Comments, Complements and Complaints
Date Created
Last Review
Next Review
Owner
18/06/2013
17/03/2025
17/03/2028
Office Manager
We value all forms of customer feedback, including complaints, as these help us to identify areas where we need to improve, and all feedback supports the performance of colleagues and others who deliver services on behalf of Partners Foundation.
We will treat all complaints seriously and recognise the need to listen to our tenants and identify if things have gone wrong and what we can do to improve and put things right. We will do this by:
· Complying with all legal, regulatory, and contractual requirements when handling complaints and meet the requirements of the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.
· Continue to develop and maintain a culture of openness and transparency to create positive relationships when handling complaints.
· Address complaints fairly, impartially, objectively, and professionally.
· Keep the person who complained informed and regularly updated with progress in addressing their complaint (even if there is no new information to provide.)
· Aim to resolve the complaint at the earliest opportunity, and in any case within the timescales in the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.
· Use information gathered from complaints to inform policy development and service improvement.
· Treat all people fairly, sensitively and with respect, and consider the needs of anyone protected by the Equality Act 2010.
· Not tolerate harassment or hate speech, or unreasonable behaviour, from tenants and/or their representatives when pursuing a complaint.
The Procedure supports the delivery of the following strategic objectives:
· To be a customer service organisation, working continuously to improve our services
· To ensure our tenants voices are clearly heard, and
· To meet our legal and regulatory requirements.
What is a complaint?
We have adopted and expanded on the Housing Ombudsman’s definition of a complaint:
An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions, or lack of action by Partners Foundation, our staff, or those acting on our behalf, affecting an individual, tenant or group of tenants or person who is affected by Partners Foundation’s service.
We have expanded on the Housing Ombudsman’s definition to enable anyone affected by Partners Foundation’s service (i.e., those with whom we do not have a contractual relationship) to make a complaint. Such complaints fall outside the jurisdiction of the Housing Ombudsman.
If a tenant tells us they want to complain, we will always record it as a complaint. However, we recognise the difference between a service request, service failure, feedback, and a complaint.
A “request for service” is the tenant asking us to do something for the first time (e.g., My heating is broken – please can you fix it?)
A “service failure” is when we do not deliver the service we have committed to (e.g., “we told you we would repair your heating by a given date, but we did not without good reason”.) If the tenant complains about it, it is treated as a complaint.
If a tenant expresses dissatisfaction with our service, we will try to put things right at the earliest possible opportunity, therefore we may be able to resolve the issue with our tenant quickly without it becoming a formal complaint. We will record all expressions of dissatisfaction to help improve our services. If a tenant remains dissatisfied or makes it clear they wish to complain, then the matter will be logged as a stage one complaint.
Expressions of dissatisfaction from people who are not Partners Foundation tenant (e.g., a neighbour of one of our tenants) will be registered and treated as a complaint at first contact.
A tenant does not have to use the word “complaint” for it to be treated as such. However, on occasion, either our employees or our tenants may not be sure of the position:
· If, as a Partners Foundation employee you are unclear whether a tenant or anyone else, wishes to complain, please ask them to clarify.
· If as a tenant, or anyone else, you wish to make a complaint and you are unsure whether your expression of dissatisfaction is being registered and treated as a formal complaint, please clarify that this is what you wish to happen.
· Examples of issues that tenants may complain about include:
· Failure to deliver a service within expected or reasonable timescales, including failure to respond to an initial request for service.
· Unsatisfactory quality of service.
· Dissatisfaction or disputes about the cost of rechargeable services.
· Failure to answer reasonable questions or giving misleading or unsuitable advice.
· Unacceptable behaviour of a member of staff or other party acting on behalf of Partners Foundation (which may include discourtesy, disrespect, or dismissiveness.)
· Failure to follow Partners Foundation policies, rules, procedures, or legislation.
· Failure to consider all available relevant information in coming to a decision.
· Bias, prejudice, or unfair acts that result in discrimination on the grounds of protected characteristics defined in the Equality Act 2010.
· Inappropriate use of personal information.
Examples of issues we do not consider to be complaints are, but can be reviewed by a Director at your request:
· A first-time request for a service or an enquiry about a service.
· A first-time request for Partners Foundation to intervene in the behaviour of others (e.g., a first-time report of anti-social behaviour.)
· A request for information or explanation of a Partners Foundation procedure or practice.
· Disagreeing with a Partners Foundation strategy, procedure, or service target.
Complaints that will not be considered by Partners Foundation include:
· The issue giving rise to the complaint occurred over six months before the complaint is made, unless there is a recurring issue or where complaints are related to safeguarding concerns, health and safety matters or where they are agreed to be exceptional circumstances (which will be considered on a case-by-case basis.)
· A complaint that has previously been considered and no substantive new information is provided.
· A complaint where the issues of the services are outside of Partners Foundation’s control (for example they are provided by Local Authority.)
· A complaint where the issue has been or is likely to be subject to legal proceedings or where Partners Foundation does not want to prejudice any legal proceedings.
· A complaint where the issue relates to ongoing or possible insurance claims.
Anonymous complaints will not be considered unless there is a clear and strong reason for doing so, which may include:
· The seriousness of the issue raised, where it, for example, relates to a significant risk to health and safety, legal or regulatory compliance, or other public interest.
· The credibility of the concern and the likelihood of confirming the allegation from attributable sources.
Who can complain?
· Any tenant who rents a home from us.
· Former tenants
· Prospective tenants
· Anyone who is adversely impacted by the service we provide or the behaviour of a Partners Foundation employee or anyone acting on behalf of Partners Foundation.
Complaints received through tenants’ representatives
We will accept complaints from others acting on the tenant’s behalf but only where we have the tenant’s express authority, or clear evidence of there being a suitable legal arrangements in place to do so. We will consider each case on its own merit.
Potential representatives include:
· Appointees, trustees, legal guardians, Court Appointed Deputy, or people appointed under Power of Attorney.
· People who are expressly authorised to act on a tenant’s behalf, such as a family member, or have been authorised by the tenant to act on their behalf, for example a Councillor or MP.
How to make a complaint
We want to make sure that it is easy for our tenants to make a complaint and to use our complaints service. We publish information about how to make a complaint on our website (www.partnersfoundation.com), in our annual newsletter and may be in any other tenant communication.
We accept complaints made through different channels, including:
· Using the online complaint form on our website.
· By telephone, email, online contact form or by post
· By contacting us through our presence on social media platforms
· In person
In each case we will verify the identity of the person making the complaint and their relationship to Partners Foundation (this may be particularly necessary for complaints received through social media). All complaints will be managed confidentially and in line with the Data Protection Act 2018.
We will provide additional support to tenants if they have difficulty accessing our complaints service in line with our Reasonable Adjustment Procedure. This may include providing information in appropriate alternative formats like a home visit.
When we receive any complaint, we will make tenants aware of the Housing Ombudsman Service. We will advise them that Partners Foundation tenants have the right to seek advice from the Housing Ombudsman Service throughout the life of their complaint. Partners Foundation tenants will also be advised of their right to refer their complaint to the Housing Ombudsman’s Service once they have exhausted the Partners Foundation complaints process.
Unacceptable behaviour
We recognise that sometimes tenants will be upset, angry or frustrated and we will seek to continue to engage with tenants in such circumstances, but we have a duty of care to our staff and contractors, and we will not tolerate unacceptable behaviour from complainants or their representatives towards our staff or anyone providing services on our behalf.
Examples of unacceptable behaviour include:
· Verbal abuse, aggression, violence (this is not just limited to actual physical or verbal abuse but can include derogatory remarks and threats of violence.)
· Malicious or otherwise inflammatory statements, or substantial allegations about our employees or other tenants.
· Unreasonable demands, E.G., requesting large volumes of information, overload of letters, calls, emails etc, asking for responses within a short space of time, refusing to speak to an individual or insisting on speaking to another.
In such cases we will advise the tenant of how we need to engage with each other.
If appropriate we will discuss a contact management plan with them, which may include restricting the tenant to a single person of contact within Partners Foundation but will not include a complete ban on them contacting Partners Foundation. Restrictions placed on a tenant’s contact will be appropriate to their needs and have regard to the provision of the Equality Act 2010. However, we will continue to seek a resolution where there are serious concerns relating to our statutory duties including for health and safety.
Timescales for resolution
On receiving a complaint
We will acknowledge the complaint withing 3 working days of receiving it. We will verify the identity of the complainant and their relationship with Partners Foundation.
We will decide whether to accept the complaint, and if we do not, we will explain the reasons why. We will draw the complainant’s attention to the services provided by the Housing Ombudsman, and to this Procedure. We will ensure that we fully understand the nature of the complaint and what outcome the tenant is seeking.
A Partners Foundation officer will be assigned to investigate the complaint.
Stage one – investigation and resolution
We will aim to resolve complaints as quickly as possible, at first point of contact where possible.
We will ensure that the tenant is given an opportunity to set out their position and to make any comments before a final decision is made.
Within 10 working days from receipt of the complaint we will provide the complainants with our decision on whether their complaint is upheld or not, and if it is upheld, what action is proposed to address it. If there is a good reason, we may take longer than this, but we will explain this to the complainant, and it will not exceed a further working 10 days. We will provide an explanation and a date by when the stage one response should be received.
If the tenant is not satisfied with the outcome, they may escalate the complaint to the next stage.
Stage two – escalation within Partners Foundation
If the tenant decides to escalate the complaint to stage 2 it will be reviewed by an independent Manager or Director within Partners Foundation.
We will ensure the tenant is given an opportunity to set out their position and to make any comments before a final decision is made.
Within 20 working days from the request to escalate the complaint, we will provide the complainant with our decision on whether their complaint is upheld or not, and if it is upheld, what action is proposed to address it. If there is good reason, we may take longer than this, but we will explain this to the complainant, but we will not exceed a further 10 working days. We will provide an explanation and a date by then the stage two response should be received.
Closing a complaint
We will not close a complaint until the complaint investigation has been completed, the decision communicated to the complainant and, if an action plan is necessary, this has been agreed with the complainant. We may however close the complaint where the complainant does not respond to requests to discuss an action plan.
Complaints process exhausted
If the tenant wishes to further escalate the decision, we will advise the complainant that they can approach a MP or local Councillor (these are regarded as “designated person”) who will be able, if the complainant is a Partners Foundation tenant to approach the Housing Ombudsman on their behalf. After eight weeks they can, if they are a Partners Foundation tenant refer the matter to the Housing Ombudsman Service directly.
Communication
We will ensure that we keep tenants regularly updated with the progress of the complaint even of there is no new information to provide. We may arrange with the tenant as to the frequency and method of communication.
We will use plain language when communicating with the tenant.
We will write to the tenant with the outcome of the complaint giving clear reasons for our decision made and how we will put things right.
Remedies
Complaints can be resolved in several ways. We will always acknowledge where things have gone wrong and apologise. In addition, we may:
· Agree an action plan with the customer
· Complete agreed works or actions
· Reconsider or change a decision
· Amend our records if there is an error
· Change our procedures or practices
Any remedy offered will reflect the extent of any failures and the level of detriment caused to the complainant as a result.
Remedies for complaints about staff/representative conduct or behaviour
Remedies in respect of complaints about the conduct or behaviour of staff or other parties acting on our behalf will be addressed in line with human resources and contract management procedures. Complainants will be given relevant information about the outcome of their complaint, but personal data and employment-related information will not be shared with them in line with our duties around staff confidentiality and data protection.
Continuous learning and improvement
We will ensure that there is a positive complaint handling culture. This links how we resolve complaints, and the quality of the service provided to how we learn, and improve, and develop a good relationship with our tenants.
We recognise the importance of tenant involvement and will ensure that tenants are consulted as part of the service improvement processes.
We will regularly feed back to the Directors and the Board, and this feedback will be discussed, alongside scrutiny of the Ombudsman’s annual performance report.
We will let tenants know annually how we have learnt from complaints, and what service improvements have been made.
VERSION CONTROL
Changes
Date Amended
Amended by
Version 1
Original
18/06/2013
Director created
Version 2
Updated to match current procedure
10/10/2020
Assistant Director
Version 3
Formatted. Still current
11/10/2023
Office Manager
Version 4
Formatted. Included reference to Housing Ombudsman
17/03/2025
Office Manager