Complaints and compliments - policy and procedure

Policy Statement

South Tyneside Homes aims to provide excellent services to all our customers, but it is acknowledged that on occasion the service delivered may fall short of excellence resulting in customers being dissatisfied. Where problems do occur, South Tyneside Homes is committed to investigating and resolving incidents of dissatisfaction and learn from them. All complaints received will be dealt with impartially, objectively, comprehensively and professionally. Equally, when we receive compliments these are viewed as an opportunity to learn from what our customers feel about the service they have received.

Customers’ views are important to us, and we encourage users of our services to tell us of their experience. We will ensure that when we receive feedback, it is acknowledged and actioned. The following procedure sets out how we will do this.

Introduction

Every organisation receives feedback whether in the form of a complaint about poor service or a compliment regarding good service. Whatever type of feedback is received, it is necessary to have a system to manage it so the information can be processed and acted upon. A robust feedback system also helps to demonstrate that our Company takes customers’ views seriously. Our Complaint Policy and Procedure has been developed in line with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code 2024 and follows good practice set out by them.

No-one should be excluded from our complaints system because of any difficulties they may have in representing themselves. Sometimes people require assistance from others therefore the complaint does not need to be made by the actual customer. Where a third party is reporting a complaint we will need permission from the actual customer to progress the complaint. Once permission is granted, the complaint investigation will proceed as requested by the third party. If no permission is given, then the complaint will not be progressed.

Complaints will be accepted in a number of formats including online digital form, letter, verbal face to face, telephone, email or Livechat. In line with the Equality Act 2010 we aim to make our Complaint and feedback policy as accessible as possible, and will therefore make reasonable adjustments to ensure that customers are able to raise complaints, have their voice heard and their concerns attended to. We also make this commitment in our Equality Diversity and Inclusion Policy 2022 and Inclusive Services Policy 2022 where we commit to ensuring our services are accessible to all. Our policies can be found on our website at www.southtynesidehomes.org.uk.

Definition

South Tyneside Homes has adopted the Housing Ombudsman Service’s definition of a complaint:

A complaint shall be defined as an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents.

Sometimes customers may complain without describing their feedback specifically as a complaint. These forms of feedback should be categorised as a complaint if they fall within the definition above. If expressions of dissatisfaction come through social media platforms, the customer should be privately messaged to discuss the complaint and ask if they would like to log a formal complaint.

Objectives of using the Complaints System

Our object is to deal with all complaints impartially, objectively, comprehensively and professionally. In aiming to deliver these objectives our procedure has been designed around the following key elements of a good practice:

• Easy to use
• Helpful
• Not adversarial
• Fair and objective
• Thorough and rigorous
• Consistent
• Sensitive to the special needs and circumstances of the complainant
• Decisive and capable of putting things right when necessary
• Provide clear timescales which are communicated to the customer

Handling Complaints and Compliments Guidance

Complaints

When a customer makes an official complaint, the member of staff who takes the details should immediately log the complaint onto the Corporate Feedback System.

A customer does not have to make a complaint in writing, it can also be made verbally to any member of South Tyneside Homes’ staff. It is then the responsibility of the member of staff who receives the complaint to ensure it is logged onto our Corporate Feedback System.

A complaint is when a customer is not happy with the standard of service we have provided. For example, if:

• We have not delivered a service on time;
• We have not delivered a service at all;
• We have given the wrong information;
• A poor-quality service was received;
• A customer wishes to complain about a member of staff;
• A customer did not receive any feedback on an enquiry they made;
• A customer feels there was a lack of communication.

A complaint should not be confused with a service request. If the issue has not been raised before, for example a broken tap that has not been reported but the customer wishes to complain about it. The request should be logged as a ‘request for service’ on the Corporate Feedback System. If the repair were to go wrong in some way, and the customer was dissatisfied with the service, this would then be a complaint.

When an Officer receives a complaint, they must ask the customer if they have previously complained about this and whether the issue has been reported previously. If this is the first time they have raised the complaint and it meets the criteria above, the issue should be logged as a complaint as set out below.

If they have previously complained about the same issue, a check should be made to see if it has been logged and advise the customer how to follow the next stage of the procedure. This will mean escalating the complaint to the next level if it is within 28 days from the date the complaint was closed.

If a customer is unhappy with any aspect of how their complaint has been handled or investigated at stage 1 of the complaints process, this would need to be escalated and investigated at stage 2 and not logged as a new complaint.

Scope

This policy relates to all parts of the organisation including services which may not actually deal directly with customers or third parties. The policy also applies to other organisations that provide services to our customers under contract or in partnership with us.

What is excluded by this policy?

There are times when this policy does not apply and when we will not consider opening a complaint. Where a matter is not within the remit of this policy, we will provide a response explaining why, and provide details of how to refer the matter to the Housing Ombudsman Service and if appropriate direct the customer to the correct process or organisation.

Examples of where we may not investigate a complaint include:

• a first time request for a service, for example, reporting a repair or changing an appointment
• issues not reported to us within 12 months of them occurring
• a request for information or an explanation
• a matter that has previously been fully investigated under this complaints policy and a written response given
• issues where there is a right of appeal/grievance or an alternative method of redress is available, for example appeals about the implementation of our Allocations Policy
• where legal proceedings are underway - this is defined as details of the claim, such as the Claim Form and Particulars of Claim, having been filed at court
• where no tenant/landlord relationship exists – we may reserve the right to respond to these complaints informally
• reports of antisocial behaviour will be investigated in accordance with our antisocial behaviour policy
• a complaint in relation to building safety concerns – these will be investigated in accordance with our Building Safety Strategy and High Rise Buildings Complaints Procedure

Stage One – Investigation Stage

If a customer has expressed dissatisfaction and wishes to make a complaint, the customer can log a stage 1 complaint. We will deal with it by investigating the issues and providing a written response to the customer. In order to track complaints and identify service improvements, all complaints will be recorded on the Corporate Feedback System.

South Tyneside Homes have a complaints team, the Customer Feedback Team, who take responsibility for complaint handling to ensure complaints receive the necessary attention. When a stage 1 complaint is received, the Customer Feedback Team will assign the complaint to an investigating officer with appropriate complaint handling skills. An investigating officer cannot investigate a complaint about themselves or where there may be a conflict of interest, and they are trained to deal with complaints fairly and sensitively.

A stage 1 complaint will be logged, defined and acknowledged within 5 working days. An acknowledgement letter will be sent from the Customer Feedback Officers to the customer providing the complaint definition and target date for completion of the complaint.

Stage 1 complaints should be dealt with within 10 working days and responses provided by letter. The target date is automatically generated by the Customer Feedback System and the investigation begins once the logging procedure is complete including allocation to the investigating officer.

In some circumstances due to the complexity of a complaint, the investigating officer may require longer to complete the investigation. They will advise the customer with a holding letter explaining why and with a new target date for completion. This should not exceed a further 10 working days. The extension will be discussed with the Customer Feedback Team so they can update and amend the target date on the Corporate Feedback System accordingly.

If an extension beyond 10 working days is required to complete the investigation, this will need to be agreed with the customer.

In order to ensure strict deadlines are adhered to when investigating a complaint, the investigating officer should ensure they have made adequate and reasonable attempts to contact a customer without hindering the complaints process and having to put a complaint on hold due to the absence of customer contact. The investigating officer should make a minimum of three attempts to contact the customer to discuss the complaint at different days / times. Where the customer is unavailable / does not return calls, a standard letter should be issued to the customer advising them call contact has been unsuccessful, and the officer will either request a call back from the complainant by a certain date, or alternatively investigate the complaint with the information the customer has previously submitted.

For all complaints linked to debt advice provided by the Welfare Support service and which are subject to scrutiny by the Financial Ombudsman Service the maximum time for a written response to be sent to the Customer is 10 working days.

Stage Two – Second Opinion

If the complaint cannot be resolved the customer can escalate their complaint to stage 2.

These complaints will be investigated by the Customer Feedback Officers reporting directly to the Managing Director for consideration. In their absence, the Director of Operations will deputise on their behalf.

The purpose of stage two is to assess how the complaint has been investigated at stage one. We will also review any new information provided to assess the complaint. The overall aim is to make sure the complaint has been handled correctly, and to confirm whether the original decision was satisfactory and whether there is potential to achieve a resolution.

If a Stage 2 Complaint request is received it must be checked to see if it has been logged and investigated at Stage 1. If there is no Stage 1 Complaint completed, it must be logged on the Corporate Feedback System as a Stage 1 complaint and advise the Customer of the procedure. If the complaint has already been dealt with at Stage One it should then be escalated and allocated to a Customer Feedback Officer.

A stage 2 complaint will be logged, defined and acknowledged within 5 working days. An acknowledgement letter will be sent from the Customer Feedback Officers to the customer providing the complaint definition and target date for completion of the complaint.

Stage 2 complaints should be dealt with within 20 working days and responses provided by letter. The target date is automatically generated by the Customer Feedback System and the investigation begins once the logging procedure is complete including allocation to the investigating officer.

In some circumstances due to the complexity of a complaint, the investigating officer may require longer to complete the investigation. They will advise the customer with a holding letter explaining why and with a new target date for completion. This should not exceed a further 20 working days. The extension will be discussed with the Customer Feedback Team so they can update and amend the target date on the Customer Feedback System accordingly.

If an extension beyond 20 working days is required to complete the investigation, this will need to be agreed with the customer.

The stage 2 response should provide information on how to refer a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service or the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman if the customer remains unhappy with the response. All correspondence should be kept in files for future reference and where possible placed on the system, or a note should be placed on the system stating where the information is stored.

For debt advice related complaints the same process will be followed as above, however there is a 30 working day time period.

Member Responsible for Complaints

STH also has a Member Responsible for Complaints (MRC). The MRC is responsible for ensuring the Board receives regular information on complaints that provide insight on STH’s complaint handling performance.

Learning from Complaints

Complaint investigators will establish if there is any learning from a complaint and record a Service Improvement along side the complaint outcome, which will be monitored by service managers and Heads of Service, to ensure that improvements are continually made, following customer feedback.

A regular analysis of complaints and compliments is provided to the Senior Management Team and Operations Committee.

Antisocial Behaviour Complaints

Under the 2014 Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act, people can request a review of their ASB complaint by the council, Police and other agencies under something called the Community Trigger. A request can be made to South Tyneside Council or Northumbria Police, who will determine if they are able to review the complaint under the Act.

Premature Ombudsman Complaints

These are complaints that have been referred to the Ombudsman by the customer without having been investigated by South Tyneside Homes and the Ombudsman has referred it to us.

When a Premature Ombudsman Complaint is received, we will log it onto the feedback system as a Stage 1 complaint and forward it to the relevant investigating officer. The investigating officer must deal with the complaint as a Stage 1 complaint and respond within 10 working days.

For complaints that have been to stage 1, these will be logged at stage 2 and allocated to an investigating officer to be investigated within 20 working days.

Ombudsman Complaints

When Ombudsman enquiries are received, the Customer Feedback Officers will co-ordinate a response with the relevant service and return the response to the Ombudsman within the specified timeframe.

Ombudsman complaints linked to the debt advice side of the Welfare Support service will come from the Financial Ombudsman Service direct to South Tyneside Homes. For further details about raising a complaint via the Financial Ombudsman Service, please see full details at Appendix 1.

Members & M.P. Enquiries

When an M.P. or Local Councillor makes an enquiry on behalf of a customer it must be clarified whether the customer is asking for information or making a complaint. All complaints must be logged on the Corporate Feedback System as a complaint with M.P./Councillor involvement, this will generate a 10 working day target.

When handling the complaint, a statement must be added onto the customer’s letter to tell them a response is being made to a complaint that has been received from a Councillor/MP. A copy must be sent to the M.P./Councillor with a standard covering letter.

Where it is a request for information, this should be logged on the Corporate Feedback System. This will generate a 5 working day target. A response should be sent directly to the M.P./Councillor via the reply channel they have requested.

In terms of permissions for MPs and/or Councillors to access information, paragraph 15 of the relevant Information Commissioner guidance in relation to the Data Protection (Processing of Sensitive Personal Data) (Elected Representatives) Order 2002 (Constituency casework of Members of Parliament and the processing of sensitive personal data) states that “explicit consent is not always needed when a Member processes sensitive personal data in connection with constituency casework”, and furthermore paragraph 16 states that the Order “provides a basis for… disclosure of sensitive personal data by organisations responding to Members acting on behalf of individual constituents.” The full guidance is available from the Information Commissioner’s website at ico.org.uk.

Compliments

A compliment is defined as an unsolicited communication from a customer praising an officer or team. This could be for their general attitude, for the service they provided, or for any other area where the customer has valued the performance of the staff concerned. If a compliment is received it should be logged on the Corporate Feedback System and allocated to the relevant line manager. The manager must pass the Compliment to the officer/team concerned and should consider using feedback from compliments for team training and appraisals.

Policy on remedies

By having a policy on remedies we aim to achieve similar resolutions for similar mistakes. This means that when a complaint is upheld a remedy will be appropriate and proportionate to the injustice. Our objective is to put right what went wrong and reach agreement on a remedy which is satisfactory to the customer. As a general guide we would always attempt to put the customer back in the position they would have been in if a mistake had not occurred.

We take the following remedies into consideration when seeking a resolution to a complaint:

• Acknowledging where things have gone wrong
• Providing an explanation, assistance or reasons
• Apologising
• Taking action if there has been a delay
• Reconsidering or changing a decision
• Amending a record
• Changing policies, procedures or practices

If this is not possible, and it is considered an apology on its own is not enough we will, through negotiation with the customer, try to reach an alternative but reasonable remedy. Although this Policy contains an element of monetary compensation we believe it is not always the best remedy, and should only be used as an exception. Each circumstance should be viewed in its own merits, and where special circumstances exist, the investigating officer should seek permission from their manager and advice from the Customer Feedback Team, to put a suitable remedy in place. One constant in a remedy is an apology.

Specific Action

Consideration should always be given to whether there is some practical action, which would provide all or part of a suitable remedy. This may be appropriate when the injustice stems from failure to take some specific action, for example failure to carry out a repair.

Financial Compensation

Financial compensation may be offered if appropriate and in line with our Compensation guide, for example:

• South Tyneside Homes has taken the appropriate action but has delayed in doing so and the delay has caused injustice;
• there is no practical action which would provide a full and appropriate remedy; or
• the complainant has sustained financial loss or has suffered stress and anxiety

If compensation is required, the investigating officer should contact the Customer Feedback Team to ask for advice.

Legislation

In fulfilling its obligations under this Policy, South Tyneside Homes will comply with all legislation and regulations as appropriate. South Tyneside Homes will also comply with the General Data Protection Regulation and will keep information on complaints for 10 years and other enquiries including compliments and MP/Councillor enquiries for 3 years.

Dealing with a complaint

Generally, dealing with a complaint is a straightforward process, but in a minority of cases, people pursue their complaints in a way that can either impede the investigation of their complaint or can have significant resource issues for South Tyneside Homes. A small number of customers make complaints that are time wasting, or they persist unreasonably with their complaints, or make complaints in order to make life difficult for staff rather than to genuinely come to a resolution. This may involve those making serial complaints about different matters or continuing to raise the same or similar matters repeatedly. The frequency of contact can delay the investigation of their complaints and hamper the ability of staff to provide a quality service to other customers. These actions can occur either while their complaint is being investigated, or once we have concluded the complaint investigation.

For us, unreasonable and unreasonably persistent complainants are those complainants who, because of the frequency or nature of their contacts with us, hinder our consideration of theirs, or other people’s complaints.

Unreasonable and unreasonably persistent complainants may have justified complaints or grievances but they choose to pursue these in inappropriate ways. Or they may be intent on pursuing complaints which appear to have no substance or which have already been investigated and determined. Their contacts with us may be amicable but still place very heavy demands on staff time, or they may be very emotionally charged and distressing for all involved.

These are some of the actions and behaviours of unreasonable and unreasonably persistent complainants that we often find problematic:

• refusing to specify the grounds of a complaint, despite offers of assistance from members of staff;
• refusing to co-operate with the complaints investigation process, while still wishing their complaint to be resolved;
• refusing to accept that issues are not within the remit of our Complaints Procedure, despite having been provided with information about the Procedure’s scope;
• insisting on the complaint being dealt with in ways that are incompatible with our Complaints Procedure or with good practice;
• making what appear to be groundless complaints about the staff dealing with the complaint, and / or seeking to have them replaced;
• refusing to speak to an individual or insisting on speaking with another;
• changing the basis of the complaint as the investigation proceeds and / or denying statements that he or she made at an earlier stage;
• introducing trivial or irrelevant new information which the complainant expects to be taken into account and commented on, or raising large numbers of detailed but unimportant questions and insisting they are all fully answered;
• electronically recording meetings and conversations without the prior knowledge and consent of the other persons involved;
• adopting a ‘scattergun’ approach: pursuing a complaint or complaints, with South Tyneside Homes and, at the same time, with the Council, a Member of Parliament / a Councillor / Independent Auditor / the Standards Board / Local Police / Solicitors / the Local Government Ombudsman/ the Housing Service Ombudsman;
• making unnecessarily excessive demands on the time and resources of staff whilst a complaint is being looked into, by for example excessive telephoning or sending emails to numerous South Tyneside Homes staff, writing lengthy complex letters every few days and expecting immediate responses;
• submitting repeat complaints, after complaints processes have been completed, essentially about the same issues, with additions / variations that the complainant insists make these ‘new’ complaints that should be put through the full Complaints Procedure;
• refusing to accept the decision – repeatedly arguing the point and complaining about the decision;
• making complaints that appear to be time wasting, or make complaints in order to make life difficult for staff rather than to genuinely come to a resolution;
• combinations of some or all of these.

Different considerations will apply depending on whether the investigation of the complaint is ongoing or whether it has been concluded. For example, if a customer is refusing to accept an outcome, we have the option of restricting communication with the customer, and where appropriate referring the complainant to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman or the Housing Ombudsman Service. However, where the complaint is ongoing, there needs to be some continuing contact with the customer.

5.1.5 If the unreasonable and/or persistent behaviour persists, we may seek to implement our ‘Managing Unacceptable Behaviour’ policy. This can result in action being taken against the complainant including restricting contact with South Tyneside Homes.

This Complaints and Compliments Policy and Procedure will be reviewed annually.