Administrative Action Complaints Management Policy And Procedure

Thank you. So good afternoon Chair and today and Councillors. I'm presenting a report on council's administrative action complaints management policy and associated procedure which have been comprehensively reviewed and updated to modernise council's approach and align with contemporary best practice thank you. Its core this work supports council's commitment to high quality services underpinned by transparency, accountability and responsiveness and it recognises the community's right to provide feedback including complaints about council's decisions, actions or inactions. And just as a starting point, there are clear statutory requirements for Council to maintain an effective administrative action complaints framework. Under section 268 of the Local Government Act, Council must adopt a process for resolving administrative action complaints. Furthermore section 306 the of the Local Government Regulation requires a complaints management process that effectively manages complaints from receipt to resolution and which is supported by adopted written policies and procedures, which is why I'm here today. Council also has ongoing obligations in the law for record keeping, ensuring the public can access the policy and procedure, and monitoring complaints trends and evaluating effectiveness, which is found in the latest annual report, if anyone's interested online. Governance branch routinely reviews governance policies to ensure they remain fit for purpose, compliant, and aligned with best practice. I must note the review commenced in 2022 for this piece of work, however this piece of work progress was affected by resourcing constraints, competing organisational priorities, and the development and implementation of a new complaint system solution for Council. The policy work has now been completed following extensive consultation, trials, feedback, and expert advice both internally and externally. So in a nutshell updated policy is now clearer high-level governance document and it includes things such as alignment with council's organisational policy framework including modern sections such as review cycles definitions and the purpose. It also includes high-level complaint management principles aligned with the Australian Standard which is the Australian Standard for the Guidelines for Complaint Management in Organisations which we didn't have before. There's a clearer explanation of council's three-level complaint management approach. We have improved guidance on how to submit complaints for complainants including how to submit anonymous complaints, third-party submissions and support options and we have section on complainant rights and what complainants can expect, improving visibility and clarity. Importantly the operational detail like scope definitions, reporting processes in more detail and the distinction between what is the service request versus an administrative action complaint has been moved into the procedure so really the policy stays genuinely high level. The updated procedure document that accompanies it is designed to support consistent practice across Council and includes clear alignment with council's framework through sections like scope and review schedule, updated process steps so we have steps one to five that really show the complainant how complaints are managed in line with current practice and industry best standard and supporting governance sections clearer roles and responsibilities for teams across Council, what the council's role in all of this as well, relevant legislation underpinning this, associated documents and a human rights statement for compatibility. If adopted governance will implement changes through advice and training to relevant teams and continue to manage and monitor council's complaint portfolio with the updated documents published on council's website to meet our statutory obligations. From a risk perspective adopting the updated policy and procedure reduces the risk of non-compliance essentially and we can otherwise which can otherwise lead to reputational damage and breaches while improving transparency accountability and supporting trust with the community through good governance. Finally a few minor amendments from will be applied prior to publication such as word changes but they however they are not significant in nature and do not change the meaning of the document. So Councillors the recommendation is that Council will repeal the current 2018 AAC policy and adopt the two documents in both attachments and authorise the CEO to make any minor amendments. To the publication. I guess one final point of this is both documents have been written in a way that they can stand alone as well in case someone in the community only wants to read one and still understands what it's about and how they can essentially lodge a complaint with Council.

Karen Finzel1:22

I'll take that to the vote. That's unanimous and on live? Yeah. Yes, thank you. Are you up with that? Over and seconder? Thank you. We'll up to item number five, there are no presentations. Item number six, no deputations. That brings us to agenda item seven, Reports for consideration of the Committee. That takes us to item 7.1, administrative action complaints. Management policy and procedure. We welcome Di Stewart to the table, who I might written add has written a really comprehensive report and we'd like to thank you and your team for your contribution. Thank you.