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News from the Housing Ombudsman Service |
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Welcome
Welcome to the latest issue of our newsletter bringing you news and updates on our service. In this issue:
- First annual review of complaints
- Complaint Handling Code strengthened
- Three year corporate plan published
- New podcast mailing list
- Two severe maladministration findings for LB Lambeth
- Severe maladministration finding for Haringey
- Insight report shows complaints continue to rise
- New series of regional forums
- Training and events
Please share this e-newsletter with colleagues and encourage them to sign up to future issues using the link below.
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We have published our first annual review of complaints, where we found 66% of investigations into complaint handling were upheld. Poor complaint handling can considerably affect the trust residents have in their landlords to put things right, says the review and sets out the challenges for the social housing sector to overcome.
Our review looks at the most common areas for complaint – repairs, anti-social behaviour and complaint handling – and provides the first analysis of the sector’s performance by type and size of landlord. It covers April 2020 to March 2021 and draws insight from:
- The annual landlord performance reports, published for the second time
- New annual surveys of our Resident Panel and landlords
- Complaint Handling Failure Orders issued in the final quarter of the year.
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We also conducted a review of our Complaint Handling Code, one year after it took effect. It has been strengthened to support a positive complaint handling culture by:
- Increasing the obligations on landlords to raise awareness of the complaints process and the Housing Ombudsman
- Setting good practice for a member of the governing body to be identified as having lead responsibility for complaints and for all landlord staff to have a standard objective related to effective complaint handling
- Reinforcing the importance of learning from complaints by being explicit that the self-assessment should be completed as an annual exercise.
The changes take effect from 1 April 2022 and landlords will have until 1 October 2022 to become compliant. More information has been added to our Complaint Handling Code web page including the revised Code, an easy reference guide for landlords and residents together with a summary of the Code, updated FAQs and other supporting materials. There's also a new series of webinars on the Code.
Three year corporate plan published
Our three-year corporate plan for 2022-25 sets out our response to an unprecedented increase in demand for our service and how we will work across the sector to promote fairness through our investigations, strengthen local complaint handling and encourage learning to improve services.
The plan reinforces the changing role and importance of complaint handling and comes at a period of significant change for the social housing sector and our service.
There was very strong support for our plan during last year’s consultation from landlords, residents and stakeholders. It prioritises the delivery of high-quality, timely and inquisitorial Ombudsman decisions and sets out ambitious goals built around our four values of fairness, learning, openness and excellence.
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New podcast mailing list
You can now subscribe to our podcast mailing list to receive exclusive updates when new episodes are released. You can also catch up on previous episodes on our website including the last one about increasing legal disrepair claims and what that means for complaint procedures.
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We made two findings of severe maladministration for the London Borough of Lambeth’s significant failings when dealing with a long-standing complaint about damp and mould caused by leaks. The resident had suffered extreme stress over several years that impacted on the family’s wellbeing.
We found severe maladministration for the landlord’s failings in dealing with the leaks and associated damp and mould at the property. It failed to demonstrate that it had taken reasonable and appropriate steps to investigate and resolve the issues. It had caused ongoing detriment to the resident for several years. We also made a severe maladministration finding for the landlord’s handling of the complaint with long delays and failure to address the complaint in any meaningful way.
The investigation formed part of nine individual complaints we considered as part of a special report concerning the landlord, using our new powers under paragraph 50 of the Scheme where systemic issues may be presenting.
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Severe maladministration after roof leak affected vulnerable resident of LB Haringey
We found severe maladministration for LB Haringey’s housing management organisation, Homes for Haringey, when dealing with a vulnerable resident’s complaint about a leaking roof that caused damp and mould. The landlord was aware of the resident’s vulnerability due to her medical condition that she said was made worse by living in her property and that she had been hospitalised several times, but it did not take any steps to support her.
We found severe maladministration for the landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of leaks, damp, and mould at the property and maladministration for its handling of the complaint and record keeping. We ordered the landlord to pay the resident compensation of £600, take a number of actions to deal with the repairs.
Insight report shows complaints continuing to rise
Our latest Insight report covering October to December 2021 shows a 53% increase in the volume of enquiries and complaints received compared to the same quarter in 2020. We received 6,313 enquiries and complaints between October and December. We found maladministration in 47% of cases during the period, an increase on the previous quarter. The number of orders and recommendations issued to landlords also increased by 33%, and we made improvements for residents on 1,300 occasions.
The report also provides data for the North West, North East and Yorkshire and Humber regions, together with six case studies involving landlords in those areas. The report found some regional variation in outcomes with 47% of cases involving property condition from Yorkshire and Humber being upheld compared to 34% from the North West, whereas 20% and 34% involving complaint handling were upheld in those regions respectively. Anti-social behaviour complaints were twice as likely to be upheld in the North East compared to the other two areas.
Following the report we held our first face to face Meet the Ombudsman event in the region. Thank you to Stockport Homes for hosting the event. The events are part of increasing engagement with residents to help raise awareness and understanding of the service.
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New series of regional forums
We've created a new page for our landlord regional forums. These forums have been set up for landlords with a focus on discussions about learning from complaints. The events are informal and aim to provide an opportunity for landlords to share information and ideas about systems and processes for capturing intelligence from complaints. The forums also aim to encourage landlords to be pro-active in ensuring lessons learnt are used positively to improve complaint handling practices and the provision of housing services. They all take place virtually from 10am to 12.30pm.
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Training and events
We run a number of our own events and some in partnership with other organisations to share learning and best practice in complaint handling across the sector.
Housing Ombudsman webinars
Updated Complaint Handling Code:
Webinar on best practice for governing bodies
Webinars on damp and mould:
TPAS events:
Complaints Handling Masterclass for Engaged Residents:
Webinars on damp and mould in partnership with Tpas:
ASB Resolve: Workshop on antisocial behaviour
Learning from complaints:
See all our training and events using the link below.
You can also sign up to receive our press releases when they are issued. Use the link below to sign up.
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Our mailing address is:
Housing Ombudsman Service
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Harbour Exchange Square
London E14 9GE
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