and over again, not different subjects; amend the footer of the document.

Page 1 – Introduction:

Review the wording of the second sentence of the third paragraph from ‘will not tolerate’ to ‘do not tolerate’ or change it to ‘does and will not tolerate’.

Change the term ‘unreasonable’ to ‘disproportionate’.

Page 1 – Unreasonably persistent and vexatious contact

Change the word ‘unreasonable’ to ‘disproportionate’ in the last bullet point, so that it is easier to measure.

Last paragraph, second sentence, add bullet points before ‘frequent’, ‘lengthy’ and ‘repetitive’ so that it is clear that they are three separate categories.

Page 2 – Process where a contact is considered unreasonably persistent or vexatious

Consider changing the word ‘requesting’ to ‘requiring’ in the first bullet point.

Consider adding reference to the fact that the decision-making will consider all circumstances of the case, before determining if a complaint is vexatious.

Consider whether it is possible for Ward Members to be notified as they may also receive contact from the complainant.

Page 2 – Termination of contact

Second paragraph - change ‘14 days’ to ‘10 working days’.

During the discussion, the Team Leader – Corporate Governance (Solicitor) confirmed that the Council could not stop a person making contact, for example by blocking email, but it could set up a rule so emails from a person were sent to a particular officer.  It was not possible to block contact completely.  It was also clarified that this Policy took effect when the complainant had already been through the complaints procedure, but still kept on contacting the Council about the same subject.  It was acknowledged that this Policy would be used for a minority of complainants, and that in some cases initial informal discussions could take place to resolve the issue before it reached the complaint stage.

The Chairman thanked the Leader and the Team Leader - Corporate Governance (Solicitor) for attending the meeting.

Resolved:

(1)  That the Leader considers the feedback from the Committee, as detailed in the above Minute.