Audit 2024 - Complaints and Repairs
Why was this audit carried out?
Tenant Auditors reviewed how Sandwell Council handles complaints about repairs. They examined the complaints process, performance information, tenant experiences, and feedback from staff and residents.
What was reviewed?
- The council website and complaints information.
- Complaint handling performance and self-assessment documents.
- A mystery shopping exercise.
- A survey of tenants who made complaints.
- Feedback from the Meet the Ombudsman event.
- Interviews and feedback from tenants.
What is working well?
- The basic information about making a complaint is generally easy to read and uses little jargon.
- Digital services give some tenants an easy way to access services.
- Performance dashboards use graphs that help identify trends in complaints.
What tenants said needs improving
- Making a complaint online is confusing and requires too many steps.
- Many tenants experienced poor communication and delays.
- Most respondents said they were not updated on their complaint.
- Many complaints were not resolved within published timescales.
- Tenants often had to chase for information themselves.
- Some tenants felt they were not listened to or treated respectfully.
- Several tenants said complaints were closed before repairs were completed.
- Tenants wanted a single point of contact throughout the complaint process.
What auditors found
- The complaints process is not straightforward for customers.
- Evidence used in complaint self-assessments lacks clear performance statistics.
- Information about complaint stages is inconsistent and sometimes confusing.
- Some responses appear inconsistent with Housing Ombudsman complaint handling requirements.
- Complaint trends may not be fully recorded when complaints are treated as enquiries.
Feedback from the Meet the Ombudsman event
- The most common concerns were poor communication, failure to follow policy, and limited access to housing officers.
- Residents felt complaints were difficult to pursue and that problems were often reported repeatedly without being resolved.
Key recommendations
- Simplify the process for making a complaint.
- Improve communication and provide regular updates.
- Ensure complaints are not closed until issues are genuinely resolved.
- Improve accountability and adherence to published complaint procedures.
- Provide clearer timescales and a named contact for complaints.
- Improve access to housing officers and repair information.
- Use performance data more effectively to demonstrate compliance and service improvements.
Conclusion
The audit found significant concerns about communication, complaint handling, and the resolution of repair issues. The strongest message from tenants was that they want better communication, clearer processes, more accountability, and repairs completed correctly first time.