Corporate and statutory annual complaints report 2024 to 2025

In 2024 to 2025, we saw 1,107 contacts received from the public to express dissatisfaction with the service they had been provided. The remainder of cases not included in this report are a variety of areas including recruitment, fire and rescue and HR.

Due to the removal of pre-complaints from the beginning of the 2024 to 2025 year, all contacts entered the formal complaints process.

The first quarter of the year saw a decrease in the number of contacts received compared to the same quarter of the previous year. This number continued to decline over the final three quarters of the year.

Overall, there was a decrease of 22% in the number of contacts received by the authority in comparison to the previous year. This is despite the removal of the pre-complaint process, which was expected to reflect an increase in the total number of stage 1 complaints being raised.

The following table shows the total number of complaints entering the formal process per quarter from 2021 to 2022:

For all services, complaints which have been found to be either fully or partially upheld, have been analysed further. This is to determine if there are any common factors which can be improved for future service provision. It is these cases that are being used to make recommendations to services on things which require work and, or improvement.

Overall outcomes of all formal complaints in 2024 to 2025:

• upheld - 211 (19%) 
• partially upheld - 274 (25%)
• not upheld - 622 (56%) 

In 2024 to 2025, 44 cases escalated to the next stage of the complaints process. Of these 44 cases, three were within the children’s statutory complaints process. Two of which remain open at the time of writing this report.

Escalation of complaints

Overall, cases escalated to stage 2 of the complaints process increased by 33%. Therefore, although complaint numbers have decreased, more customers have remained dissatisfied with the response provided compared to the previous year.