Complaints and feedback | Housing Plus Group

How to make a complaint and provide feedback

We welcome your feedback as we want to provide excellent services to our customers.

We know that sometimes things go wrong or the service you receive falls short of your expectations.

When this happens, we want to hear from you so we can put it right and improve our services to prevent similar problems from happening again.

Complaints and feedback policy

We introduced a new complaints and feedback policy on 1 April 2021, following an extensive review which took into consideration:

Feedback from customers across the Group who had experienced our complaints process
The Housing Ombudsman’s complaints handling code that came into effect in September 2020
The Government’s white paper published in November 2020.

The new complaints policy makes it even easier for customers to make a complaint and provide feedback. The stages have also been simplified to ensure that complaints are investigated by the relevant service team and resolved as quickly as possible.

Complaints are also analysed and reviewed against transactional and STAR surveys results and any other feedback to enable us to see if there are issues with a service, staff member or internal process.

What is a complaint?

We consider that a complaint is:

“An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standards of our service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual or group of residents”

An example of this would be:

A failure of our published customer commitments and where no action has been taken
Poor conduct by our staff, partners or contractors
Where our policies and procedures have not been adhered to

Please note:

Your complaint must be made no later than six months after the date that the event occurred.
The complaints process is not for reporting problems with your neighbour. If your neighbour is causing nuisance or committing anti-social behaviour, please contact your local neighbourhood officer.

How can I make a complaint?

Use our online form

Please note: This form is not for reporting anti-social behaviour or problems with your neighbours. It also should not be used to report a repair for the first time. To report anti-social behaviour or problems with you neighbours please contact your neighbourhood officer or use our online form. To report a non-emergency repair for the first time please use our online form.

Call our customer services team on 0800 048 8955

Email - feedback@housingplusgroup.co.uk

Write to:

Customer complaints and feedback team
Housing Plus Group
Acton Court
Acton Gate
Stafford, ST18 9AP

If you live in one of our retirement living communities, you can speak to your retirement living officer for further help and guidance.

Accessibility

If a customer requires additional help in making a complaint, we will provide help and support, or, if preferred, complainants can seek assistance through external agencies, for example Citizens Advice.

Customers may prefer to have a representative deal their complaint on their behalf. This may be by an advocate, carer, family member, elected member, agency, or professional body. Where this is the case we must receive or hold a signed authority from the customer which authorises us to communicate with the customer’s appointed advocate or representative.

What happens after you receive my complaint?

There are two stages to our complaint’s procedure. Our overall aim is to get things right at the first instance and resolve the matter at Stage one.

If a complaint is more complicated and it is not possible to resolve within the timescales listed, we will contact you to let you know when to expect an answer and why.

Stage one

Your complaint will be acknowledged within five working days from receipt.
An investigation will be carried out and our findings and proposed solution will be sent to you in writing within 10 working days.
If you are not happy with the outcome, you can escalate your complaint to Stage two.

Stage two

We will contact you within five working days from receiving your request.
Written acknowledgement will be sent to you within five working days.
Your complaint will be investigated by a complaints officer who will respond in writing within 20 working days.

Housing Ombudsman

Please be aware that you are able to contact the Housing Ombudsman at any stage of your complaint for further advice and assistance.

Tel: 0300 111 3000

Email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk

Website: www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk

What can I do if I feel my complaint is not resolved?

If you feel your complaint has not been resolved after it has completed our complaints process, you can:

For housing-related complaints:

Contact the Housing Ombudsman Service to review your case.

Call: 0300 111 3000

Email: info@housing-ombudsman.org.uk

Complete an online form at: www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/contact-us/

For care-related complaints:

Approach the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman after you receive your final decision. You can contact them on:

Tel: 0300 061 0614

Website: https://complaints.lgo.org.uk/

If your complaint relates to a regulatory issue, you can contact the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on:

Tel: 0300 061 6161

Email: enquiries@cqc.org.uk

Website: www.cqc.org.uk.

Comments and compliments

We welcome your comments on how we can improve our services and it's always nice to receive compliments when we've done something well and exceeded your expectations.

We will acknowledge your feedback within five working days from receipt.
We will respond to comments within ten working days of acknowledgement.
We will let you know if something changes in our organisation as a result of your feedback.

You can share comments or compliments by completing our online form.