Housing complaints annual report 2024/2025

Introduction of the Customer Feedback and Insights Team

In response to the recommendations made in the Customer Scrutiny Review of Stage 1 Complaints, low levels of customer satisfaction with complaint handling and Housing Ombudsman intervention we established a new Customer Feedback and Insights Team. The team is responsible for responding to all stage 1 complaints and developing our approach to learning from complaints.

The Customer Scrutiny Review highlighted a number of weaknesses in the quality of complaint responses including:

• inconsistency in the structure of each letter, meaning there was a lack of an appropriate 'standard'
• responses lacked quality, such as mistakes with spelling and grammar, which makes customers feel their complaint hasn't been taken seriously
• the use of jargon and unclear language made letters difficult for customers to understand
• responses contained too much detail, including large blocks of text which was difficult to read
• the average reading age of the letters was too high. Analysis showed that factors such as language used, and the length of sentences made the letters inappropriate for different audiences with varying reading ability
• responses didn't feel personal towards the customer, meaning customers didn't feel valued
• some responses failed to outline our understanding of the complaint, as well as missing information such as contact details for the officer handling the complaint

The team was established to address those weaknesses identified and improve performance. It consists of three officers and a manager. They took over responsibility for complaint handling from the beginning of January 2025.

Since the introduction of the new team, performance has increased significantly. Between January and March 2025, 86% of stage 1 complaints were responded to within the target of 10 working days.

To assess the impact of the new team in terms of the quality of responses, the Customer Scrutiny Group carried out a follow-up exercise, checking a selection of responses to recent stage 1 complaints.

Overall, the feedback from the review was positive and the group agreed there had been a significant improvement since they carried out the initial review. It was noted that the overall quality and consistency had improved, and that it was very positive that the council now had a dedicated team in place. Some suggestions for further improvement to improve the quality of responses included:

• further simplify responses to complex cases including those that refer to legislation
• avoid repeatedly referring to Gateshead Council in a response. Once is sufficient, then use "we" instead
• as part of our approach to learning from complaints feedback to all customers the changes we have made in response to learning

The team will action the feedback received and continue to work with the scrutiny group to identify further improvements.