Complaints and compliments six month monitoring report
Wolverhampton Waste Partnership, December 20, 2007
You can also download this report by clicking on the PDF icon below.
Purpose of report
This report provides an review of complaints received over a six month period (1 April to 30 September 2007), highlighting performance against agreed targets.
Recomendations
- To consider the content of the report and refer it to Partnership Management Board for consideration
and comment
- Agree to receive a further six month update report covering the period
October 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008 - Service improvement plan reference: 3, 4, 10, 14
Background
Complaints offer a chance for us to gain an accurate picture of the level and quality of service offered from the perspective of the service user. They provide feedback on service delivery and a means for the user to have an input into the continuous improvement of an organisation. we are committed to giving the best service it can. But it's only by listening to you that we are able find out how we are doing.
The Ombudsman Annual Report letter 2007 has praised the way we use technology to enable you to pursue complaints and was pleased that the complaints and compliments section of our website provides a link to both the Ombudsman Annual Letter and to the Local Government Ombudsman website.
Complaints management
When we receive a complaint, a response is sent in acknowledgement within seven days of receiving the complaint. This advises the complainant who is dealing with their complaint. A final response is sent within 28 days from when we received the initial complaint.
If the complaint is more complex then more time may be needed to do a thorough investigation. However, we will advise the complainant if more time is needed and when they can expect to receive a response from us.
Residents are able to use the complaints and compliments form. These are available from the Civic Centre and all our other buildings. The form is available in Arabic, Bengali, English, Farsi, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. Or you can send an e-mail to: complaints@wolverhampton.gov.uk.
Complaints received
It is pleasing to note that the Waste and Recycling Service received only 30 complaints for the six month period covered by this report. The Waste Partnership’s staff are encouraged to resolve issues at the first point of contact and this is reflected in the number of complaints received.
The following table presents the turnaround performance against our targets.
| Month |
Number |
Closed |
Pending |
Responses to customer |
| October 2007 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
7 |
| November 2007 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| December 2007 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
| January 2008 |
11 |
7 |
4 |
11 |
| Febuary 2008 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
| March 2008 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
A summary of the complaints received is broken down by particular category as detailed in the table below.
| Operational complaints |
Number
|
| Missed collection |
12
|
| Bins not returned to property |
1 |
| Delivery of bin/box |
5 |
| Cleanliness of collection |
0 |
| NRI |
0 |
| Operative behaviour |
3 |
| Bulky collection service |
0 |
| Damage by refuse vehicle |
0 |
| Damage by refuse vehicle |
0 |
| Policy complaints/service enquiries: |
|
| No access to property therefore unable to collect refuse |
0 |
| Incorrect use of bins by customer |
0 |
| Customer request |
0 |
| Bank Holiday collection (Christmas) |
0 |
| New permit scheme/access |
0 |
| Ellerton Walk |
0 |
| Exemption service |
0 |
| Bin allocation |
0 |
| Bulky collection |
0 |
The average time taken to respond to complaints was well within our target time of 28 days.
Issues arising from complaints
It is misleading to draw conclusions from such a small volume of data, which is also extremely varied in its contents. However, the Waste Partnership does try to improve services following information received from complaints.
Of the 30 complaints received, 12 concerned missed collections. The Waste Partnership has endeavoured to improve performance in respect to missed collections and regularly achieves 0.03% of missed bins as reported in the monthly performance report. Five of the complaints received related to the delivery of bins and boxes which is currently the subject of a report to Partnership management Group. Staff issues were confined to three complaints of operative behaviour which have been dealt with internally and one related to bins not being returned to the property. The other nine complaints received were considered to be unjustified complaints. For example, six were customer requests for information, two concerned the permit scheme and one involved a request for exemption.
Financial implications
Although there are no direct financial implications directly arising from this report, dealing with formal complaints and in some cases extended correspondence that precedes them, can be extremely time consuming for managers. Improvements in dealing with complaints or avoiding them in the first place would have a positive effect on resources.
Environmental implications
There are no direct environmental implications as a result of this report.
Equal opportunities implications
The corporate complaints procedure actively promotes our commitment to promote equality and diversity.
Contact us
For more information you can contact us using our online contact form or by;
e-mail: city.direct@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Telephone: 01902 551155
Minicom: 01902 555554
Fax: 01902 551195
Write:
Wolverhampton City Council
City Direct
4th Floor, Mander House
Wolverhampton
WV1 3NF