RESOLVED that Cabinet –
(a) endorses the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Planning performing the role of Member Responsible for Complaints for the purposes of the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code and associated guidance;
(b) in accordance with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code and in compliance with Cabinet’s scrutiny and oversight requirements, formally receives the Council’s Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report, which includes the Annual Self-assessment against the Code, as set out in Appendices A and B to this report (A.5);
(c) formally provides its response to the Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement report, for publication as follows:-
“We thank Councillor Baker for presenting this report to Cabinet today. We fully endorse everything that he has said and warmly welcome the content of the report and its recommendations.
As a Cabinet we recognise the importance of providing good quality housing and that responding to complaints forms an important part of that service.
We fully support and adopt the Housing Ombudsman’s revised complaint handling code and are committed to high quality complaint handling. It is important that we learn from all complaints and provide a positive response.
We support Councillor Baker, as Housing Portfolio Holder, taking on responsibility for housing complaints and he will ensure that we as a Cabinet receive regular information and updates on complaints, in particular, what they tell us about our housing service, what we have learnt from them and what we have done to put things right.
It is notable that the number of complaints received has been increasing and that is something that will be explored over the coming months to see what we can do better as part of a programme of continuous improvement for our housing service.”
(d) authorises Officers to publish both the Report and the Cabinet’s response on the Council’s website within the section relating to complaints and to submit the self-assessment to the Housing Ombudsman by 30 June 2024; and
(e) notes that there is to be a review in 2024/25 of the Council’s Corporate and Housing Complaints procedures to deliver the expectations of the now closely aligned Local Government & Social Care and Housing Ombudsmen Codes.