Rutland County Council says compliments and complaints help shape services
Rutland County Council carefully monitors the comments and complaints it receives, so we can improve services, writes the leader of Rutland County Council Gale Waller (Lib Dem).
Equally, though, we monitor compliments to see what we can learn from the services residents’ praise. It's always a pleasure to read these compliments (minus any personal information, of course). It’s, perhaps, unsurprising to read our registrars being complimented when a wedding has gone well, or social workers when staff have helped a family in difficulty.
What I find more surprising, but just as pleasing, are the compliments for staff in less personal services. For example, I recently read two separate compliments following road resurfacing work in Ketton. Not only were the staff efficient and kept disruption at a minimum but took care not to spray road surfacing materials onto the houses close to the road. It was the standard of service we would hope for, of course, but it is rewarding that residents felt they should take the time to thank council staff for their diligence.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to pay my own compliments and express appreciation to the chief executive and council staff who supported the recent general election process, while still maintaining council services to their normal level. July’s vote was the first time that Rutland County Council had been responsible for running a general election since becoming a unitary authority. Our parliamentary constituency now covers three council areas, so there was a lot of co-ordination required. Timescales for the election were tight, especially as the closing date to apply for postal votes was very close to the election itself. Nevertheless, council officers went above and beyond to ensure residents were not disenfranchised; opening our offices until 7pm in the evening and on Saturday morning in the days leading up to the election, so residents whose postal votes had not been delivered could call in for a replacement ballots. They did not have to do this but did so from a sense of service to the community. So, well done all.
As well as individuals recognising the efforts of our staff, inspectors do too. Rutland recently had an Ofsted inspection of its children’s services and was graded ‘Good’ across the board. This comes after a judgement of ‘Requires Improvement’ in 2020. Quotes from the final inspection report illustrate the quality and hard work of our staff: “The improvement in the quality and impact of support provided to children in need of help and protection, children in care and care leavers has been achieved by an established and confident leadership team, committed staff, and good corporate and political support”.
Also: “Children and families who need early help benefit from a well-coordinated, prompt and effective response.… This means that, for many children and their families, their lives improve without the need for statutory social work intervention.” And lastly: “Good quality direct work undertaken with children and families is impactful and it makes a positive difference to their lives.”
I could give more examples of positive comments, but I think you get the picture. Council staff care and are proud to work for the county, just as my political colleagues and I are proud to be councillors. So, on the occasions when things don’t go quite as you would like, please remember we are human and are not perfect. We all try our best. Sometimes, as you will have seen here, our best can be very, very good indeed.
Where we are occasionally prevented from doing our best, or our work is made harder due to challenging circumstances, there is often a way that you can help us – an opportunity for the council to work with residents to make our communities better. Our recent children’s Ofsted report contains one such example, where officials identified that our foster carers are incredibly positive about fostering in Rutland but a great many children in care live outside the county. So, if you think you could support some of our most vulnerable children as a foster carer, please find out more through our website and get in touch: www.rutland.gov.uk/fostering.
