Agenda item

The Corporate Director of Homes and Neighbourhood provided an update on the progress of the Housing Ombudsman Action Plan.

·       Housing Ombudsman concluded their special investigation into Islington Council in October 2023, Council accepted the findings and confirmed its commitment to service improvement on publication of the report.

·       Draft Action Plan has been shared with committee at last meeting and that work has commenced on delivering the Action plan as well as refining it.

·       Corporate Director, Homes and Neighbourhoods will be meeting the Housing Ombudsman later in January to discuss progress and their plans to monitor arrangements following their Special Investigation report.

·       Meeting was advised that although the Council has been commended on its proactive approach to remedying areas identified for improvement, work had commenced prior to launch of the investigation.

·       Action Plan has been developed to respond to the 21 recommendations and work has commenced on delivering the action plan.

·       Report sets out the progress that has been made under the 4 areas , disrepair (including damp and mould),anti-social behaviour and complaints handling.

·       Action plan contains 81 actions in response to the 21 recommendations, that of the 83 actions , 21 have been completed or are in place already.

·       It is important to note that some of the actions in the Action plan are cross cutting between different partners or services, that it is important to note that the Council has developed a departmental format for action plans which ensures SMART objectives and Senior Responsible Officers are in place for all action. Also a staff survey has been designed for implementation during December and January to seek feedback on staff empowerment and support staff.

·       In terms of disrepair recommendations amongst a number of actions, the Council has introduced a backstop team to prevent missed appointments through reallocations processes, a damp and mould team in place with specific timeframe measures so as to help isolate and monitor service performance.

·       In addition to the above, additional checks are in place for complex repairs delivered by Partners and annual performance reporting through Housing Management Team and Political Leadership meetings.

·       Partners are working proactively with the Council to imbed changes into their service arrangements and incorporating updated policies and processes.

·       In terms of Anti-social Behaviour recommendations, the Council has carried out a self -assessment against the Housing Ombudsman ‘Time to be Heard’ insight report and an action plan has been developed.

·       With regards to complaints related recommendations which focusses on the Council’s need to improve, the meeting was advised that Council has developed a complaints handling programme utilising the Housing Ombudsman online training courses for all office-based staff, to be rolled out in February.

·       Meeting was advised that a new complaints reporting format is now in place and is consistent across all Homes and Neighbourhood teams.

·       Homes and Neighbourhoods complaint service restructure has been agreed with additional resources secured for the team which ensures that quality management remains at the heart of the service. The restructure process will be rolled out in late January for staff consultation and where needed posts recruited too, once the consultation process is concluded.

·       The Corporate Complaints Team will ensure that apology letters are brought to the attention of complaints leads and the Chief Executive so as to ensure visibility and compliance with the Housing Ombudsman’s expectation and stage 2 letters will be signed off by a senior officer.

·       In response to a question, the Corporate Director acknowledged that the Action Plan was not appended on its report and will circulate it.

·       Meeting was advised that RSL’s are subjected to the same regulation and that Council’s have reached out to other providers that have been issued with the Paragraph 49 Investigations.

RESOLVED:

That the Action plan be circulated ahead of the meeting as noted above.