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The Head of Legal Services presented a report on compliments, complaints, concerns and requests for information made by the public to the Service over the past 12 months.
Members were informed that there were 53 complaints received in the past 12 months, 40 of which were activities of the Service. Each complaint was investigated and written responses were provided for each. There were 6 that were considered the Service was at fault and remedial action was taken and 4 people who were dissatisfied with the response from the investigating officer and those cases were reviewed by the Deputy Chief Fire Officer. One person was still dissatisfied and took the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman, however they declined to investigate.
Compliments were down by 50% compared to last year which was thought to be because a lot are received as a result of home fire safety checks, which last year was 46% fewer.
There were 276 Freedom of Information requests received, which actually resulted in over 1200 pieces of information requested.
Members were assured that officers were satisfied that there were no significant levels of recurring themes or trends in the concerns and complaints being reported to give any cause for concern.
RESOLVED that the Committee notes that during the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021:
i) a total of 276 requests for information containing 1,224 queries about the Service were received;
ii) a total of 50 compliments were received from the public;
iii) 40 complaints about Service activities were made;
iv) 13 complaints or concerns were received about activities carried out by other organisations or individuals; and
v) 4 of the complainants appealed the response provided and one was passed to the Local Government Ombudsman for investigation.