Sheffield Council ‘needs to listen to its citizens to improve reputation’

Council service delivery manager Corleen Bygraves-Paul, who works on complaints systems, made the comment to a meeting of the audit and services committee while talking about a service improvement plan.

She said: “What we’re trying to do and what we think we’re moving in the direction of is enhancing our reputation as a council that listens to our citizens. We’ve got much more to do.”

She said the plan aims to help chief officers understand the reasons for complaints and then make use of what had been learned to improve services. A vital part of that work is to ensure that staff accurately and consistently record how they handle complaints and what issues were uncovered.

Personal contact is vital, Ms Bygraves-Paul said. She tells staff: “As you would expect if you were complaining about any service, please just pick up the phone and keep customers or citizens informed of what you’re doing, even if there’s no progress.”

She said that often people just appreciate the fact that they feel heard and they know who is dealing with their complaint.

Ms Bygraves-Paul said she was not surprised that housing repairs make up the biggest number of complaints recorded at 42%. Staff make a lot of effort to record issues properly and learn from them.

“Repairs and maintenance are probably the highest recorder of complaints, not only because their service naturally would have those type of complaints, but they are a team that’s committed to working with us and recording it accurately,” she explained.

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The total number of complaints received in 2022/23, including about service provided by Amey and Veolia, was 9,514. Amey accounted for 16% and Veolia 14% of all complaints.

The huge increase of 269% (6,934) recorded complaints in 2022/23, compared with 2,580 complaints received in 2021/22, is due to the fact that more minor complaints are now included in the total.

Ms Bygraves-Paul said this data is vital to help the council understand what’s going wrong and what needs to change.

The report to the committee said that 5,302 (56%) of complaints are dealt with by ‘problem solving’ at the first point of contact, often within three days.