Social care complaints in Windsor & Maidenhead increase

A paper presented to councillors on the adult, children, and health overview and scrutiny meeting showed how many complaints and compliments the council had received in 2020/21 compared with 2019/20.

In 2020/21, the council saw an uptick of 415 complaints, which is nearly 20 more criticisms than the previous year.

The complaints involved adult services in 11 instances, 14 were children’s statutory, 36 were children’s corporate, and 354 involved other services.

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Around 70 per cent of children’s statutory complaints were upheld or partially upheld in 2020/21, 68 per cent for children’s corporate –  11 per cent higher than 2019/20 – and 45 per cent for adults.

The report states the highest number of complaints for both adult services and children’s statutory was down to “situation/incident handled incorrectly” by the council.

The council has implemented measures to reduce confusion in its involvement over arrangement of care and has improved practice when working with people who are unable to decide.

Speaking at the meeting, Lin Ferguson, director of social care and early help, they haven’t seen a “spike” in the number of complaints but is concerned about the accuracy of the records, assessments, and plans for children.

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Concerns were also raised on the timelessness of dealing with compliments has reduced.

The Ombudsman, which investigates complaints against a local authority, made 33 decisions on complaints about the Royal Borough’s services in 2020/21, which is 16 lower than 2019/20.

Out of the 33, nine objections were upheld, three of which were for adult services, whereas the previous year only seven were upheld.

However, the council saw the number of compliments double last year with 810 positive comments received in 2020/21.