Annual report to tenants 2021-2022

How we are doing and where we need to improve

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many engagement activities had to be curtailed and restricted during 2021/22, however, the Tenants Consultative Committee (TCC) continued to meet monthly and provided feedback on our draft policies and procedures, the Housing Revenue Account Budget and Business Plan, and our Capital Works Programme. Residents also fed into our Mutual Exchange policy, which was published in February 2022.

Two ‘away days’ were held for TCC members and key officers, to develop a strategy on resident scrutiny in response to the forthcoming Charter for Social Housing.

We have had extensive resident input through various Task and Finish groups on critical work such as the review of our tenancy conditions, sustainability strategy, caretaking and cleaning service, and the development of an asset management strategy. Also, a new group reviewing local service delivery was set up. 

Specific resident forums, such as the Repairs Forum and the Disability Forum, have remained active, ensuring accountability in these key areas. 

The format of our quarterly resident magazine, Housing Matters, was adapted to allow for further resident input and resident written stories.

In Customer Services, despite some difficulties with recruitment we have been working to develop our existing team, providing additional training and monitoring performance more closely.

Our performance in Customer Services was lower than we would expect in late 2021, largely owing to issues around coronavirus and changes within the management of the team. However, we are now seeing improvements in the team’s performance and have received various compliments from residents.

The percentage of calls answered has dropped slightly since last year. Last year we were running a reduced service due to the pandemic and were able to commit more time to the services we were still running. This year we have returned to running a full service and have worked through a backlog of issues from the pandemic. The downside of this is that as we help customers with a range of complicated issues, the calls have been more complex and taken longer to address.

We had some issues with our Out-of-Hours team, but these have now been reviewed and resolved and we are now working together to improve the service.

The overall percentage of calls answered fell from 2020/21 to 2021/22, largely due to the team being reintegrated back into the office after the pandemic and the new challenges of hybrid working, but we are now seeing improvements in this area.

There has been a large increase in the number of new complaints over 2021/22. This increase has been experienced across the whole housing sector. Despite this, there has been a significant improvement in our complaint response times. Last year the average response time for Stage 1 complaints was 15 working days; this year it’s improved to 10.4 days, with 93.4 per cent of Stage 1 complaints being responded to on time. We want to improve our response times further still and have set ourselves the goal of responding in less than 10 working days by next year. The average response time is already at 9.7 days in the first quarter of 2022.

Performance Measure	2020-21	2021-22	Target 2021-22
Customer Service Centre - percentage of calls answered	93.89%	88.67%	>=95%
Number of new complaints received	393	708	-
Average number of working days to respond to a Stage One complaint	14.5	10.4	<=10

 

Customer service, choice and complaints – what we have done

To bring us into full compliance with the Housing & Social Care Ombudsman’s ‘Complaint Handling Code’ we have simplified our complaints process, from 3 stages to 2 stages – removing the review by our Corporate Complaints Team. This has ensured consistency of approach and delivery and better transparency. We have also increased our Stage 2 response target slightly from 15 working days to 20 working days, to align with the Council’s wider corporate policy. This should allow for more in-depth investigation.

Based on feedback from residents, we have worked to ensure our complaints process and timeframes are clearer internally, and we have begun to pro-actively communicate with residents around general enquiries and repairs, to avoid them becoming complaints. Operational teams are also reviewing their Stage 1 complaints more regularly to identify any issues or support required.

Last year we carried out a full review of our compensation and redress policy, which was published in January 2022, and are now further reviewing compensation costs in response to the current energy price increases.

82.7 per cent of Stage 2 complaints were upheld or partially upheld within 2021/22. We recognised this indicated a certain level of service failure. The Customer Experience team and senior management are reviewing these weekly, quarterly, and six-monthly, along with operational managers to identify service failure/improvements, lessons learned, and to look at what operational managers have done in response.

In the last year, our IT team completed several important projects, including updating our main IT system that manages tenancy, property, and rent information. The old system had been in place for almost 20 years. They also implemented a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, to enable better services for customers and better management of their information.

IT have been working on a self-service portal for residents to pay their rent, check their account, and report repairs. The first version of this is due to go live towards the end of 2022, with an aim to make the repairs self-serve functions ready before April 2023.

Involvement and empowerment – what we have done

Residents have continued to actively participate in the recruitment of Council staff, sitting on interview panels and presenting at staff inductions. 

With the relaxing of social distancing rules, various face-to-face events have been held to listen to residents’ views around the major works on their estates. 

By developing a relationship with Phoenix Housing, 22 residents have been able to access the Chartered Institute of Housing accredited ‘Introduction to Housing’ course. 

In December, we held a Carol service and Christmas Party. Several ‘local history walks’ were arranged, and several short films were made celebrating Ramadan and Black History Month.