“Due to the increasingly high number of complaints we are receiving, it means unfortunately we are also seeing a rise in severe maladministration” Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, May 2024.

There’s no getting away from it, housing providers are continuing to struggle to get on top of complaints.

Raised expectations from both the Ombudsman and residents coupled with continuing operational challenges around the quality of homes and services have seen complaints rocket in recent years with cases becoming more serious and more complex.

Complaint handling is now considered a priority by the majority of housing providers, and most have invested heavily in improving their approach to complaint management.

But, as the Ombudsman points out, if you cannot get the fundamentals of being a good social landlord right, you are never going to get on top of the root causes of complaints. Furthermore, the Tenant Satisfaction Measures show the complaint handling process itself is a significant driver of complaints!

There are, however, reasons to be cheerful. The Ombudsman Service is increasingly seeing signs of positive practice, there is a willingness for the sector to come together to learn from others, and organisations are beginning to be more proactive in anticipating potential problems rather than always reacting when things go wrong.

This year’s Complaints Hub conference will attempt to emphasise the positive by:

•  Focusing on the best in class – hear from the sector’s top complaints performers
• Getting ahead of the curve – looking at potential future issues (such as pest infestation)
• Providing practical examples of where things have gone right (and wrong) and the action landlords have taken
• Understanding what makes a high-performing complaints handling service – from engagement, communication and empathy to the importance of accurate data and the ‘golden thread’ of information.

Sessions include:

• Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway on the current and future complaints landscape
• The role of the regulator in complaints
• The relationship between repairs and complaints – the Peabody experience
• What a high-performing complaints handling service looks like
• Taking a holistic approach – from getting organisational culture right to the role of the board and executive team
• Learning lessons from complaints and how to involve residents in the process
• Identifying future issues – how a landlord handled a major bed bug infestation.

Essential for:

• Directors of housing/communities/customer experience
• Complaints managers and teams
• Housing managers and teams
• Repairs managers and teams
• Customer service managers and teams.

10:00am Welcome and introductions

• John Goodwin and Dave Simmons, Associate, HQN

10:05am Today’s complaints environment

• John Goodwin and Dave Simmons, Associate, HQN

10:35am Learning lessons from complaints – the role of residents

• Claire Tough, Director of Communities and Customer Service, Homes in Sedgemoor

• Rachel Palmer, Customer Services Team Leader, Homes in Sedgemoor

A key part of the statutory Complaint Handling Code is about continuous learning and improvement as well as creating a positive complaint handling culture within the organisation.  In this session Claire and Rachel from Homes in Sedgemoor will explain how they have been implementing those two requirements through involving residents.

11:05am A reflection on the work of the Ombudsman so far

• Richard Blakeway, The Housing Ombudsman

The Housing Ombudsman Service has changed significantly over the last few years as it has sought to promote the service to tenants more overtly and help change the complaints culture in social housing to be more positively customer focused.  In particular, it has not only made more judgements in individual cases but has published spotlight reports into specialist areas, created a centre of learning and ensured that there is now a statutory duty to consider learning and service improvement as part of the complaints process.   In this session Richard Blakeway will reflect on the growth and development of the service over the past few years and comment on what changes he has seen in the social housing sector as a result.  He will also look forward and give his thoughts on what both the new government might want to do in this space and what issues are likely to emerge for residents in relation to complaints in the future.

11:45am Break            

12:00pm Improving case management

• Steven Raishbrook, Customer Engagement and Insight Officer, Broadacres

As social housing landlords struggle with increasing complaints caseloads and difficulties recruiting and retaining complaints staff, improved data and case management is essential to continue to be able to resolve cases effectively and in good time for both the resident themselves but also to ensure you are meeting the Housing Ombudsman requirements.  In this session Steve Raishbrook from Broadacres will outline the changes they have made through a new case management system over the last few years to improve their record keeping and prioritise residents’ needs.

12:30pm Complaints and the Regulator

• Angela Holden, Director of Regulatory Engagement, Regulator of Social Housing

In April the new proactive consumer regulatory regime began and in July the Housing Ombudsman Service and the Regulator of Social Housing published a new Memorandum of Understanding setting out how they will share relevant information to support each other’s roles.  With inspections underway and TSM data with the Regulator Angela Holden, RSH will explain how the Regulator deals with judgements, referrals and information from the Ombudsman and what it would refer across to the Ombudsman during the course of its work.

1:00pm The role of the board and the member responsible for complaints

• Tim Brown, Associate, HQN and Chair, East Midlands Homes

The Housing Ombudsman’s statutory Complaint Handling Code came into effect on 1 April 2024 alongside their duty to monitor compliance.  As part of the Code a member of the governing body (or equivalent) must be appointed to have lead responsibility for complaints to support a positive complaint handling culture.  In this session Tim Brown, HQN Associate and Chair of East Midlands’ Housing Board will discuss the role boards in general need to play in meeting these requirements and ensuring positive outcomes for residents but also focus in on the specific role of the Member Responsible for Complaints (‘the MRC’).

1:30pm Closing remarks

• John Goodwin and Dave Simmons, Associate, HQN

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman Service

Richard was appointed as Housing Ombudsman from 1 September 2019. He has extensive experience in the housing sector, with previous roles including Deputy Mayor of London for Housing, chair of the Homes for London board and non-executive director of Homes England. During his eight years at the Greater London Authority, Richard was responsible for a major investment programme, overseeing the delivery of 100,000 affordable homes and regeneration plans for 670 hectares of land owned by the authority. Richard led the creation of the first team at City Hall to address rough sleeping, commissioning around £10 million of services each year, as well as the first Social Impact Bond on homelessness.

John Goodwin, Associate, HQN

John Goodwin is a housing trainer and consultant, with extensive experience in the social housing sector, particularly in complaint-handling, resident involvement and governance.

John was Compliance and Systemic Lead at the Housing Ombudsman Service until 2022, responsible for addressing systemic failings by landlords. He was involved in drafting the Ombudsman’s first ‘Complaint Handling Code’ and for delivering training to landlords, residents and others to improve complaint-handling and learning from complaints across the sector.

Prior to joining the Ombudsman, John spent ten years with the Audit Commission’s Housing Inspectorate – inspecting a range of housing organisations and services. John previously worked for Shelter in several roles, including Head of Legal Services and Editor of ROOF magazine. He began his housing career in homelessness, housing advice and resettlement with a London borough.

John has written and edited a number of publications including: ‘Built to Last’ (a history of British housing policy). John is also an accredited mediator and a trustee and past chair of a social care charity.

Dave Simmons, Associate, HQN

Dave is the company Director of the Housing Mediators which provides a mediation service focusing on housing and workplace disputes, as well as a training and support service for landlords specialising in effective complaint management.

He spent 15 years at the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) where he worked as an Adjudicator and Sector Engagement Lead and his achievements included leading on the project to write and publish the first Complaint Handling Code. After this, Dave spent two years as Peabody’s Compliance Operations Manager, where his duties included overseeing compliance with the HOS.

Dave is a long-term associate of HQN and Tpas (Tenant Engagement Experts) and in his various roles he has delivered hundreds of training workshops, forums and webinars to the housing sector covering a breadth of subjects. He has also written dozens of briefings and best practice documents which he currently continues to do in his capacity as HQN’s Complaints Hub Lead.

He is an experienced accredited mediator and has mediated on a wide range of disputes including family, community and workplace. As a Board Trustee of Croydon Community Mediation, he co-produces newsletters which promote learning and knowledge sharing for its small team of community mediators.

Tim Brown, Associate, HQN and Chair, East Midlands Homes

Tim is a non-executive director (NED) of a large Midlands housing association and is currently chairperson of its housing board. One of his responsibilities is overseeing the issue of complaints.

He is also an HQN associate focussing on strategic housing policy and has extensive knowledge of social housing allocations. He has contributed to government research as well as co-producing good practice guides on several topics for the Chartered Institute of Housing and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. A number of governments in Western Europe have commissioned Tim to review social housing allocations eg France, Ireland, and Sweden.

Angela Holden, Director of Regulatory Engagement, Regulator of Social Housing

Angela is the Director of Regulatory Engagement at RSH, and is primarily responsible for ensuring landlords deliver the outcomes of the regulatory standards.  Prior to this, Angela was the Assistant Director of Consumer Regulation at RSH where she managed the reactive consumer regulation function and supported in the implementation of the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023.

Steven Raishbrook, Customer Engagement and Insight Officer, Broadacres

Steven is a CIH qualified housing professional with over 10 years working in customer focused roles and four years’ experience working in the social housing sector, more recently in a complaints specific role.

Over the past eight months Steven has worked on preparing for the Ombudsman’s code becoming statutory and ensuring the associations new case management system, Salesforce, is fit for purpose, aids in compliance with the code and streamlines the complaint handling process.

Claire Tough, Director of Communities and Customer Service, Homes in Sedgemoor

Claire has worked in social housing for 23 years and first joined Sedgemoor District Council in 2006 as the ALMO was being launched.

She has held a variety of senior roles ensuring great tenancy and community services are delivered to customers through all areas of housing management including neighbourhoods, income management, homes and lettings, and community enabling. Claire is passionate about ensuring customers receive the very best services and sharing learning with others inside and outside of the housing sector.

Claire is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Housing.

Rachel Palmer, Customer Focus Manager, Homes in Sedgemoor

Rachel has worked for Homes in Sedgemoor since 2013, having previously worked within senior customer service roles for most of her career.

Rachel’s role includes overseeing the customer contact centre, managing complaints, and leading on customer engagement and involvement.

Rachel is passionate about delivering excellent services to all customers and works with colleagues and contractors to ensure everyone adopts the same focused approach.

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