The Council's new Housing Customer Feedback Policy sets out we will deal with customer feedback in the form of complaints, compliments, or comments.
You can give us your feedback by
· by letter, to Customer Services
· telephone via customer services on 01476 406080
· email at Customer Services C.Service@southkesteven.gov.uk
· or in person.
You can also
· Contact your local Councillor about local issues.
· Contact the Council's Chief Executive or directors by emailing Customer Services C.Service@southkesteven.gov.uk
Compliments
It is appreciated when a customer takes the time to thank or praise the Council or staff for the service they have received. Compliments provide an opportunity for the Council to learn from feedback and gives insight into the drivers of customer satisfaction.
A compliment is defined as "an indication that we have performed well, provided a good service or gone beyond expectations."
Comments and suggestions
Comments and suggestions are welcomed as valuable sources of information as to how the Council could improve the service it delivers. It may not always be possible to implement or make changes as a result of a customer's comment or suggestion, but they are still important as the feedback might influence decisions that the Council makes in the future.
A suggestion is defined as "an idea of how we could improve or change the current service offered."
Make a comment or suggestion online
Complaints
Complaints provide an opportunity for the Council to learn from feedback and gives insight into the drivers of customer satisfaction. The Council uses complaints to review the services it delivers.
A complaint is defined as "an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual resident or group of residents."
How we address complaints
Complaints will not usually be accepted where the event giving rise to the complaint occurred more than six months ago. This is because a significant lapse of time makes a thorough and meaningful investigation more challenging.
There are two stages to the handling of a complaint:
Stage 1
· The customer services team will send an acknowledgement of receipt of your complaint within 3 working days.
· A senior officer will conduct a thorough investigation of your complaint and provide a response directly to you within 10 working days.
· Where it is not possible to respond within these times, we will contact you and advise you of an estimated date of response, which will not exceed a further 10 working days without good reason.
Stage 2
· If you are not happy with your Stage 1 response, you can request it progresses to Stage 2.
· This request must be received by the Council within three months of the Stage 1 response being sent.
· Your complaint will be referred to a director or a business manager who was not involved in Stage 1 of the complaint.
· They conduct a thorough review of the complaint and the response provided to you at Stage 1.
· They will write to you with the outcome of their investigation within 15 working days.
· Where it is not possible to respond within this time, we will contact you and advise you of an estimated date of response, which will not exceed a further 10 working days without good reason.
If you feel South Kesteven District Council has not dealt with your complaint satisfactorily, you have the option of taking your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman who will look into your complaint.
Referral to Ombudsman
In most circumstances the Ombudsman will expect the complainant to have followed the Council's complaint process. You can contact the Ombudsman directly or you can ask your local councillor to do this for you.
Housing Ombudsman
The Housing Ombudsman service is set up by law to look at complaints about all social landlords. The service is free and helps resolves disputes involving the tenants and leaseholders of social landlords (housing associations and local authorities).
More information on how to contact the Housing Ombudsman is available on its website.
In July 2020 the Housing Ombudsman Service published a Complaint Handling Code to help social landlords improve their complaints process and make it easier for tenants to make a complaint. A key part of this was the requirement for the Council to undertake a self-assessment on how it dealt with complaints and how it would improve this, by 31 December 2020.
Our self-assessment can be seen here:
SKDC Complaints Code Self-Assessment 2024 [311kb]
The Housing Ombudsman publishes an annual report on how we have addressed housing related complaints that were reviewed by the Housing Ombudsman during the period April 2023 to March 2024.
This is the first of these annual report:
Housing Ombudsman Landlord Performance Report 2023-2024
The Housing Ombudsman has also introduced a publicity campaign to ensure tenants are aware of how they can complain to their landlord and how the ombudsman can help them in getting their complaints addressed. This can be found at:
https://socialhousingcomplaints.campaign.gov.uk/
The annual complaint performance report is a statutory requirement from the Housing Ombudsman detailing how we have managed housing complaints during the year and made improvements to the housing service as a result of these complaints and other customer feedback.
Housing Services Annual Complaint Performance and Service Improvement Report 2023-2024