Sheffield Council takes action to tackle rising service complaints

The city council’s audit and standards committee called for changes after hearing in November that complaints had rocketed from 2,014 in 2020/21 to 2,463 the following year, with the most common reason being quality of service.

A meeting of the committee heard an update from Corleen Bygraves-Paul, service delivery manager in the customer services department, about an improvement plan that has been put into position to ensure that work is taking place to ensure better delivery of services and action when people complain.

Ms Bygraves-Paul told the meeting that the plan aims to improve the council’s reputation as a caring organisation that listens to its population: “Helping customers have a better experience is our aim.

“People will always complain. We want to assure them that we are listening and changing our processes where necessary.”

She said the improvement plan outlines areas such as how staff respond to complaints, how they are recorded and what has been learned from every complaint and its resolution.

Prompt attention

Top managers are prompted by the customer services team to ensure that issues get prompt attention rather than lying in someone’s in-tray. Ms Bygraves-Paul said that the ‘ripples’ of culture change taking place in the council can be seen by the number of staff asking for further training on customer service systems and recording complaints accurately.

She told the meeting: “As a complaints team, we’re on it. We know the areas such as repairs and housing have a lot of complaints. They are policies that matter to people.

“We’re passionate to make sure that those officers are responsive and there’s no complacency in those areas. As a team we’re all over it.

“We’re aware of what matters most. We get that feedback from citizens and we want to make sure that they are accountable.”

Her colleague Paul Taylor said: “We are trying to change the whole culture of the organisation. The push that came from here (the committee) has really moved things along.”

Housing repairs

An annual report for 2021-22 shows that 46 per cent of complaints were responded to within 28 days. In total, 138 people received an apology. Other actions included enforcing a decision, changing service providers and changing, reviewing or providing a service.

The council’s partners, Streets Ahead highways contractor Amey and waste firm Veolia, accounted for 55 per cent of complaints made.

Most complaints made to adult and children’s care services were about service quality and the majority of people complaining about housing repairs were unhappy about delays in getting work done.

The local government and social care ombudsman upheld 15 out of 20 complaints and the housing ombudsman upheld two complaints.

Coun Tom Hunt said: “This is really welcome – it’s is clear that in between now and the meeting in November an awful lot of work has gone on with the improvement plan.” He asked the team to “keep going in the direction you are going”.

Committee chair Coun Colin Ross said: “What we really want is to get it right first time and if that improvement plan helps, that is in everybody’s interest.”

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