Agenda item

The Customer Service, Standards and Complaints Manager presented the report to the Committee to provide information on the Council’s performance in relation to its customer service standards and the number of Compliments, Comments and Complaints received for Quarter 4 2025/26 (1^st January 2026 to 30^th March 2026) and an Annual Summary on the above for 2025/26.

Revenues had achieved 81% of incoming calls answered within 20 seconds for Quarter 4 2025/26 (target 70%), with cumulative performance for 2025/26 being 84%.  Benefits had achieved 89% of incoming calls answered within 20 seconds for Quarter 4 2025/26 (target 80%), with cumulative performance for 2025/26 being 90%.

In Quarter 4 2025/26, Revenues had received 5,476 emails and Benefits had received 1,667 emails – all had been acknowledged within 1 working day.

For Quarter 4 2025/26, Contact Centres had achieved 77% of incoming calls answered within 20 seconds (target 75%) with cumulative performance for 2025/26 being 78% with 70,359 calls answered (the target for 2026/27 would increase to 80%).

For 2025/26, the overall average incoming call wait time was 31 seconds, and the average call handling time was 4 minutes and 47 seconds – a slight decrease from previous years.

In the same period, Contact Centres had acknowledged all 8,328 email enquiries received within 1 working day (meeting the target of 100%), with 99.7% of emails replied to within 8 working days (target was 100%).

For 2025/26, a total of 31,628 emails were handled and 100% were answered within 8 working days.

Contact Centres had answered 82% of incoming Live Chats within 20 seconds for Quarter 4 2025/26 (target 90%), with 765 chats answered out of 791 in total.

For 2025/26, 86% of live chats were answered (target was 90%) with 2,435 chats answered out of 2,490.

63 Compliments had been received during Quarter 4 2025/26, with Go! Active receiving 12 Customer Feedback Form Compliments within this time.

27 Comments had been received with all acknowledged and passed to the respective department within the target time of 5 working days during Quarter 2 2025/26.  Go! Active had received 9 Customer Feedback Forms within this time.

70 Stage 1 Complaints had been recorded in Quarter 4 2025/26, with 12 M.P. Enquiries received during the same period.  98% of Stage 1 Complaints and 100% M.P. Enquiries had been responded to within the Council’s Customer Service Standard of 10 working days.

10 Stage 2 Complaints had been recorded in Quarter 4 2025/25 with 100% responded to within the Council’s Customer Service Standard of 20 working days.

2 Local Government Ombudsman Complaints had been received for investigation during Quarter 4 2025/26 – the Council was awaiting determination regarding these cases.

The report further detailed the service improvements made (“the Leisure department will make arrangements to ensure a deeper clean of the changing rooms happens more frequently” was 1 of the examples provided to the Committee) following receipt of applicable Comments and Complaints.

The report additionally provided 2025/26’s performance in comparison with previous years, and when compared directly to 2024/25, the following was noted:

• There had been an increase in Comments;
• There had been a decrease in Stage 1 Complaints;
• There had been a decrease in Stage 2 Complaints;
• Acknowledgements were within target for full responses to Stage 2 Complaints; and,
• There had been a slight decrease in average working days response times.

The data would appear to indicate the Council had a robust Complaints Policy, as recommended by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and the Housing Ombudsman Service.

Details on the Housing Ombudsman Policy Review and the changes made to the Council’s Compliments, Comments and Complaints Policy (the ‘Policy’) was attached at Appendix 3.  Updates to procedures made it easier for residents to access information on how to submit a Complaint on the Council’s website via the self-service portal and homepage.

Additionally, the Housing Ombudsman had reviewed the Policy and had invited the Council to review the following recommendations:

• Clarify when a customer would be given the choice to make a Complaint where dissatisfaction was expressed;
• Clarify the Council would review initial requests as a service request;
• Edit the Out of Scope / appeal route points; and,
• Confirm a customer could escalate to a Complaint at any time during a service request and that this would not slow or interrupt a service request.

In response to a concern raised, the Customer Service, Standards and Complaints Manager informed that whilst a Complaint from February 2026 was detailed twice in respect of the 2 service areas responsible, it should not be listed within the figures as 2 separate Complaints.

After the meeting it was confirmed that whilst the report might have appeared to show a duplicate entry in this regard (to detail the 2 separate service areas responsible), this was not the case in the final figures.

A Member raised concern on the Council’s handling / process of collecting Council Tax Debt with regards a resident who was a survivor of Domestic Ause (incl. financial abuse).  The Customer Service, Standards and Complaints Manager informed the case would be reviewed after the meeting to ensure the handling of such a sensitive case was appropriate.

The Chair offered and the Member agreed that the Committee discuss the specific case referenced above during the informal session (due to its sensitive nature).

Moved by Councillor Emma Stevenson and seconded by Councillor Louise Fox

RESOLVED that: 1) the Customer Services Scrutiny Committee note the overall performance on Customer Service Standards and Compliments, Comments and Complaints; and,

2)    the Customer Services Scrutiny Committee approve the CCC Policy changes following recommendations by the Housing Ombudsman.