Councillors want to know what's behind the 79 per cent increase in care complaints
“If someone does make a complaint, that's an effort on their part. They've made that effort for a reason”
Sheffield councillors want to get to the bottom of the "sharp increase" in number of adult social care complaints revealed in an recent report.
Councillor Ruth Milsom shared concerns at an adult health and social care policy committee on October 21, after a report to the committee suggested a 79 per cent increase in care complaints could be down to national trends, an easier complaints process and the increase of using artificial intelligence (AI).
79 per cent represents 317 new complaints in 2025/26, compared with 177 in 2024/25.
"The assumption that us (the council) making complaints easier to exercise, and potential use of AI in writing a complaint letter, it just seems we ought to be looking a bit harder at what the underlying causes are,"Coun Milsom said.
“It seems we are explaining away why there's this big increase.
“If someone does make a complaint that's an effort on their part. They've made that effort for a reason.
"It does take effort, even if we have made it simpler. If someone's done that I do think we should be looking at why they've done that."
She said the council needed to look more at the trends behind why people complain, as well as the trends in the ones that are upheld.
On AI, Matt Bowsher, director of adult social care and wellbeing at Sheffield City Council, said: “It's a background factor rather than an excuse and there is no intention whatsoever to deny anybody in Sheffield their right to complain."
He said performance of the the ombudsman (the independent service that looks at council complaints) compares "favourably" against other core cities.
But he would like to focus on the early stages of complaints.
"By the time someone has taken the effort to express a concern it is better for all parties if we deal with it rather than the need for it to become a complaint," he said.
Councillor Sophie Crossthorn said transparency was important: “I think the more open we are about the challenges we have the easier it is to fix them”
But she echoed Coun Milsom's concerns that the council could be “explaining it away”.
She was concerned AI could be being used as a “scapegoat in a lot of ways”.
Coun Crossthorn said: “Perhaps these are people who should have been complaining anyway that hadn't been supported to do so, and now they've got a tool that allows them to.”
Coun Milsom suggested starting a 'task and finish group', where committee members would meet on this specific issue to dig into the "root causes" in the spike in complaints.
She suggested Healthwatch, a health and social care advice centre in Sheffield, could be involved.
Coun Milsom said she wanted members to look the roots causes of complaints rather than them being reported through council officers.
Mr Bowsher said: “There are clearly more questions that we need to work through here.”
He agreed to set up a briefing meeting to hear the questions from councillors on the committee, but that this should happen before recommending a task and finish group.
Councillor Maleiki Haybe, who chairs the committee, said he was grateful for the back and forth at the meeting.
“It is an important committee. We are responsible for hundreds of thousands of lives in the city," he said.