Agenda item

This item is due to be the subject of pre-scrutiny at a meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee scheduled to take place on 9^th June 2025. Any recommendations arising from that meeting will be published in a supplementary pack for the consideration of the Executive Committee.

The Strategic Housing and Business Support Manager presented the Housing Ombudsman Self-Assessment Complaint Handling Code for Members’ consideration.

The Executive Committee was informed that there was a requirement for the Council, as a social housing provider, to adopt the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints Handling Code.  There was a further requirement for the Council to undertake a self-assessment in line with the code.  Following the latest self-assessment, Officers had identified that there was a need to provide greater clarity with regard to Stage 2 complaints, particularly with regard that which would not be accepted as complaints at this stage.  The report provided an opportunity to update the code and Members were being invited to consider this change.

There was a need for tenants to be informed about and to understand the Council’s approach to handling complaints.  Officers were anticipating that the introduction of a panel of tenants, acting as a voice for tenants, would help the Council to promote the process more effectively. 

The Council had responded to 62 per cent of complaints in line with target timescales in the first part of the year.  This compared to a median response rate nationally of 80 per cent.  Officers recognised that there was a need for improvement in this context.

The Housing Ombudsman regarded complaints as providing an opportunity for social housing providers to learn and were keen for organisations to have a culture that was positive about learning from complaints.  To address this, work would be undertaken with relevant service managers in cases where complaints occurred.

Any tenant could make a report to the Housing Ombudsman.  In addition, the Housing Ombudsman could choose to investigate complaints.  In the period covered by the report, the Housing Ombudsman had investigated three cases relating to tenants of houses managed by Redditch Borough Council.

Members welcomed the report and in doing so commented that complaints had been one of the lowest scoring areas for the Council in terms of tenant satisfaction measures.  It was noted that the Council did make mistakes and there was a need for honesty and transparency in terms of recognising these mistakes and responding appropriately. 

The Committee noted that the action required in learning lessons from complaints would vary.  The suggestion was made that it would be helpful if in future the report could distinguish between complaints that were made that involved external contractors and complaints that related to Council staff, although it was recognised that it would not be appropriate to include specific details about particular cases.  This information would help Members to assess whether there were greater needs for staff training or contract management issues that needed to be addressed.

The length of the complaint handling code was discussed by the Committee.  Members noted that this was relatively lengthy and the suggestion was made that this could be confusing or frustrating for some tenants.  Whilst recognising the need for detail, questions were raised about the potential for a shorter flow chart guide to be produced for ease of reference.  The Committee was advised that Officers would aim to work with the new tenants’ panel to review the code and to ensure that the content and layout met the needs of tenants.

Questions were also raised about the potential to provide copies of the code in alternative languages to tenants for whom English was not their first language.  Officers confirmed that options were available to provide copies to tenants on request in alternative languages.

Reference was made to the 55 per cent of learning outcomes that were recorded between 1^st April 2024 and 31^st March 2025 where the complaints were partially or fully upheld.  Members suggested that this indicated that there was a cultural issue and it was anticipated that scrutiny by a panel of tenants would help to address this in future.

RESOLVED that

1)          the Housing Complaint Self-Assessment be approved;

2)          the Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report 2024-25 be approved;

3)          the Housing Complaints Standard be approved and;

RESOLVED to NOTE that

4)          the reports referred to at resolutions 1 to 3 above, would be published to the Council’s website.