Complaints response ‘abysmal’ as Leeds City Council says staff are overworked

Billy Flynn said the local authority had to deal with grievances lodged by members of the public quicker.

A council report on the issue, which was discussed publicly on Monday, concluded it was performing “below expectation” in this regard.

It said that just 43 per cent of complaints made to its children and families department were responded to within the council’s own timescale targets.

The council’s waste management service, which handles bin collections, recorded a 61 per cent timely response rate.

A senior officer at the local authority said some staff were “overwhelmed with work”, but that efforts were being made to address the problem.

Speaking at a scrutiny committee on Monday, Councillor Flynn, who represents Adel and Wharfedale, said: “The complaint response timelines, certainly in some directorates, appears to be absolutely abysmal.”

A specialist group has been set up within the council to address the slowness of responses in the children and families department, specifically.

Councillor Flynn added: “I just wonder if there’s a case for the other directorates having a similar examination in some sort of depth?”

In response, Neil Evans, the council’s director of resources, said the issue was a “concern”.

But he said a huge spike in requests for help to the council’s special needs and disabilities service for children meant staff were working round the clock.

He said: “Unfortunately it’s a vicious circle at times where a team will be overwhelmed with work, and therefore you then you get more complaints, and then those same people are responding to them.

“But clearly we need to reflect on those statistics and put action plans in place around how we recover it.”