Railway Housing Association owns and manages more than 1,500 homes in North-East England and Yorkshire.
Railway commissioned DTP to undertake a full independent and external review of the key areas within its complaints approach. This included Railway’s current complaints policy and procedure in order to validate their effectiveness against regulatory requirements, specifically the Regulator of Social Housing’s (RSH) Consumer Standards and the Housing Ombudsman Services’ (HOS) Complaint Handling Code 2024.
Following this initial review, DTP were asked to provide a Complaints Summary for 2023/24 and advise on Railway’s annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report in relation to the HOS’s assessment of Railway’s compliance with the Code.
Firstly, we carried out a review of the policy and procedure through the lens of consumer regulation, specifically the RSH’s Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard and the requirements in the HOS’s Complaint Handling Code, including validation of Railway’s self-assessment against the Code. During this review we drew on our sector knowledge and the good practice we have seen enacted through various delivery models and complaints frameworks.
This allowed us to identify areas in both the policy and the procedure that would benefit from strengthening and make recommendations to Railway as to how they could build on their existing practice in these areas.
Following our review, we provided a draft policy and supporting procedure which Railway was able to discuss with us to ensure that it not only met the needs of Railway’s residents but was also deliverable as a landlord.
We reviewed Railway’s complaint data for the previous year and provided an independent view of its collection methods and approach. We produced a written report detailing a summary of Railway’s complaints, which included analysis by date, primary reason and stage. We also included analysis on several demographics relating to complainants to help Railway identify any trends or patterns in behaviour.
Together, we were able to ensure that Railway’s approach set out in its policy and procedure was current and robust. We were also able to ensure the policy and procedure accurately reflected Railway’s self-assessment.
The review ensured Railway’s approach was compliant with regulation and more importantly it aimed to meet the needs of Railway’s residents. We ensured that the policy was deliverable by Railway and that there were clear procedures for Railway colleagues to use, thus providing a consistent level of service that reflects the diverse needs of Railway’s residents.
To ensure the policy was fit for purpose from a resident point of view and to provide residents with the opportunity to influence the policy and service delivery, Railway carried out resident consultation on the draft policy. Railway received positive comments on the draft policy, including that the document was easy to understand, and residents confirmed the priorities they had expressed were covered in the policy.
Our review provided Railway with a good, thorough understanding of its complainant’s data which has since supported service improvements through learning from the analysis.
Both Railway and DTP were delighted when the HOS identified Railway’s Annual Complaint and Service Improvement Report as an example of good practice in its Quarterly Complaint Handling Report: Setting a Positive Complaints Culture which was published in October 2024.
Chris Marshall , COO