Complaints and compliments | Progress Housing Group

We are committed to providing our customers with exceptional high-quality services.

From April 2023 to 31 March 2024, we received 1,198 complaints and 190 compliments across the whole Group.

The data related to TSM looks better because it relates to our low cost rental accommodations units only. Furthermore, only complaints made by tenants with an active tenancy at the time the complaint was raised are taken into consideration. Therefore, some of the complaints included at Group level are not part of the TSM data.

We are members of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme and carry out an annual self-assessment to ensure compliance with the Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code and to learn from customer feedback to improve our services.

Learn more about the Housing Ombudsman Service on their website.

Below is a summary of how well we manage and learn from complaints and the learning outcomes identified as part of the process.

How we are doing | 1 April 2024 to 30 September 2024

We love hearing from you, whether good or bad, as the feedback helps us to learn and improve our services.

From 1 April 2024 to 30 September 2024, the Group received:

532 complaints – 189 resolved at first point of contact
104 compliments

You said/we did

When we assessed our Complaints, Feedback & Redress Policy earlier this year, we talked with some of our involved tenants and they told us that they would like our letters/emails to be clearer when we issue an outcome to a complaint. Tenants said that saying a complaint was “upheld” or “not upheld” wasn’t always clear, so they suggested we change this to “we got it wrong” or “we got it right”.

Removing the “partially upheld” outcome was suggested by the Housing Ombudsman, and following discussion with tenants, we have opted to keep it simple and say we got it right or wrong.

This action was added to our action plan and we have now changed all our complaint responses to the more customer friendly language our tenants suggested.

Compliments

“My Community Safety Officer has been fantastic dealing with anti-social behaviour issues around my area, and the communication is great.”

A tenant rang to say she is extremely happy with what a technical officer has done to resolve various issues in the property, including fast-tracking work through, and also arranging inspections. She feels like she has really been listened to.

A tenant was very appreciative and said every time he rings the Customer Contact Centre he always gets good service, noting they are ‘brilliant.'

A tenant wanted to express her gratitude towards the three operatives who were all fantastic and did the work in a timely manner.

My gas engineer was very professional, completing the emergency repair quickly and to a high standard. He also took the time to explain the work as well as enquiring about my well-being.

A tenant complimented a joiner for his work, commenting that it was immaculate. “I always know I will get a good job done.”

Independent living

A tenant would like to log a compliment for everyone on the Repairs Team and the operatives that carry out the repairs.

An independent living coordinator received a thank you card from the family of a tenant she had been supporting.

We received a letter complimenting an independent living coordinator as being the best scheme manager they have had, always making time for the tenants.

Annual complaints performance summary

Complaints performance

How many complaints did we receive

Status: getting better

Overall, we received fewer complaints last year than in the year before.

Changing how we deliver some of our repairs has helped us to improve satisfaction with our repair service.

Number of complaints received	2022/23	2023/24	2023/24 TSM data**
First point of contact resolution	415	291	271
Stage one	961	854	655
Stage two	40	53	36

*The totals do not include the Stage twos as the complaint has already been included in the Stage one figures.

**TSM data relates to our Low Cost Rental accommodation units only. All other data relates to all complaints received by the Group.

Responding to complaints within stage one timescales (10 days)

Status: needs improvement

We aim to respond to all stage one complaints within 10 working days.

In 2023/24, we didn't respond to complaints as well as we would have liked. This was partly due to several colleagues handling a complaint, which led to inconsistencies, poor communication, and missing deadlines.

As a result, we have introduced two dedicated complaints officers, a training programme and a central log for tracking complaints.

Stage one complaints	2022/23	2023/24	2023/24 TSM data
% stage one complaints responded to within the timescale	90.8%	90.7%	92.8%

Responding to complaints within stage two timescales (20 days)

Status: getting better

We aim to respond to all stage two complaints within 20 working days.

In 2023/24, we improved our performance in responding to complaints at stage two.

Stage two complaints	2022/23	2023/24	2023/24 TSM data
% stage two complaints responded to within the timescale	62.7%	81.1%	77.8%

Housing Ombudsman cases

Three cases were referred to the Housing Ombudsman (HO) in 2023/24.

Date logged with HO	HO findings
February 2023	HO referred back to the Group as the complaint had not been through the Group's internal stages. Complaint was dealt with under stage 2
December 2023	No maladministration found
March 2024	Investigation ongoing

Complaint outcomes

Stage 1

The Group upheld 661 out of 1145 stage one complaints, which equated to 58%.

The Group partially upheld 227 out of 1145 stage one complaints, which equated to 20% of stage one complaints.

The Group did not uphold 257 out of 1145 stage one complaints, which equated to 22%

Stage 2

The Group upheld 28 out of 53 stage two complaints, which equated to 52.8%.

The Group partially upheld 12 out of 53 stage two complaints, which equated to 22.6%.

The Group did not uphold 13 out of 53 stage two complaints, which equated to 24.5%.

Following consultation with tenants, our new policy now defines the outcomes of complaints as either ‘got it wrong’, where we uphold a complaint, and we ‘got it right’, where we do not uphold a complaint.

Top three reasons for complaints

The time we take to complete a repair
How long we take to resolve a complaint
How well we keep you updated about requests such as your repairs or when you report issues such as anti-social behaviour

There are no complaints that the Group has refused to accept within the reporting period.

We have a service improvement plan that uses insights from complaints performance to identify ways to improve - and to keep us on track.

Our service improvement plan is monitored, and we report on it every quarter to the Executive Board, tenants, and NED leads

You can read the plan below.

Board response to complaints performance

We always aim to provide tenants and customers with the best possible service, but we recognise that we don’t always get things right.

As a board, it is extremely important for us to receive information about how we are performing and to hear directly from tenants and customers. We receive regular reports and hear from tenants through the Tenants Voice – Improving Services Group reporting and their scrutiny reviews. This year, we also approved the introduction of two tenant committees with a defined purpose:

To hear the customer and tenant voice.
To shape, influence and review service delivery and performance based on tenant experiences when compared alongside outcome measures e.g. Key Performance Indicators and Tenant Satisfaction Measures, with a focus on continuous improvement.
To recommend / report to Board how the tenants voice can be heard through insight and engagement activity to influence the strategic plan.

We have reviewed the annual complaints performance report and self-assessment (against the Housing Ombudsman complaints handling code).

We consider that the number of complaints the Group receives (87.7 at stage 1 per 1000 homes) to be a significant number, but importantly, we are pleased that tenants have the confidence to report concerns to us and provide an opportunity for us to review and put things right.

During this year, a lot of activity has been undertaken to ensure that we continuously improve services to tenants and to hear the voice of customers. This has been done through:

a consultation on changes to the Group complaints, feedback and redress policy
a deep dive into complaints by the Group Audit and Risk committee
the introduction of two additional complaints resolution officers
development of a new customer service-style developed with colleagues and tenants for the Group (RAMP)
a change in national contractor to improve repairs service delivery
the introduction of healthy homes inspections
a focus on the top priorities for tenants, which includes complaints and communication
learning from complaints embedded in operational service delivery
the introduction of tenant committees with a focus on learning from complaints (due autumn 2024)
the appointment of two NED leads for complaints (also will chair the tenant committees when established)

Complaints remain a key performance indicator that we monitor to ensure that the voice of the tenant is listened to and acted on to continuously improve.

May 2024

Looking forward: our priorities

Housing Ombudsman Code

Communication

Time taken to resolve

Learning from complaints

Our service improvement plan

We have a service improvement plan that uses insights from complaints performance to identify ways to improve - and to keep us on track.

Our service improvement plan is monitored, and we report on it every quarter to the Executive Board, tenants, and NED leads

This is what we are focusing on in 2024.

A positive complaints culture

What we are going to do

Make sure colleagues welcome feedback as a positive opportunity to listen, learn, and improve services.

How we are going to do it

Introduce quarterly Learning from Complaint forums for colleagues to share how they have listened, understood, and acted on lessons learned from complaints.
Make sure we log and learn from feedback at the first point of contact.
Create a new way of monitoring and reviewing service requests.
Make sure that we include standard wording advising of the complaints process in all customer satisfaction surveys.
Make sure our colleagues are trained in handling complaints.

Customer-friendly and up to date policies

What we are going to do

Make sure any changes to our policies are completed, shared and communicated.

How we are going to do it

Make our processes simpler and clearer
Make sure our policies use customer-friendly language

Keep you updated if it is taking longer than we expected to investigate your complaint.

Improving communications on complaints

What we are going to do

Make sure all our communications relating to complaints are consistent.

How we are going to do it

Use our two new roles of complaint resolution officers to coordinate communications relating to complaints.
Develop guidelines and processes for all colleagues to follow when managing communications about complaints.
Introduce surveys to check how satisfied you are with how we managed your complaint.

Better reporting

What we are going to do

Improve how we report on complaints so we get a better understanding of what we need to do.

How are we going to do it

Improve the way we categorise complaints to help understand trends better.
Improve how we report to our Executive Team and Board.
Develop a more user-friendly way of reporting to our Tenant Committees.

Up-to-date and accessible information on complaints

What we are going to do

Make sure all information on our websites and in our leaflets relating to complaints is up-to-date.

How we are going to do it

Review the information we have about complaints on our website and leaflets.

Resolving complaints earlier

What we are going to do

Resolve more complaints at the first point of contact.

How we are going to do it

Make sure that our colleagues fully understand the difference between a service request, when you are unhappy about something, and when we need to take it further.

Oversight by the Board

At the heart of our complaints handling process is exceptional customer experience and satisfaction. Our board has two dedicated complaints leads responsible for understanding and addressing complaints to achieve this.

The current board members with responsibility for complaints are Yasmin Fearon and Neil Townsend.

Yasmin and Neil work with Tammy Bradley, Executive Director (Operations, Services, and Support), our corporate lead for complaints, consumer standards, and property health and safety.

Tammy’s role is to ensure that our approach to complaints is clear, simple, and accessible for tenants and customers and that any complaints are dealt with promptly, politely, and fairly.

You said, we did

Improving how we keep you updated

We understand how important it is that you receive clear and consistent communications and how frustrating it can be to feel that you are not being updated on the progress of any report or request.

We have launched a new programme to get everyone in our organisation on board with what a great customer experience feels like and how they can contribute to delivering it. This will include training, briefings and regular check-ins.

Increasing how quickly we do repairs

We understand that when you need a repair, you want it completed quickly and to a high standard. We have reviewed how we deliver our repair service and have seen significant improvement in repair times and satisfaction with this service.

Getting better at putting things right

We have introduced two new complaint resolution officers to improve how we manage complaints and keep you up to date on progress.

Housing Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code Self Assessment