Communication has not been a Harrow council strength (answering/dealing with residents queries, response time, inadequate website etc) but Covid-19 crisis management has made it worst where residents fail to get prompt, efficient or satisfactory response.
An example is the recent correspondence with Paul Hewitt (photo), corporate director people services, copying in the chief executive, regarding the following matter:
His attention was drawn to a ‘somewhat annoying practice, seemingly an extension of the previous corporate director’s apparent tactic to discourage officers, including himself, working directly with the community where community/resident queries were often subjected to the freedom of information (FoI)/complaints procedures etc. (Mr Hewitt, Hillingdon council’s head of child safeguarding at the time, joined Harrow to work under the director some years back).
Following the article Harrow council could do more in responding to Covid-19 and a specific question, ‘in responding to Covid-19, how the Harrow council has reshaped its services in line with the good practices highlighted by CQC?’, the Director of Harrow Adult Social Services, responded positively and said “I would be very happy to give an update on how we have reshaped and are responding to C19”- this was not a complaint!!
But then a Complaints Manager jumped in with an irrelevant website link, with the outcome that the director was not able to deal with this matter herself and therefore no professional answer received.
Since then, some others have a similar experience where their active issue-based interaction with the officers in People directorate has been picked and responded by the complaints manager.
It is reassuring that the community directorate seems to have no such policy to distance officers from the community or using a complaints manager to shunt around the issues (but then a very capable corporate director Community has now left the council).
We trust the chief executive would be interested in reassuring the consistency of policies and practices across the directorates, so that this could help in acquiring more public confidence in the council.’
After about a month, apparently Mr Hewitt sent the following inadequate message:
“Our complaints service do specifically deal with FOI requests, Member enquiries and MP enquiries, as well as complaints from citizens, as part of their official remit.
Also, as part of their role, the complaints team do often respond to general enquiries on behalf of senior officers when asked to do so, but we will need to make sure that this is made clear in the response, especially when it is not specifically a complaint that is being addressed.”
An example is the recent correspondence with Paul Hewitt (photo), corporate director people services, copying in the chief executive, regarding the following matter:His attention was drawn to a ‘somewhat annoying practice, seemingly an extension of the previous corporate director’s apparent tactic to discourage officers, including himself, working directly with the community where community/resident queries were often subjected to the freedom of information (FoI)/complaints procedures etc. (Mr Hewitt, Hillingdon council’s head of child safeguarding at the time, joined Harrow to work under the director some years back).
Following the article Harrow council could do more in responding to Covid-19 and a specific question, ‘in responding to Covid-19, how the Harrow council has reshaped its services in line with the good practices highlighted by CQC?’, the Director of Harrow Adult Social Services, responded positively and said “I would be very happy to give an update on how we have reshaped and are responding to C19”- this was not a complaint!!
But then a Complaints Manager jumped in with an irrelevant website link, with the outcome that the director was not able to deal with this matter herself and therefore no professional answer received.
Since then, some others have a similar experience where their active issue-based interaction with the officers in People directorate has been picked and responded by the complaints manager.
It is reassuring that the community directorate seems to have no such policy to distance officers from the community or using a complaints manager to shunt around the issues (but then a very capable corporate director Community has now left the council).
We trust the chief executive would be interested in reassuring the consistency of policies and practices across the directorates, so that this could help in acquiring more public confidence in the council.’
After about a month, apparently Mr Hewitt sent the following inadequate message:
“Our complaints service do specifically deal with FOI requests, Member enquiries and MP enquiries, as well as complaints from citizens, as part of their official remit.
Also, as part of their role, the complaints team do often respond to general enquiries on behalf of senior officers when asked to do so, but we will need to make sure that this is made clear in the response, especially when it is not specifically a complaint that is being addressed.”
Harrow Monitoring Group 
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