Issue - meetings

Issue - meetings

Tenant Scrutiny Panel report on Complaints

Meeting: 24/08/2015 - SOCIAL CARE, HEALTH & HOUSING OVERVIEW & SCRUTINY COMMITTEE (Item 25)

Tenant Scrutiny Panel report on Complaints

 

To receive a report and presentation on the Tenant Scrutiny Panel’s investigation on complaints to the Housing Department.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 

The Head of Housing Services introduced a report prepared by the Tenant’s Scrutiny Panel (TSP) on the complaints handling process in Housing Services.  A restructure of the service had led to a dip in performance in handling complaints and as a result better arrangements to provide an excellent service to customers were being implemented.

 

The Vice-Chairman of the Tenant Scrutiny Panel (TSP) explained that complaints received by letter, telephone and email by the Housing Service had been included in the review and a number of improvements had been recommended to help performance in the service.  Implementation of the changes had led to an improvement in performance with Team Leaders now taking ownership of complaints received in their area.

 

A large volume of MP’s letters had been received by the service and steps to put information on common themes and Frequently Asked Questions on the Housing Service’s webpages was planned.  A sub group of the TSP to check on progress had been set up. 

 

In light of the report and presentation, the following queries were raised by Members:-

·         How Members of the Committee might help in managing expectations of residents.  In response the Head of Housing proposed Members direct those residents with internet access to information available on the website.  Officers would help with any enquiries or complaints received by Members at their surgeries.

·         Why details regarding residents’ satisfaction had not been reported.  The Head of Housing Services advised that data would be collated, however, this was not available yet.  In future complainants would be advised when they could expect to receive a response and Team Leaders would take ownership to ensure a response was sent.

·         Which complaints were most prevalent in nature.  The Head of Housing Services advised that trends of complaints were not part of the remit, work to date had concerned the process.  However, complaints were generally about the level of service or a failure/error made in service, which were used to improve performance.

·         Whether the Director of Social Care, Health and Housing would share best practice with other areas of the directorate.   The director advised that each complaint received was a gift and an opportunity to improve services and details would be shared.

 

The Executive Member for Social Care and Housing advised she would be looking into the number of MP letters of complaints that were received.  It was evident that many complaints coming through this route had not been sent to officers to resolve in the first instance.  The Executive Member would circulate the Housing scorecard on performance once the MP letter process had been streamlined.

 

Acknowledged and supported the Action Plan of recommendations to improve customer service delivery.

 

RECOMMENDED

1.    That the Committee recognised the work of the TSP and acknowledged and supported the recommendations for improvement in the complaint process.

2.    That the Committee acknowledged and supported the Action Plan of recommendations to improve customer service delivery.

3.    That the Committee acknowledged that the TSP was supportive of the directorate’s response to their report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25