Lessons learnt from complaints - Northwards Housing

Lessons learnt from complaints
Introduction
This report details the lessons learnt by Northwards from the feedback provided by customers in
complaints. All complaints considered have been fully or partially upheld during the period
01/07/12 – 28/02/13 and details of the lesson learnt have been documented. As some of these
complaints and lessons learnt are similar in nature, they have been categorised. Case studies of
particular complaints and consequently the learning in the organisation are provided below in order
to provide an account of how the organisation learns from upheld complaints.
General statistics
During the period 01/07/2012 – 31/03/2013 Northwards received the following number of
complaints:
Category
Number of Complaints
Anti-social behaviour 6
Community Safety 1
Environmental Services 3
Home Improvements 6
Owner/Leaseholders 1
Rehousing 2
Repairs/Maintenance 91
Retirement Housing 1
Staff 9
Tenancy Management 3
Third party 3
Total 126
Complaint statistics for the full year 2012-13 are not available due to the implementation of a new
system that came into effect from the 01/07/2012. As is visible from the statistics above, the
majority of complaints (72%) received are on repairs and maintenance. In order to establish if we
receive a disproportionate amount of complaints on repairs and maintenance, it is possible to
consult Housemark 1 who detail the number of complaints received per 1000 properties regarding
different service areas 2 . Looking specifically at repairs, the table below demonstrates that
Northwards does not receive considerably more complaints on repairs than other organisations:
Complaints received on repairs per 1000 properties
Organisation
Complaints
received per
1000
properties
City
South
City
West
Eastlands
Liverpool
Housing
Trust
Liverpool
Mutual
Homes
Northwards
Places
for
People
Salix
Homes
5.91 18.19 11.06 29.1 21.15 6.74 11.59 8.33 7.92
Warrington
Housing
Association
This context provides reassurance that Northwards does not have a particular problem with
regards to repairs; when benchmarked through Housemark Northwards is in the top quartile. A
1 The organisations benchmarked against were determined largely by availability; other comparator groups
that Northwards usually compares itself against (such as inner city organisations with a similar multiple
deprivation score) were not ideal comparators in this instance as many housing organisations have decided
not to benchmark complaints statistics. Faced with which organisations submitted data, a decision was
made to benchmark against organisations in the Manchester-Liverpool corridor.
2 Benchmarking for other categories of complaints received is not possible due to the different categories
that Housemark use.
1

tenant led scrutiny in 2012 of Northwards complaints procedure concluded similarly that it is logical
that repairs would be the highest service area that is complained about. Tenants’ View suggested
that this was because the Repairs Service is one of the principal ways which tenants experience
Northwards.
To add further context, for the period benchmarked above, 97.97% of people who received a repair
were satisfied with the work completed. During the period of 01/07/12 – 31/03/13 there were
34976 repair jobs, so 91 complaints on this service area represents 0.003% of repairs jobs that
resulted in a complaint.
Upheld complaints
Between 01/07/12 – 28/02/13, Northwards upheld 51 complaints. By service area, the reason and
frequency can be seen below:
Repairs. Total number of upheld complaints: 38
Reason for complaint
Frequency
Damage caused during a repair job 2
Operative late for a job 3
Heating failed to work 5
Lack of communication during the repair process 5
Unhappy with the quality of a repair 13
Repair period took too long 10
Home Improvements. Total number of upheld complaints: 4
Reason for complaint
Frequency
Unhappy about the quality of improvement work 3
Unhappy about the amount of time to complete 1
work
Neighbourhood Services. Total number of upheld complaints: 9
Reason for complaint
Frequency
Staff error 5
Unhappy with environmental standards on an 4
estate
2

Case Studies
Below are detailed accounts of the responses of specific complaints and the ways in which
Northwards has learnt from the feedback provided by the customer:
Case study 1
Service area: Home Improvements
Brief details of the complaint:
Home Improvements fitted a new kitchen in 2009 as part of the Home Improvements
Programme. As part of the works a new floor covering in the kitchen was fitted which
after three years started to bubble and lift.
Corrective action:
Northwards returned to the property and took up the old flooring, resealed the
concrete floor with a waterproofing agent and laid a new floor covering.
Lessons learnt:
Following this complaint the general specification for the preparation and laying of
new floor coverings has now been revised and improved to minimise the possibility of
recurrence.
Case study 2
Service area: Neighbourhood Services
Brief description of complaint:
The complaint was made based on the way in which an incident of anti social
behaviour was handled.
Corrective action:
Following the complaint, the customer was contacted and the correct procedure was
explained and followed.
Lessons learnt:
In order to prevent the wrong procedure from being followed again, the officer
concerned was given training and managerial support. Additionally, subsequent ASB
cases were monitored until there was confidence that the correct procedure would be
followed invariably.
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Case study 3
Service area: Repairs
Brief description of complaint:
Due to prior appointments taking longer than expected, a subsequent appointment
could not be attended on time. The Control Centre (staff who reschedule
appointments with tenants when this scenario arises) contacted the tenant to inform
them of the late appointment and to offer the option of rescheduling. However, an IT
based system error provided the wrong telephone number. This has happened
sporadically with different tenants.
Corrective action:
Once it was clear that the wrong person had been contacted, the correct tenant was
spoken to and a new appointment was made.
It was established that the correct details were on the system, but when the Control
Centre generated them, a system error took place whereby former tenants’ telephone
numbers were mixed up with current tenants numbers.
Lessons learnt:
Managers are alert to the potential difficulty that the system problem presents. The
problem is currently being addressed by the ICT team; if the problem can not be fixed
a new system and contract will be procured.
Case study 4
Service area: Repairs
Brief description of complaint:
A customer complained that Northwards made a decision not to make a cosmetic
repair to a windowsill. The decision not to offer the repair was made on the basis
that the repair was not cost effective and the window was still fully functional.
Corrective action:
A further quotation for the work was sought which was much cheaper and the work
was then ordered and completed.
Lessons learnt:
Northwards maintains that repairs not deemed crucial must be cost effective.
However, if initial quotes appear too expensive, alternative quotations will be
obtained.
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