Complaints

We’re extremely busy dealing with customer queries at the moment and, as a result, it may take us longer than usual to get back to you. We’ll continue to keep you updated when we can, however, we may not be able to meet the timescales set out in our service standards.

We know that waiting on the phone can be frustrating and we’re working to answer your call as soon as we can. Please remember that our colleagues are here to help you. We’d like to thank you in advance for treating them with respect and remind our customers that we will not tolerate any abuse of our colleagues and they reserve the right to terminate a call if they consistently experience abuse. We really appreciate your patience.

We aim to provide an excellent service to our customers and if we get things wrong, we want to put them right and learn from our mistakes. Here we provide information about our complaints service and how you can make a complaint if you are unhappy with the service we provide.

If you need to make a complaint, we'll:

Listen and deal with your complaint promptly.
Investigate your complaint fully.
Keep your complaint confidential at all times.
Handle things fairly.
Put right any mistakes and learn from them.
Apologise when we've got things wrong.
Help anyone who needs assistance making a complaint.

What's a complaint?

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about the standard of service, actions, or lack of action by us, including our colleagues or those acting on our behalf, affecting an individual customer or a group of customers.

For example, a complaint can be made when we’ve:

Failed to provide a service when agreed.
Provided a poor standard of service.
Made a mistake in the way we’ve provided the service.
Failed to meet our existing service standards.
Failed to follow our policies correctly.

There are circumstances in which a matter will not be considered to be a complaint. Our complaints policy gives further details.

How can I make a complaint?

Let us know straight away about any problems you have so that we can sort it out for you as quickly as possible.

You can tell us about your complaint in person, in writing, by email, over the telephone, using social media, online via our website or by requesting a complaint form. Our contact details are below.

Support with making a complaint

The complaint service is open to our customers, or their representative, and anyone affected by a service we provide.

If you need help making a complaint, we'll be happy to help. If you prefer, you can ask a family member or friend to help. You can also ask for further help and advice from your local councillor or MP.

Customers are able to approach the Ombudsman at any point during their complaint journey for advice and support.

Early resolution complaint

Where possible, we'll encourage an early resolution and recognise that there will be times where it may be possible to provide resolutions immediately. In these circumstances, in agreement with you, a complaint will be designated an informal complaint (early resolution). We allow up to two working days to resolve issues of this nature.

For example, this would apply where we've missed an appointment and we were able to make a new arrangement that suited you.

If further enquiries are needed to resolve the issue for you, or if you request it, the issue will be logged as a formal complaint and progress to stage 1.

Formal complaints

Formal complaints – Stage 1

We’ll acknowledge your complaint within five working days. We’ll discuss your complaint with you and make you aware of timescales and next steps.

We’ll then aim to respond fully to stage 1 complaints within 10 working days. Due to the nature of some complaints, further time is needed (up to 10 additional working days) to investigate and provide a resolution. We’ll discuss this with you and keep you updated until it’s resolved.

Formal complaints – Stage 2

If you feel our stage 1 complaint resolution isn’t factually accurate, that agreed actions haven’t been completed, it doesn’t address your complaint or that we didn’t follow our complaints process, we’ll record a stage 2 complaint.

We allow 20 working days to review a complaint at stage 2. Due to the nature of some stage 2 complaints, further time is required (up to 10 additional working days) to carry out a review and provide a resolution.

We’ll discuss this with you and keep you updated until it’s resolved. If you’re unhappy with the outcome of the stage 2 complaint you can escalate the case directly with the Housing Ombudsman.

Learning from complaints

We'll review all complaints regularly to make sure they're being dealt with effectively and consistently.

Most importantly, we use complaints to identify areas of our service where we need to make changes, so that the service you receive continues to improve.

What to do if you're still unhappy

If you’re still unhappy at the end of our complaints process, you can ask the Housing Ombudsman to consider your case.

The Housing Ombudsman’s Complaints Handling Code gives clear guidance to support the effective handling and prevention of complaints. It can be read at housing-ombudsman.org.uk

The Code is designed to enable landlords to resolve complaints promptly and fairly and to use the learning to make service improvements. Compliance with the Code is part of the membership obligations set out in the Housing Ombudsman Scheme.

The Housing Ombudsman's contact details are:

Housing Ombudsman Service, PO Box 152, Liverpool L33 7WQ

0300 111 3000

info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk

housing-ombudsman.org.uk

For complaints relating to our care and support services, you can contact the Care Quality Commission using the below details.

03000 616 161

enquiries@cqc.org.uk

cqc.org.uk/contact-us