Rise in complaints about Sheffield adult social care

A total of 229 complaints were received by adult health and social care between April 1, 2022 and March 31, 2023, a report to the committee states.

Of these, 113 statutory complaints were considered under the Adult Social Care Act Statutory Complaints Procedure – this is an increase of 35 per cent on the number received the previous year, which was 73.

Andrew Drummond, council safeguarding services quality assurance manager, presented an annual report on complaints to a meeting of Sheffield City Council’s adult health and social care policy committee (January 31).

He said: “We want to embed a culture of learning in adult care and wellbeing and complaints we see as part of that listening to people in Sheffield.”

He said they also take compliments into account when looking at service delivery.

Transparency

Mr Drummond said that complaints fall into four categories – assessing needs, provision of support, delivery of care and safe pathways and transitions.

Committee chair Coun Angela Argenzio said: “We want to have transparency and also we want to improve what we do and this is part of that process and about being as transparent as possible.”

She explained that the figures were slightly higher than the previous year, due in part to capturing data better, being compared to a Covid year when there was only access to critical services and because of how much easier it is to lodge complaints.

The highest overall complaint category during 2022/23 was in relation to quality (32 per cent). The highest detailed category of complaint was poor customer care (27 per cent), the report said.

In total, seven per cent of complaints considered under the statutory procedure were escalated for review by a more senior manager.

A total of 10 complaints were reported to the ombudsman for the service. The report said one was classed as a premature referral, seven were considered without formal inquiries and there were two formal inquiries made. This compared to seven formal inquiries the previous year.

Misunderstanding

The ombudsman upheld both complaints and financial remedies were made, totalling £900.

In complaints investigated by the council, the outcomes were:

• Service failures identified – 18 per cent

• Misunderstanding clarified – 10 per cent

• No action necessary – 10 per cent

• Complaints withdrawn by customer – 15 per cent

• Complaints resolved via local resolution (problem solved) – 48 per cent

Financial payments were made to four complainants, one received an apology and three got additional information or an explanation.

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Coun Ruth Milsom said: “If you keep your ear to the ground in the social care world and you’re a councillor and you pay attention to your inbox and your voicemail, that could give you the impression that it’s dreadful and everything is a mess and everything is complaints.

Compliments

“It is a very small proportion and it is really important in terms of numbers but you also need to set it against the context of compliments.”

She asked if compliments are analysed as well.

Mr Drummond said the department needs to do more to enable the public to record when they were pleased with the service.

Coun Argenzio said: “We’re much better at complaining than saying ‘thank you and we appreciate you’ but people do come back and say that, it’s just that we don’t record it.”

Coun Dianne Hurst said the report shows how seriously the council takes complaints in order to try and improve the experience for service users.

Coun Sophie Thornton said the council needs to shout more about its successes as well as being open about when problems occur.