The Standards and General Purposes Committee convened to review complaints, consider an annual report, and discuss the work programme. The committee approved the minutes from the previous meeting, reviewed the Compliments, Complaints and Improvements Annual Report and Ombudsman Update, and noted the Member Code of Conduct Complaints - Quarter 1 Review.

Compliments, Complaints and Improvements Annual Report and Ombudsman Update

The committee reviewed and agreed to publish the Compliments, Complaints and Improvements Annual Report and Ombudsman Update on the council's website. The report provided a summary of compliments and complaints from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, including an annual review letter from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO).

Jennifer Griffin, Head of Information Governance and Complaints & Improvements, presented the report, highlighting improvements in complaint handling, compensation payments, and benchmarking. She noted that the council handled an increased number of Stage 1 complaints without longer response times, resolved issues more informally, and reduced upheld complaints.

Key points from the report included:

• Compliments: Compliments remained roughly the same as in previous years, with Adults & Health receiving the most, particularly for occupational therapists and home independence teams. Communities and Planning and Sustainability also saw an increase in compliments, extracts of which were included in Appendix A of the Public reports pack.
• Stage 1 Complaints: The council handled 2,259 Stage 1 complaints, a slight increase from the previous year. A spike in Quarter 2 was related to SEND transport issues. Communities experienced a slight increase in complaints (around 4%), while Southern Waste saw a decrease of 15%. Children's services complaints increased, with SEND complaints rising 42% and making up about 70% of children's services complaints overall. Planning and Sustainability and Housing also had some increase in complaints, which was due to increased demand and workload pressures. 78% of Stage 1 complaints were responded to within the 20-day target time, with an average of 16 days.
• Stage 2 Complaints: There was an increase in cases going into the Stage 2 process, with a slight increase in resolution time, but remaining within the 40-day timeframe. 39% of complaints were upheld or partially upheld, indicating that 61% were handled and resolved at Stage 1.
• Adult Social Care Complaints: These increased from 66 to 100, but with informal resolutions decreasing from 53 to 32, partly due to complaints around funding decisions. The response time for statutory complaints was 24 days.
• Children's Social Care Complaints: These increased overall but remained below previous years' levels. The escalation rate from Stage 1 to Stage 2 has decreased, attributed to improved Stage 1 responses, and the average response time has also improved from 25 days to 21 days.
• Compensation: Compensation, including reimbursements, goodwill payments, and LGSCO awards, reduced from the previous year.
• Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO): 197 decisions were reviewed, with 57 full investigations undertaken. The council maintained 100% compliance with remedy recommendations and resolved 12% of complaints before Ombudsman involvement, which is above average for similar councils. Education and children's services received the most complaints going to the Ombudsman, followed by adult social care services and planning and development.
• Learnings and Actions: Apologies were the top corrective action undertaken, followed by additional staff training. The council is working with the LGSCO on the Complaints Code and with its case management provider to ensure it is in a good position when the code becomes live in April 2026.

During the discussion, Councillor Tim Dixon asked for more detail on the types of complaints made and their outcomes. Councillor Frank Mahon questioned how goodwill payments were determined and whether they were negotiable. Councillor John Schiffer requested a breakdown of community complaints, particularly those related to parking charge increases. Councillor Wendy Matthews suggested hypothetical worked examples of how complaints are dealt with. Councillor Larisa Townsend raised concerns about delays in addressing Stage 1 complaints.

Jennifer Griffin responded to the questions, explaining that goodwill payments are based on previous decisions made by the ombudsman and that the council aims to resolve complaints as early as possible. She agreed to discuss with Councillor Carrington, Cabinet Member for Resources, ways to provide more detailed information to the committee.

Member Code of Conduct Complaints - Quarter 1 Review

The committee noted and reviewed the Member Code of Conduct Complaints for Quarter 1 (April to June 2025). Tom Fowler, Senior Member Services and Governance Officer, presented the report, which provided an overview of complaints opened and closed during the quarter.

Key points from the report included:

• A total of 24 complaints were received, with 8 related to parish and town councils and 16 related to Buckinghamshire councillors. This was an increase of nine from Quarter 1 last year.
• Eleven complaints were made about the same subject matter and about the same Buckinghamshire councillor.
• As of the time of the writing of the report, four complaints were open. Three of these have now been closed. Two were closed at stage one within recommended timescales. Another was closed due to the lack of response from the complainants, and therefore one still remains open from quarter one this year.

Councillor Karen Dickson raised concerns about the committee's role in overseeing complaints, stating that it felt like the committee was only seeing the data and not able to provide accountability or integrity to the process. Glenn Watson, Senior Governance Manager, responded that the process primarily involves the monitoring officer and deputy monitoring officer, and that the committee's role is to review the effectiveness of the arrangements for handling complaints. He suggested providing more details on the types of complaints received in future reports.

Councillor Frank Mahon questioned the details of some complaints, particularly those where the allegation was not specified. He also sought confirmation that complaints against a Buckinghamshire councillor were closed because the councillor was acting as a private individual. Tom Fowler clarified that the unspecified complaint was closed due to a lack of information and that the other complaints were indeed closed because the councillor was acting as a private individual.

Councillor Phil Gomm suggested clustering complaints related to a social media campaign against a councillor to be fair to the person complained about.

Councillor Sherrilyn Bateman noted that she and other councillors had forwarded on an email about one particular councillor, and asked if they would all have been recorded as separate complaints.

Work Programme

The committee noted the work programme and discussed an additional item referred by the full council regarding transparency of allowances received by councillors serving on outside bodies. Glenn Watson explained that the motion put to full council aimed to give greater transparency to any allowances a councillor serving on an outside body may receive. He noted that the committee could recommend changes to the code of conduct to require councillors to declare any fees received for serving on an outside body. He also noted that the committee could issue advice on ethical governance and transparency to councillors.

Councillor Frank Mahon raised concerns about declaring an interest if he were to be sitting on an outside board that attracts enumeration¹. He sought clarification on whether he would have to declare an interest and leave the meeting when the item was discussed.

Councillor Wendy Matthews noted that the committee was expecting something about the code of conduct from the government.

The committee agreed to discuss the additional item at the next meeting on 16 October 2025.