2018-06-12 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA       12 JUNE 2018


                                                   Attachment 1




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SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                   12 JUNE 2018

                                                                                             Attachment 1

          | @         NOOSA                                                        Council Policy
           @       |  COUNCIL                                        Administrative Action
                                                                       Complaints Process
           Corporate Plan Reference:                 ‘Excellence as a Council’
           Endorsed by Council:                      <Insert Date of Ordinary Meeting >
           Policy Author:                            Governance Advisor

           POLICY BACKGROUND

           Noosa Council is committed to delivering quality customer service and communicating effectively
           with our community. However, we realise that sometimes, despite our best efforts, people may not
           be happy with an administrative action of Council.
           Council welcomes complaints as a form of feedback from our community and will endeavour to
           respond to complaints appropriately and use them as a means to improve our services, systems,
           procedures and policies.
           COUNCIL POLICY
           The objective of this policy and supporting procedure is to effectively manage all administrative
           action complaints from receipt to resolution in a fair, efficient and consistent manner.
           The intended outcomes of the policy include:
           °     Maintaining a high level of customer service whilst managing complaints in keeping with
                 the spirit of Council's Customer Service Charter;
           °     Detection and rectification, where appropriate, of administrative errors;
           °     Identification of areas for improvement in Council’s administrative practices;
           °     Enhancement of the community's confidence in the complaints management process and
                 the reputation of Council as being accountable and transparent; and
           °     Building the capacity of Council officers to manage complaints effectively and continuously
                 improve processes.
           Legislative requirements
           Pursuant to section 268 of the Local Government Act 2009 (LGA), a local government must
           adopt a process for resolving administrative action complaints.
           Section  306 of the    Local Government Regulation      2012 (LGR)    provides that Council’s
           administrative action complaints process must:
           1:    Support the management of complaints to their resolution;
           2:    Require the local government to quickly and efficiently respond to complaints in a fair and
                 objective way;
          3.     Include the criteria considered when assessing whether to investigate a complaint;
          4.     Require the local government to inform an affected person of the local government’s
                 decision, unless the complaint was made anonymously;
           5:    Ensure that all administrative action complaints are recorded; and
          6.     Ensure mechanisms are in place to:
                 °    Identify, analyse and respond to complaint trends;
                 °    Monitor the effectiveness of the complaints management process.

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