DUDLEY Council received fewer complaints about adult social care last year although the number handled by a statutory process rose sharply.

In the period from 1 April 2023 up to 31 March 2024, the authority dealt with a total of 138 complaints, down from 185 in the previous 12 months which means the number of complaints fell by a quarter compared to the previous year.

The number of statutory complaints, those covered by regulations about how they are handled, rose from 15 in 2022/23 to 42 in 2023/24.

The figures are revealed in a report the authority is required to produce showing how it deals with complaints.

The report, from Dudley’s Social Care Complaints Team, said: “Our key objective in the management of all complaints is to achieve appropriate and effective resolutions within the shortest possible timescales.”

The non-statutory corporate complaints, which were deemed unsuitable for the regulated process, were down from 170 to 96.

Out of the 42 statutory complaints seven (18 percent) were upheld and 12 (32 percent) were partially upheld while three were withdrawn and one was referred to a different department.

A total of 35 statutory complaints were resolved or responded to within 20 working days which relates to 92 percent – an improvement on 87 percent from the previous year.

Quality of service was the most common statutory complaint with 10 cases in 2023/24, delays in assessment and financial (charging) were joint second with seven cases each.

The number of compliments adult social care services received was up in the same period from 245 to 296.

Among the tributes paid to services were re a comment from a user of the Assessment and Independence Urgent Care team who said: “You are incredible, make a real difference, remember how much families like ours need your help in time of crisis, what a positive difference you make to each and every one of them.”

A user of the Welfare Rights Service said an adviser ‘kept me going when I wanted to give up, you are amazing’.