North Yorkshire County Council has linked soaring numbers of both complaints and compliments on rising expectations, declining Government funding and improvements in technology.
North Yorkshire County Council’s executive heard complaints over its services such as roads maintenance and adult social care rose over the past five years to 1,583 in the 12 months to April this year, representing a 63 per cent increase.
The year to April alone saw complaints levelled at the authority increase by 23 per cent and a total of 18 complaints against the council were upheld by the Local Government Ombudsman.
However, since 2015/16 the council has received a huge increase in compliments rising from 1,620 to 2,510 in 2019/20, representing a 55 per cent rise.
The majority of compliments were over library and customer services as well as adult social care, while about a third of the complaints were directed towards the council’s department charged with maintaining 9,200km of roads, 4,000km of pavements, 47,000 streetlights and 2,000 bridges.
An officer’s report to the executive stated: “In general, the number of complaints received increases over time, which is expected against the background of greater need and expectations against less resources…”
Over the five years, the cost of delivering services such as adult social care has spiralled. In 2015/16 the authority spent £135m on the service, but by the last financial year the cost of adult social care had risen to £158m.
Over the same time, its income from council tax-payers, following several rises, increased by more than £60m.
Nevertheless, leading councillors said they did not believe significant rises in council tax bills had triggered an increase in expectations.
Councillor Greg White, executive member for performance management, said the rise in both complaints and compliments could be linked to it becoming increasingly simple with technological advances for people to make their views known.
He said people were more likely to complain about bad services than send compliments on good services, so the figures reflected the high quality of the authority’s services. The Pickering division member added the council had officers who continually analysed complaints and compliments to relay lessons learned to heads of departments.
He said: “Every large organisation will inevitably get complaints as well as compliments. We value all feedback, which helps us to understand what people value and what we get right, as well as where we could further improve our services and communication. It is particularly heartening that so many people take the time to complement our hard working staff and volunteers.”
Councillor David Chance, executive member for stronger communities said while it was expected that complaints rose in times of difficulty and hardship it was pleasing to see such a significant rise in compliments.
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