Complaints Annual Report 2021-22

We are committed to continuously improving the quality of services we provide by understanding the experiences of people accessing those services. 

Your feedback helps us improve our services and develop as an organisation, and we encourage, value, engage with, and learn from all types of feedback.

Here is our Complaints, Compliments and Concerns Annual Report for the period October 2021 – September 2022.

Complaints annual report summary

Volume of complaints

Between 1 October 2021 and 30 September 2022, we received 107 Stage 1 complaints across all of our services. These were broken down into:

• 33 housing complaints
• 22 ECH complaints
• 18 care home complaints
• 19 community services complaints
• 6 reablement complaints
• 9 central services complaints

How we received complaints

We have a number of mechanisms in place for customers to raise a concern or make a complaint. Between 1 October 2021 and 30 September 2022 we received:

• 79 complaints by email, either directly to a colleague or via our complaints or feedback email boxes
• 16 complaints by telephone
• 8 complaints by letter
• 3 complaints in person
• 1 complaint via Facebook

Days to resolve

We aim to resolve complaints as quickly as possible, and our policy states that all complaints will be acknowledged within 3 working days of receipt and fully responded to within 10 working days.

Between 1 October 2021 and 30 September 2022 we:

• Acknowledged 82% of complaints within three working days
• Resolved 66% of complaints within 10 working days

Reasons for this deadline being delayed include:

• Complaints being sent to the email box of a colleague who was on annual leave;
• The initial complaint email going into the complaints spam folder in error;
• The date the acknowledgement was sent not being recorded against the complaint;
• The complexities of the complaint leading to more time required to fully investigate; and
• Further information needing to be sought from the complainant.

We are working hard to ensure complaints are responded to and resolved within the 10 day period set out in our policy.

Reasons for complaints

During the year we received a diverse range of complaints due to the similar diversity of the services we provide.

Our two highest complaint subject areas were standards of care and repairs, which made up around 48% of the complaints we received. Other subject areas included employee-related complaints, billing, communication and quality of services.

Compliments received

We received 52 compliments about the services we provide and our employees. We are working to further improve the recording and reporting of compliments to ensure all feedback is captured. 

What are we doing next?

We are continually looking for ways to improve the way we respond to complaints.

1  A review of our policy and procedures

To ensure full compliance with the updated Complaints Handling Code issued by the Housing Ombudsman, we have completed a self-assessment which has led to our Managing Comments, Concerns, Complaints and Compliments Policy being updated.

We are currently ensuring that procedures are in line with our updated policy and have a plan to cascade refresher training to staff.

Read our complaints policy

Read our most recent self-assessment

2  Lessons learned

An in-depth analysis of the number of complaints received and the issues raised has been carried out to identify how systems can be improved to ensure issues do not happen again.  It is important to us that all learning is captured from feedback and complaints and shared throughout our services to improve the experiences of those using our services.

3 Investigate once, investigate well 

12 months ago we changed the way we handle complaints so that customers have the best possible experience. We have a Complaints Officer who will act as a single point of contact for all complaints. The Complaints Officer will ensure we have listened to and properly understood the complaint being raised, appoint the right person to investigate, follow up that investigation to ensure it has been carried out correctly and in good time, and check that the complainant is satisfied with the process and the outcome.

Read the full report

To read our full Complaints, Compliments and Concerns Annual Report, visit our Complaints Performance page. Here you can also read our quarterly breakdown reports for Q1 and Q2 of 2022-23.

Read our full complaints annual report here