Agenda item

Report of the Strategic Director of Environment and Healthy Communities

The Committee received a report seeking their views on Gateshead Council’s complaints performance for the first six months of 2023/24.

Complaints and Compliments:

The Housing Ombudsman (HO) Complaint Handling Code (CHC) sets out its expectations that social landlords develop a positive complaint handling culture, and that accountability and transparency are key elements.

The code states that governing bodies of social landlords should receive regular updates on complaint performance to allow for scrutiny. It has therefore been agreed with the Chair of HEHC OSC that officers will present a housing complaint’s update to OSC on a six-monthly basis. In addition, a complaints update will also be taken to HEHC Portfolio on a six-monthly basis.

In July 2023 to be compliant with the HO the Council adopted a two-stage process for handling complaints. Stage 1 complaints will be responded to in 10 working days, and stage 2 will be responded within 20 working days.

In the first six-months of 2023/24 there was 115 stage 1 complaints compared to 2022/23 where there were 46 complaints. Whilst Stage 2 showed 29 complaints in 2023/24 compared to the 11 in 2022/23. Even though the number of complaints has increased this should be seen as a positive improvement.

The council achieved 53% response rate of responding to stage 1 complaints within 10 working days. Of the 29 complaints escalated to stage 2, 83% were responded to within the target of 20 working days.

It has been challenging changing the process to response to a two-stage review process. A complaints dashboard has been developed that provides data on all open complaints. The complaints dashboard also provide insight into common complaint trends and recurring issues. Furthermore, the Regulator of Social Housing requires social landlords collect and report a set of Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) from 2023/24.

·        Complaints relative to the size of the landlord.

·        Complaints responded to within Handling Code timescales.

·        Satisfaction with the landlord’s approach to handling complaints.

A review of the stage 1 complaints identified the following;

·        77 complaints received were related to Repairs and Maintenance, the key themes being;

o   Time taken to complete the repair.

o   Poor communication

o   Failing to keep appointments.

·       22 complaints from Neighbourhood Services, the key themes being;

o   Anti-Social Behaviour – handling of cases

o   Damage to property

o   Service Charges

o   Condition of estate/external areas

These themes continued into stage 2 with majority of the complaints being repairs and Maintenance and Neighbourhood Services. Tenants were requesting a review of their sage 1 complaint as they were dissatisfied with their stage 1 outcome.

The team have been encouraging employees to report when they receive a compliment about a colleague or a service. This has been providing valuable insight into what the tenants think are going well and what they appreciate but also how we can continue to improve the service. Recording compliments allows to boost morale within the team. During the first six months 48 complaints had been registered: 24 for Neighbourhood Housing Service and 19 for Repairs and Maintenance. Further compliments had been registered for Lettings, Neighbourhood Relations Team, and Planned Investment.

Housing Ombudsman Annual Report 2022/23:

The housing ombudsman produce an annual report to summaries the key themes and figures from the previous year.

The 2022/23 report identified;

·        An increase of 27% in complaints received compared to previous year.

·        Over 6,500 orders and recommendations made to landlords.

·        £1.1 million in compensation awarded.

·        An increase in maladministration findings, where service requests or complaints are not handled reasonably.

·        A decrease in findings of no fault, over half found in the tenant’s favour.

·        323% increase in the number of severe maladministration findings from 31 to 131. Of these 112 related to landlords with over 10,00 homes.

The report also provides social landlord with their own Annual Performance report.

·        Four determinations (the number of cases decided upon by the Ombudsman).

·        Four maladministration findings in two of the determinations.

·        No cases of severe maladministration.

·        £1,100 awarded in compensation.

Gateshead Council’s maladministration rate of 50% was below the national average of 55% for all social landlords with over 10,000 properties. It is also the national average of 62% for local authorities and ALMO of a similar size.

For the first six months of 2023/24 the housing ombudsman accepted three complaints to investigate, one of the complaints resulted in no maladministration was found, the further two complaints are awaiting an outcome. 21 further complaints had been referred through the complaints process. These complaints went straight to the housing ombudsman before reaching out to the council.

One severe maladministration determination relating to a case dating back to 2018 relating to damp and mould. A review has now taken place in how the Council handle and record issues relating to damp and mould, with a new process being agreed and implemented. The new process also includes a best practice identified from the housing ombudsman spotlight report. This new process has been communicated across all tenants.

Complaint handling code:

Social landlords are required to complete a self-assessment to ensure they are fully compliant with the code. Officers have worked with a focus group of tenants to complete the 2023/24 assessment. This has been published online.

Officer Support and Training:

In April 2023 employees were issued with a team brief for an updated complaints process, this was followed up in November 2023 with the Councils performance. Over 100 employees have completed training on the new complaint handling process with further training to come.

The Committee had discussed the new system will be beneficial for the tenants but would like a serious of reports and illustrations for further background information.

RESOLVED

i)         The Committee noted its view on performance for complaints and compliments for the period April 2023 – September 2023.