Complaints Performance and Service Improvement report
COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
By Dan Rhodes, Director of Customer Experience Introduction
Welcome to our first ‘Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report’. It provides a summary of our complaints performance in Rented, Extra Care, Homeownership Housing and the Corporate Trusts* over the past financial year and is a requirement of the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code (the Code). At Anchor, we take complaints seriously and when something has gone wrong, we apologise, put it right and learn from it. We’re committed to continuously improving and we can only do that if we listen to feedback from residents and act upon it. Section Two of this report covers Learning from complaints and sets out the improvements we have made as a result of this analysis.
Over the past year, we have made a significant investment in the way we handle complaints. The Customer Relations team has seen a considerable increase in staffing. This is in addition to our investment in technology such as the Customer Relation Management (CRM) system and we explain more about this on page 19, along with the other projects underway in Anchor. The investment in these projects is a direct result of feedback from residents who have been through our complaints process. Complaint data and information is shared with colleagues at all levels for scrutiny and challenge including our Non-executive Board and the Service Quality Committee (a committee of the Board). In Section One we provide a summary of our performance over the last year. In Section Four we provide a response to this report from Anchor’s Service Quality Committee (governing body) and the annual self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman Code. We put residents at the heart of the complaint process and are enormously grateful to the residents involved on our Independent Resident Complaints Panel. Over the past year, the panel have reviewed complaints and provided recommendations to Anchor. Details of these cases and what we have done as a result are on page 9 and 10. We hope you find the information within this report interesting and useful. If you have any questions, comments or require this document in an alternative format, please get in touch. You can do this by contacting our Customer Centre on 0800 731 2020 or speaking to your local manager. *Corporate Trusts are included within this document under 'rented housing', we have chosen not to report them individually to protect the confidentiality and data protection of residents due to the small number of properties at some estates. Corporate Trust include: William Paul Housing Trust, Collins Memorial Trust, The Flood Charity, The Almshouse Charity of Elizabeth Smith, Jane Cameron’s Old People’s Charity and Margaret Jane Ashley Almshouse.
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COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
Contents
Section One - Our performance
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A qualitive and quantitative analysis of our complaint handling over the past year Section Two - Our work with the Housing Ombudsman A summary of the cases reviewed by the Housing Ombudsman Section Three - Learning from complaints A summary of where we have made changes, improvements, our complaints transformation work and the Customer Relationship Management System Section Four - The annual self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman Code and the report from our governing body
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15
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COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
1. Our performance
This section of the report is an analysis of our complaint handling over the financial year from 1 April 2023 until the 31 March 2024 . In accordance with the section 8.1.(b) of the Code, this section of the report looks at both qualitative and quantitative analysis of our complaint handling, as well as a summary of the types of complaints we have dealt with: The table below shows the number of complaints received over the past three years: 2024/23 2023/22 2022/21 Total number of complaints (excluding care homes) 3,405 3,486 3,161 Rented tenants (including Extra Care and Corporate Trusts) 2,016 2,028 1,641 Homeowners 544 578 479 Property and Assets team 627 630 Not collected Central support (from tenants and homeowners) 218 250 Not collected During the year:
76% of complaints were responded to within timeframes compliant with the Code.
3,585 complaints in total were resolved (this is up 146 on last year). Resolved complaint figures are slightly different to those we received (as shown above) as they may have been received prior to the start of the year but resolved within the year.
10,957 calls were handled by our Customer Relations team. The Customer Relations team are our central team who deal with complaints.
‘High volumes of complaints must not be seen as a negative, as they can be indicative of a well-publicised and accessible complaints process. Low complaint volumes are potentially a sign that residents are unable to complain’. Housing Ombudsman : Complaint Handling Code
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Refusing a complaint We explain, in our complaints policy, the occasions where we may refuse to accept a complaint. If we refuse a complaint, we will respond to the complaint with an explanation why and provide details of the Housing Ombudsman to the complainant who can request a review of our decision. In line with the revised Code, from 1 April 2024 we are recording and reporting the number of incidences and reasons for Anchor refusals to accept a complaint. Accessibility and reasonable adjustment within the complaints process It is important that everyone can access our complaints process. We offer several ways to make a complaint including, face-to-face, by phone, post, email, webform or doing this via a representative /friend/family member, or any other agency such as a service provider or regulatory body. We promote our complaints process and have posters (with a QR Code to our website/ webform) and ‘We welcome your feedback’ freepost leaflets available across our locations (within internal communal areas). We ask, as part of the complaints process, if residents or their representatives have any communication preferences, require alternative formats or any reasonable adjustments. We asked our involved Resident Inclusion Community and colleague Diversity and Inclusion groups to provide feedback on the accessibility of the complaints process. 74% of residents asked as part of our complaints survey were satisfied with the accessibility of the complaints process. We also carried out an Equality Impact Assessment on our complaints policy. Upheld and not upheld complaints We categorise compliant outcomes as follows: • Not upheld – after investigation, we’ve found we have acted correctly and the service or issue in question met a reasonable standard • Upheld – the service or issue did not reach the expected standard. UPHELD/NOT UPHELD Category Total Upheld Not upheld Time to complete repairs 608 337 (55%) 271 (45%) Local management decision** 576 155 (27%) 421 (73%) Local manager behaviour* 533 149 (28%) 384 (72%) Lifts 163 81 (50%) 82 (50%) Building condition/investment 187 77 (41%) 110 (59%)
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COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
The top three complaint categories Over the past year the top three complaint areas are shown in the tables below: RENTED (INCLUDING EXTRA CARE AND CORPORATE TRUSTS) Category Volume 1. Local manager behaviour* 439 2.Local management decision** 436 3. Time to complete – repairs 233 HOMEOWNERSHIP Category Volume 1. Local management decision ** 110 2. Time to complete repairs 62 3. Local manager behaviour* 57 * Typically, these complaints are about the perceived behaviour of location managers ** Typically, these complaints are about decisions that affect residents locally for example car parking, use of communal facilities. SUPPORT SERVICES Category Volume 1. Allocations 43 2. Behaviour/attitude of Support Services colleagues 41 3. Account dispute 37 PROPERTY AND ASSETS TEAMS Category Volume 1.Time to complete repairs 274 2.Lifts 83 3.Quality of work – repairs 56 We use the top three complaint areas to identify themes and trends, and to understand where we need to make improvements to our services. Within Section Three ‘Learning from complaints’, we explain what we have done in the past year in relation to local manager behaviour (the How can I help?’ initiative), lifts and repairs.
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Compliments It is important that positive feedback is recognised, as this provides valuable insight and can inform improvements to service standards. All compliments from our residents are acknowledged and distributed to relevant colleagues via their line manager. In total 952 compliments were received; this is an increase of 116 on last year. Of these:
429 were received from tenants (up 50 on the previous year) 136 were received by the Property and Assets Team (up 31 on the previous year)
130 were received from homeowners (up 36 on the previous year)
257 were received by Support Services (down 1 on the previous year)
We welcome your feedback At Anchor we welcome complaints, and we promote our positive complaint handling culture to both colleagues and residents, as follows: With colleagues we promote this through regular corporate communications campaigns on complaint handling, in person and e-learning training, and online FAQs, complaints policy and processes. Last year we developed initiatives such as the ‘How can I help?’ campaign’ (see Section Three). To residents we promote our approach as part of our regular communications (which includes ‘We welcome you feedback’ posters and leaflets (displayed at most locations where we have internal communal areas), Life magazine, Annual Resident Review and local newsletters). We also share information on our website, and we promote our complaints policy and through initiatives like the ‘How can I help?’ campaign.
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COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
Satisfaction with how we handle complaints We value feedback from surveys and use it to help shape our services. As part of our satisfaction surveys, we ask residents questions about their satisfaction with complaint handling. We do this in the following ways: Complaints survey We survey those residents who have been through our complaints process (we call these transactional surveys). This feedback affords quality insight as the complainant has immediate experience of the complaint process. These surveys provide information that helps make improvements. Over the past year, 763 residents completed the complaints survey, they scored as follows:
47%
74%
were satisfied that colleagues were knowledgeable and professional 58%
were satisfied with the overall process
were satisfied with the ease of making a complaint
were satisfied with person allocated to deal with the complaint 65%
57%
63%
were happy with the level of communication
were satisfied their complaint response addressed all issues
were told what was going to happen next when they reported their complaint 71%
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Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) TSMs were introduced by the Regulator of Social Housing in April 2023. They require landlords like us to collect data and tenant satisfaction information on six key areas of our service, including complaints. TSM satisfaction data is collected from a representative sample of all Anchor residents (we call these perception surveys). These will be submitted by 30 June 2024 and published in the second half of the year. The TSMs will allow residents and the regulator to understand how landlords are performing and to provide a comparison with other landlords. Anchor is required to collect TSM data for residents in Low-cost Rented Accommodation properties and Low-cost Homeownership and Corporate Trusts:. QUESTION LOW-COST RENTED ACCOMMODATION LOW-COST HOMEOWNERSHIP
TP09 – Satisfaction with the landlord approach to handling complaints CH01(1) – Number of stage one complaints received per 1,000 homes CH01(2) – Number of stage two complaints received per 1,000 homes. CH02(1) – Proportion of stage one complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code timescales
40.9%**
25.0%**
55
46
5
5
76.9%
64.9%
CH02(2) – Proportion of stage two
complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code timescales
76.1%
50.0%
**19% of low-cost rental residents said they made a complaint in the past 12 months **27% of low-cost homeownership said they made a complaint in the past 12 months
While our transactional complaint survey may yield higher satisfaction ratings for recent interactions, the TSM perception surveys provide a broader view of tenant experiences. Understanding this difference is essential for Anchor to make informed decisions and improvements.
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Corporate Trusts QUESTION
CORPORATE TRUSTS
TP09 – Satisfaction with the landlord approach to handling complaints
50.0%
CH01 (1) – Number of stage one complaints received per 1,000 homes. CH01 (2) – Number of stage two complaints received per 1,000 homes. CH02 (1) – Proportion of stage one complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code timescales. CH02 (2) – Proportion of stage two complaints responded to within the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code timescales.
9
0
77.78%
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Independent Resident Complaints Panel (IRCP) Prior to the introduction of the new Code, the IRCP provided an additional optional route for residents to get their complaint independently reviewed. Members’ professional experience, as well as voluntary and life experience, equip them to analyse the issues, give an opinion on how a complaint has been responded to, and make recommendations to Anchor where there are lessons to be learnt. A report setting out the panel’s findings is produced by the panel Chair and forwarded to the resident and to Anchor. This independent report is produced without bias towards the resident or Anchor. During the year, 11 cases were reviewed by the IRCP (after completing our complaints process). After case reviews, the IRCP make recommendations to Anchor which we reviewed. Their feedback and recommendations contributed to the following measures:
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RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY THE IRCP • Review the policy on the processing of repairs and inspections before a new tenancy is agreed. • Ensure all repairs are completed and if not, done as a priority before a new tenant moves in. • Inform residents when planned works, such as kitchens, are due to take place at the location.
WHAT WE HAVE DONE AS A RESULT • We did this work as part of the Moving In, Moving Out policy/process and launched the revised version in September 2023 • See page 17 for further details. • Wherever possible, we provide details of planned work for the forthcoming year in advance at the Annual Review Meeting in Autumn, this is then recorded in the local service agreement. • If details of upcoming work are not known at this time, residents will be advised of any work which is scheduled to take place once the planned works programme is confirmed. • We did this for the individual case. We also updated our compensation policy in September 2023 to makes sure damages is included on the list of things we consider. We also follow the Housing Ombudsman guidance on redress. • We have made the Complaint e-learning training mandatory for the Customer Relations team. This means that colleagues will be asked to do the complaints training summary is on an annual basis.
• Review the level of compensation offered to a resident to compensate for damages.
• Provide refresher training to the customer service leads to ensure all complaints are investigated fully, in a timely manner
• Ensure all points in the complaint are answered • To ensure all points within the complaint are answered, we have updated the template letter which provides guidance to colleagues when doing a complaint response. We have also sent communication out to colleagues about this point. All IRCP review sessions are held by video conference calls. The members are sent information packs a week before the calls, to allow time to review the cases in advance.
The Housing Ombudsman offers advice and support to residents at any point during the complaints process. Their website has lots of useful information and residents can even access training and webinars about specialist subjects. For further information: www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk
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COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
2. Our work with the Housing Ombudsman
We work closely with the Housing Ombudsman. In accordance with section 8.1.(c) of the Code this section examines incidents of non-compliance with the Ombudsman and explains more about the Anchor cases that have been adjudicated upon by the Ombudsman (determinations), their findings and what we have done as a result. Trends in the sector Over the past year the Ombudsman has seen a sharp increase, across all landlords who are members of the scheme, in the number of severe maladministration findings - these are the most serious type of findings the Housing Ombudsman can make.
Down 20% no maladministration findings
Up 323% severe maladministration findings
Up 40% maladministration findings
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COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
Anchor’s determinations between March 2023 and April 2024 In total 24 complaint cases were adjudicated upon by the Housing Ombudsman, across both rented, extra care and homeownership properties. Their findings are summarised below: HOUSING OMBUDSMAN FINDINGS NUMBERS Outside jurisdiction This means case is outside the Ombudsman’s remit. 7 No service failure This means they found no fault in the way Anchor acted. 5 Redress
Also referred to as ‘reasonable redress’. This finding is made when there is evidence of maladministration but the landlord has identified and acknowledged this prior to the Ombudsman’s formal investigation and has, on its own initiative, taken steps and/or made an offer of compensation, that puts things right. Service failure This is where we have failed to follow our own policies, legal obligations, delayed unreasonably, behaved unfairly, been unsympathetic or inappropriate. Maladministration As the name implies, this is when the Ombudsman decides the landlord has not dealt with the complaint in accordance with the Code or the service delivered did not meet the required standard. Severe maladministration cases This is where there have been significant and serious failings in the service or the way the complaint was handled. Orders This is the Ombudsman telling us we must do something in response to a maladministration finding. Depending upon the determination a case can have several orders attached to it. These are things that need to be put right. Compliant handling failure order These are given in the most serious cases where systemic failings in the way complaints are handled by the landlord, or where the code has not been followed despite attempts to engage with the landlord or where failure to submit the Annual Self-Assessment and this report.
1
9
9
2
44 (of 24 cases)
0
Learning from the Housing Ombudsman determinations Each determination from the Housing Ombudsman is shared with the relevant colleagues. Our boards and committees are also provided with details as part of our reporting. The Customer Relations team co-ordinate the recommendations/orders made and the Housing Operational team lead on these.
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COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
Findings of severe maladministration A finding of severe maladministration by the Housing Ombudsman means that there has been a significant service failure that we have not adequately addressed through the complaints process. In these cases the Ombudsman writes to the Chief Executive with a summary of their findings, this includes orders and recommendations. In the most recent cases a group of senior managers ensured all the orders and recommendations were implemented. Details of these cases and the things we’ve done as a result follow: Housing Ombudsman case ref: 202118379 – July 2023 This was in relation to a complaint Anchor received in July 2021. The Ombudsman defined the complaint as: a. The landlord’s handling of the resident’s reports of damp and mould at the property b. The landlord’s complaint management. All the recommendations and orders within the Ombudsman’s report were implemented within the timelines set by the Ombudsman. This included an apology from the Chief Executive and the payment of £3,900 compensation. As a result of this case, we also completed the following work: • The damp and mould policy, procedure and case log were developed and issued in January 2024. We used the recommendations within the complaint, along with the Housing Ombudsman Spotlight Report on Damp and Mould and the Department of Levelling Up Homes and Communities report to develop the policy and procedure • We created the future actions promise log where we identify and track actions that need to happen as a result of a complaint. These are logged centrally and periodically reviewed until completion. This is a temporary measure whilst the Customer Relationship Management System is in development • We carried out a gap analysis on the Damp and Mould Spotlight report specifically in relation to complaints about damp and mould. As a result we: – Developed a letter guide to help colleagues respond to the often complex nature of damp and mould complaints – Updated the resident helpsheet on damp and mould.
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COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
Housing Ombudsman case ref: 202210054 – August 2023 This was in relation to a complaint Anchor received in July 2022. The Ombudsman defined the complaint as: a. Response to the resident’s reports that the property was too hot b. Response to the resident’s reports of traffic noise from outside the property c. Response to the resident’s request for a priority transfer to a ground floor flat at the rear of the property d. Complaint handling . The recommendations and orders within the Ombudsman’s report were implemented within the timelines set by the Ombudsman. These included apologising to the resident and the payment of £1,600 compensation. As a result of this case, we also completed the following work: • We updated our heating and hot water procedure, including guidance for colleagues on what steps to take when we get reports of properties been excessively hot. We also developed a helpsheet for residents about maintaining comfortable temperature within the home • We are designing a Customer Relationship Management System so that complaints can be responded to but not closed until actions are complete • Since the 21 September all stage 2 escalation requests are allocated to an Operations Manager, Senior Surveyor or above to ensure sufficient senior oversight • The Customer Relations Team review and prompt all complaint owners where they are approaching a deadline. Findings of non-compliance with the Housing code by the Ombudsman: Of the 24 determinations by the Ombudsman, the Ombudsman found 11 occasions of non-compliance with the Code. We ensure we address any orders or recommendations and make the necessary changes to ensure we learn from these. We also explain on page 15 about our focus and significant investment on making improvements in the way we handle complaints. The annual report about Anchor’s performance from the Ombudsman The Housing Ombudsman publishes an annual report for most landlords and registered providers, please see the link to Anchors report: Landlord-Report-Anchor-Hanover-Group. pdf (housing-ombudsman.org.uk) Please note the Corporate Trusts do not have a separate Performance Report
You can access a copy of the Complaint Handling Code from the Housing Ombudsman website: www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk or alternatively we have a copy on our website www.Anchor.org.uk (search ‘complaint’).
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COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
At Anchor we welcome complaints and feedback as they help us to understand where we are getting it right and where we need to make changes to our service, policies or practices and work with colleagues to help prevent mistakes being repeated. This section of our report examines the service improvements we have made as a result of learning from complaints, in accordance with section 8.1.(d) of the Housing Ombudsman Code. We gather learnings from complaints in several ways. This year we have been working to bring these together through our Learning from Complaints Group. This group is made up of key colleagues from within Anchor who specifically look at complaints to consider and make recommendations to Board and committees where improvements can be made. Below is a summary of what we’ve learnt and the impact of this insight on service improvements. Root cause analysis from individual complaints and complaint data We learn from complaints on a local and national level. This learning results in changes from the way we do something at a specific location, right though to changes to national policy and practice. In some cases, this can result in new initiatives and ways of working. We use themes of complaints to help us identify areas for change and improvement, over the past year we have made the following changes and improvements as a result of learning from complaints: “How can I help?” initiative – launched Summer 2023 This major initiative was launched to improve the experience of residents and drive a culture change in the way colleagues deal with complaints, service requests and feedback at Anchor locations. “How Can I help?” was conceived as a direct result of analysis of complaints. ‘Location manager behaviour’ is one of our top three areas of complaint in both rented housing (including extra care) and homeownership. This initiative is based on by making small changes when residents voice a concern, feedback or raise a service request, so that we can resolve these quickly and prevent them from becoming dissatisfaction and complaints. Through this initiative colleagues ensure residents feel listened to and included by being responsive to their needs, providing a great experience. They do this by demonstrating our ARCH values (Accountable, Respectful, Courageous and Honest) in their interactions. This starts with giving residents the opportunity to speak either face-to-face or over the telephone, to see if issues can be resolved with a simple acknowledgement, apology and conversation before offering them the opportunity to make a complaint. 3. Learning from complaints and making service improvements
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COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
There is a budget that colleagues can access, which can be used to say - ‘sorry’ - for something going wrong: for example, buying some flowers to apologise for a contractor not attending an appointment. Over the last year we have spent £1,896.12 across Housing Services. Dealing with lift complaints - launched over the past year We know that when a passenger lift breaks down this can have a detrimental impact on the residents who live in the building. Lifts and lift breakdowns are in our top three categories for property-related complaints. Recently, we have put several new processes and procedures in place which are helping to deal with lift issues in a more structured way. We have: • Introduced the lift breakdown procedure – which identifies roles and responsibilities and the fitting of a temporary stairlift – this was launched in April 2023 • Identified problematic lift manufacturers and we no longer use these when installing new lifts • Produced the Anchor lift specification – to ensure continuity of stock and availability of parts. We will not use lifts with closed protocol or that require specialised diagnostic tools •Set up “part bins” for the problematic types of lift – we hold parts for lifts that have a long lead time on the delivery of parts •Introduced a weekly contractor meeting to run through current lifts that are broken and actions being taken – although this is only with one contractor currently, this is working well and will be introduced when the new contract goes live •Increased visibility and accountability - the Lift Out of Service report is collated daily and sent out to three times a week to relevant directors within the business.
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COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
Moving In and Out Policy and guidance – launched September 2023 We know that moving into or out of a property can be a particularly stressful time. Looking at complaint themes, we know that the ‘condition of properties’ is one of the areas where we needed to improve, to ensure we have a consistent approach across all our properties. We also received recommendations from the IRCP about this process which we have included (see page 10). This policy and guidance takes colleagues through the process with a step-by-step guide, including the different stages of moving: tenancy end, pre-void property inspections, conducting viewings, empty property inspections and lettable standards, preparing to sign-up the tenancy, tenant moving in and helping the new tenant settling in. Improvements made include supporting colleagues with interactive videos and visual representations of the lettable standards. The documents were launched to colleagues through a series of webinars, where colleagues received training and could ask questions and get advice. Unacceptable Behaviour Policy and Procedure – launched February 2024 This policy sets out how we will respond to residents (or any other person: such as family/ friends of a resident or visitors to the location) whose actions or behaviour we class as unacceptable. As part of the procedure, we carry out a Proportionality and Equality Impact Assessment prior to making any decisions to impose sanctions. This assessment forms part of the decision-making process. Restrictions are kept under review, and we have an appeals process that can be accessed at any point by the resident. This work relates back to the category of complaint ‘local decision making’. Some of these complaints were about the way we handled unacceptable and anti-social behaviour. We worked with involved residents from the Communications Group, to help shape the documents, in particular the policy and the helpsheet. Satisfaction, complaints data, and insight (learning from complaints) reports Our Senior Leadership team ensure that complaints, complaint handling, satisfaction with complaints and insight into complaints receive a continued high profile within Anchor. Boards and committees receive regular reports and information about these subjects including: •Housing Services Committee and Executive Committee receive regular reports around all aspects of complaints. They have also been heavily involved in the complaints transformation work explained on page 19. • The Service Quality Committee (a committee of our Non-executive Board) in their role of the governing body, receive a quarterly update on satisfaction generally as well as a report regarding complaints. They also are responsible for the complaints policy, the approval of the Housing Ombudsman Self-Assessment and have issued their response to this report in Section Four. Satisfaction data is received monthly from our external survey provider and shared within the business with relevant senior colleagues and teams. We have used satisfaction data to help shape our service and we explain more about what service improvements we are making on page 19.
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The Housing Ombudsman: spotlight reports, insight reports and press releases The Housing Ombudsman use their experience of dealing with complaints to help member landlords like Anchor identify key areas of learning within the housing sector. We use the reports and learning to identify areas for change and improvement within our policies, practices and ways of working. Spotlight reports – these reports focus on a particular theme and draw on the Ombudsman’s wide casework knowledge and expertise, to share learning and help landlords improve the way they handle complaints. We carried out a gap analysis on these reports to identify gaps within our processes and ways of working. These are then considered by senior colleagues and where necessary changes and improvements made. Example of learning identified: development of the damp, mould and condensation policy Most recently we’ve used the Damp and Mould spotlight report to help us develop the way we manage damp, mould and condensation within properties. In this work we used a group of key colleagues within our Property and Assets and Housing functions to create a working group. The working group carried out a full gap analysis against the spotlight report. This helped us identify the areas where we had gaps and could do better. We then developed a project plan, which resulted in the damp, mould and condensation policy, procedure and case log. We also introduced regular checks within properties for damp, mould and condensation and have a process for dealing with complaints in relation to damp and mould, which ensures senior colleagues within the Property and Assets Team are made aware of the complaint. Insight reports – provide a valuable overview of the Ombudsman complaints data, a selection of valuable case studies and key learning points and recommendations for the sector. The aim is to help landlords to make improvements and deliver better services for residents. The reports are published every three months. We use these reports within the Customer Relations and Compliance teams to help us identify areas to make improvements in our own process. Press releases – these are issued on a regular basis and colleagues within our Customer Relations and Compliance teams have signed up to the automated email. The press releases focus upon determinations made by the Ombudsman (usually severe maladministration cases) which have identified serious failings of a landlord. We use these determinations to identify any lessons for Anchor. Where we identify learning that could help the organisation, we share them with the relevant senior colleague. Example of learning identified: update of the reasonable adjustments policy This year we used the learnings identified in the press release case ref: 202117544 to help us update our policy. We carried out a gap analysis against our policy and changes were made. The policy was launched in February 2024.
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COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
Internal and external audits • Internally – we work with our internal auditor who carry out internal audits on different parts of the business on a risk-based approach (using things like the risk register) to identify areas of the business to audit. In 2022, an audit was carried out on our complaint handling process and recommendations were made and implemented. • Externally – ARCO (Associated Retirement Community Operators) carry out an annual audit on Anchor to ensure compliance with their Consumer Code. As part of this work our complaints policy, procedure and helpsheet are provided and scutinised. We’ve worked closely with ARCO and made changes and improvements to the complaints policy and associated documents as a result. Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) – see page 9 As this is the first year of publishing the TSMs, we haven’t been able to benchmark with other organisations. Next year we will publish details of how we score against other similar providers. The Regulator of Social Housing will also publish benchmarking information. Making improvements to our service because of learning from complaints Some changes we’ve identified because of learning from complaints required a substantial change to processes and systems. These pieces of work usually become projects due to the scale of the changes and the considerable financial investment required. In this section we explain more about the projects we currently have underway which have been shaped by complaints, satisfaction surveys and resident feedback. Improving the way we handle complaints Over the past two years, we have made considerable investment in improving the way we handle complaints. This work is direct result of listening to residents (via our satisfaction survey) who have gone through our complaint process and understanding how we can deal with their complaints to provide the best experience. It also ensures we are compliant with the Housing Ombudsman Code. The following projects are currently underway: • Complaints transformation We started the complaints working group in December 2022. The group identified areas for improvement and this led to the complaints transformation work which started in April 2023. We used an external consultancy to look at the end-to-end process, using residents’ experiences/feedback from our complaint’s satisfaction surveys and the requirements of the Housing Ombudsman Code. This change will see the Customer Relations team being responsible for responding to complaints as a central team, working closely with relevant colleagues. To test this approach, we carried out a trial of this way of working in the Northwest region of rented housing. We have recruited and trained colleagues and are now rolling this out into other regions. To assist with this, we have increased the Customer Relations team from nine to 24 colleagues.
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COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
• Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) We started work on the CRM in early 2023, the system is being built to our requirements and that of the Housing Ombudsman Code. The CRM will give us the ability to track, monitor, record and report with a document management system built in. From a customer experience point of view, it means we have a history of the resident and their experience as soon as they contacts us. We anticipate this will be ready in Spring 2025. Repairs and investment transformation work – launch due early 2025 Learning from complaints and resident satisfaction has led to this significant piece of work. The main outcome of this project is to fundamentally improve the resident experience when reporting a repair. We’re planning to enter long-term agreements with a number of contractors who will deliver both repairs and planned works in designated areas. This will allow contractors to really get to know our locations and deliver a sustainable service that is right for our residents. Resident feedback has been key at every step and this will continue. We’re speaking to our resident groups, looking at satisfaction results and have carried out research about what works well and what doesn’t. All housing residents had the opportunity to share their feedback as part of a formal Section 20 consultation. We received observations from 166 locations, and these are informing the next steps for deciding on the contractors. We also have residents helping assess submissions from prospective contractors as part of our process.
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COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENT REPORT
4. The annual self- assessment against the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Code and report from the governing body In March 2024, we carried out our self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman Code (launched February 2024). This self-assessment is published on our website and due to the size of the document we have added a link to where this can be found below. Our self-assessment is presented here in accordance with section 8.1. (a) of the Code: Anchor’s Self-Assessment - June 2024 (either click on the link or go to: www.anchor.org.uk and search ‘complaints’). Below is the response to this Report from the Service Quality Committee (our Governing Body): “On behalf of Anchor’s Board, the Service Quality Committee have considered our inaugural Complaints service performance and improvement plan. “Whilst we strive to provide high quality accommodation and services to our residents, its is important that when we get something wrong, we act quickly to remedy our failings and learn lessons, so we become a better landlord. ” We are pleased to endorse the progress that we have made in the last 12 months in dealing with and learning from the insight provided by our customers who have had cause to complain.”
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Anchor Hanover Group is a charitable community benefit society with registered society No 7843. Registered Provider No. LH4095. Registered office: Anchor Hanover Group, 2 Godwin Street, Bradford, BD1 2ST
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