NEARLY 60 per cent of all complaints made against Inverclyde social work services last year were considered justified, a new report reveals.

In all, 51 complaints were received and in 29 cases they were either fully or partially upheld.

As a result Inverclyde Council has had a significant increase in the number of action plans that have had to be put in place following the investigations.

A total of 20 recommendations were made from the 12 action plans completed.

In a report to the health and social care committee, head of service Helen Watson said: “Of the twenty-nine social work complaints that were upheld or partially upheld, in most cases the service itself had taken immediate action to address the issue so a service improvement plan was not required.

“The 12 service improvement action plans represents a significant increase from the four that were put in place during 2013/14. This may be an indication of the increasingly complex nature of complaints.” A total of 57 per cent of complaints received were endorsed, with 19 upheld and 10 partially upheld.

In 30 per cent of cases it was recommended that communication between service users and different services would have to improve.

The health and social care partnership also dealt with complaints made about private and voluntary sector organisations carrying out contracted work.

There were a total 48 complaints made against private and voluntary sector contractors. A total of 59 per cent were upheld, with 38 per cent relating to the standard of the service.

Speaking at a meeting of the health and social care committee which discussed the report, Lib Dem Councillor Ciano Rebecchi praised workers.

He said: “I think on the whole our staff in social work do a great job day-in, day-out.”