Domestic Abuse Policy

Regulatory standards

We must ensure we comply with the Regulator of Social Housing's regulatory framework and consumer standards for social housing in England. The new consumer standards were introduced on 01 April 2024 and detail the four consumer standards which landlords are required to comply with, including:

• The Safety and Quality Standard - which requires landlords to provide safe and good quality homes and landlord services to tenants. This includes stock quality; decency; health and safety; repairs, maintenance, and planned improvements; and adaptations.
• The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard - which requires landlords to be open with tenants and treat them with fairness and respect so that tenants can access services, raise complaints when necessary, influence decision-making and hold their landlord to account. This standard incorporates Tenant Satisfaction Measure requirements.
• The Neighbourhood and Community Standard - which requires landlords to engage with other relevant parties so that tenants can live in safe and well-maintained neighbourhoods and feel safe in their homes.
• The Tenancy Standard - which sets requirements for the fair allocation and letting of homes and for how those tenancies are managed and ended by landlords.

Registered providers must have a policy for how they recognise and effectively respond to cases of domestic abuse. The framework also advises that the local authority needs to work alongside registered providers in order to meet its duty to develop a strategy and commission services for victims and survivors of domestic abuse and their children within safe accommodation.

Any changes to The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 may result in future changes to this policy.

Legislation

The principal legislation applicable to this policy is The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and The Housing Act 2004.

Approved codes of practice

Complaints about service delivery will be addressed using the Housing Ombudsman's Code of Practice which sets out best practice for landlords to effectively handle complaints, including:

• the stages a process should have 
• the timescales to provide a response 
• what information must be provided in a complaint response 

Compliance with the code is most effective when landlords operate within established dispute resolution principles: to be fair, put things right, and learn from outcomes. 

This code aims to support the earliest resolution of complaints while the matters are still within the landlord's own procedure. This can avoid issues escalating with further detriment to the resident, requiring more time and resource by the landlord to remedy. 

The code also acts as a guide to residents of what to expect if they make a complaint and improve access and awareness of the procedure when they need it. 

In developing this policy, we have had regard to spotlight reports provided by the Housing Ombudsman.