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Response by Head of Service: On receipt of the report from the independent investigator, the Complaints Officer will review to ensure that all the original complaints reported were dealt with by the investigator. The Complaints Officer ensures that the report meets a number of tests and should, in line with Welsh Government’s A Guide to Handling Complaints and Representations: • be evidence-based with contributions from all the people involved; • be as clear as is possible about the facts in each aspect of the complaint; • be written concisely and clearly, avoiding jargon, and easily understandable; • distinguish between fact, feelings and opinion; • reach clear conclusions; • make recommendations for resolving the complaint; and • make recommendations for improving the service so that other service users do not have cause to make the same complaint. Where any discrepancies occur, these are noted, and discussion is initiated with the investigator. Once the final investigation report is agreed, it is passed to the Director of Social Services. Once all clarification points and checks have been completed, the report and a covering letter are sent to the complainant. The length of time for the report and covering letter to be released depends on the extent of the investigation and whether additional work or clarification is required. Relatively straightforward matters can take 5 working days to turn around, whilst more complex investigations can take 20 working days or more. On occasion, particularly when there are legal implications, legal advice is sought, which does lengthen the timescale. Consulting with colleagues across Wales from the All-Wales Complaints Group (AWCOG), reveals a mixed picture with targets ranging from 5 working days to more than 20 working days, depending on the circumstances as well as the availability of the Director. With the above in mind, the Feedback Team are aiming for a 10-working day turnaround time, again being dependent on the availability of the Director. At the time of writing this response, there are two reports awaiting review by the Complaints Officer before being forwarded to the Director, and there is a total of 6 investigations open to independent investigators.
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