Agenda item

The Customer Standards and Complaints Officer presented the report to the Board.

20 Compliments had been received 1^st April to 30^th June 2025 – Dragonfly (Housing Repairs and Maintenance) had received the most Compliments, followed by Housing Options and Community Safety & Enforcement.

Compliments for Dragonfly (Housing Repairs and Maintenance) focussed on the Repairs Operatives who were praised for their work being ‘excellent’ and ‘impeccable’, and were reported to be ‘friendly’, ‘pleasant’, ‘polite’, ‘courteous’ and ‘respectful’.

Whilst Dragonfly (Housing Repairs and Maintenance) Complaints had featured heavily for 2024/25, a tenant’s personal experience of the service appeared to influence their bias in their response to the Council.

5 Comments had been received in the same period – 100% were acknowledged and passed to their respective department within the target time of 5 working days.

Most Comments received were for Dragonfly (Housing Repairs and Maintenance).  The only theme found was in relation to communication from the Repairs Team.

2 M.P. Enquires had been received in the same period.  It was believed information provided to the M.P.’s Office could have led to a reduction in M.P. Enquiries overall as constituents were being appropriately advised of the action required (and dealt with) through other Council processes (i.e. as a service request / first enquiry).

Both M.P. Enquiries regarded Housing Allocations.

25 Stage 1 Complaints were recorded in the same period, with 100% responded to within the Council’s customer standard and the Housing Ombudsman Code of 10 working days.  Dragonfly (Housing Repairs and Maintenance) had received the most Stage 1 complaints, followed by Tenancy Management then Property Services.

There was a range of reasons Complaints had been made about Dragonfly (Housing Repairs and Maintenance).  Themes included communication issues, conduct of officers, and a perceived lack of action.

Tenancy Management complaints were mostly related to actions taken by officers such as the rent arrears process.  All Complaints regarding Property Services were low and the only theme derived was a lack of / poor communication.

4 Stage 2 Complaints were recorded in the same period, with all responded to within the Council’s customer service standard and the Housing Ombudsman Code of 20 working days (up to the point of the writing of the report).  There were still 2 outstanding Stage 2 Complaints, both still within timescales.

The largest proportion related to Tenancy Management, though no theme could be identified as all Stage 2 Complaints related to varying issues.

The Housing Ombudsman (HO) and Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) had reviewed 1 Complaint during this period – a decision had not yet been made regarding this case.

Service improvements included:

1)    The Managing Building Surveyor / Contract Administrator had confirmed they would review the process of sending letters out with the contractor;

2)    Debtors would look at changing their system so that a bailiff letter was not triggered for debts under a certain value;

3)    Dragonfly (Housing Repairs and Maintenance) had increased their presence on site to ensure standards were being maintained by Contractor Operatives;

4)    New processes had been agreed for future contractors to monitor and respond to emails from the start of mobilisation;

5)    A new process had been put in place for the scheduling of works which did not rely on jobs being sent back to the system before rescheduling was completed – this should prevent jobs being missed in the future; and,

6)    The Council would check all out-of-hours repairs had been completed the following morning or ensure these were correctly logged to a Contractor.

The Council would continue reviewing the data at the Department Service Reviews, to explore themes and discuss any improvements which might not have been reported.

When analysing how customers contacted the Council to pass on a Compliment, Comment or Complaint, nearly all Compliments and Comments were made via telephone.  Stage 1 Complaints were mostly made via telephone (followed by self-service) and stage 2 Complaints were equally made between telephone and email.

When analysing the data on who was making reports to the Council for Compliments, Comments, M.P. Enquiries and Complaints, it was found that Tenants had submitted the most reports when compared to residents.

When compared to Q1 2024/25, there proved a similar number of Compliments and Stage 2 Complaints received in Q1 2025/26, though Comments had slightly increased from Q1 2024/25.

For both Q1 2024/25 and Q1 2025/26, Dragonfly (Housing Repairs and Maintenance) had received the most Compliments and Stage 1 Complaints.

Examples of Compliments and Complaints were detailed in the report.

RESOLVED that the Board review the overall performance on Compliments, Comments and Complaints handling performance as detailed in the report.