1. Putting Customers at the Heart of Complaints Resolution
Maureen Ward – Customer Involvement Manager and Jim Hutton – Chair of Scrutiny Panel, Southway Housing Trust

2. Who are We?
Community Based Housing Association.
Six Thousand Properties across South Manchester
Established in 2007 following Stock Transfer from Manchester City Council.

3. And representing Southway today….
Maureen Ward – Customer Involvement Manager
Jim Hutton – Chair of Scrutiny Panel, Complaints SIG Member, Independent Tenants Solution Representative
A couple of well wishers!

4. Why are we here?
We truly believe that Customers should be at the heart of Complaints resolution.
We want to share some of our experiences, learning and good practice with you.
We are genuinely interested in picking up hints, tips and learning how to do things differently to improve our service.

5. The start of the journey
Localism Act 2011
HCA Standards 2012 (It is for providers to support tenants both to shape and scrutinise service delivery)
Formation of Southway’s Tenant Scrutiny Panel 2012.

6. Complaints Report 2013
219 Formal Complaints.
74% responded to in time.
Only 10% of complainants filled in Satisfaction Surveys.

7. Enter the Scrutiny Panel
Formal Report presented to Southway’s Audit Committee. July 2013
Huge piece of work took six months of the Scrutiny Panel’s time.
Sixty Eight separate recommendations. Which took over two years to fully implement.

8. Their findings in a nutshell.
Too Bureacratic
Too process driven.
Not listening properly
NO TENANT INVOLVEMENT !

9. Quick wins. Policy rewritten. Staff trained and ‘reprogrammed’
Informal Complaint stage introduced.
Complaints SIG revitalised.

10. Complaints SIG. Meets quarterly.
Analyses complaints where satisfaction is low.
Can interview Heads of Service, challenge and hold them to account.
Is consulted on any changes to Policy and Procedure.

11. Independent Tenant Solutions
Peer Review Group that adjudicates complaints that have been through the internal process. Members can’t review their own association’s complaints
Southway has used the service seven times.
Southway Tenants have been involved in around a dozen reviews for other organisations.

12. Independent Tenant Solutions-The Benefits
Genuinely impartial.
Quicker than the Ombudsman.
Tenant and Resident focused.
All member associations have to adhere to the spirit of the agreement and are expected to implement recommendations.

13. Complaint Buddies Launched in 2015.
Two Southway Tenants trained up to offer support, guidance and advocacy to complainants.
Useful way of resolving disputes between Southway and the Tenants and Residents.
First case imminent (hopefully!)

14. Complaint Report 2016
103 Complaints in 2015/ resolved informally.
All complaints acknowledged in two days. Over 90% responded to in time and complainants always kept informed if there will be delays.
Meaningful satisfaction feedback received from around half of all complainants.

15. Challenges for the Future.
Complaint Satisfaction. Always between 40-50%. Work to try and understand why.
Supporting Independent Tenant Solutions when Housing Associations are making efficiency savings.
Guarding against complacency.

16. Over to you!. We want: Questions on how we handle complaints.
Suggestions on things that we could do to improve.
Your experiences as involved tenants on making and resolving complaints.