Learning from complaints
Newlon has a learning from complaints project team which meets each month to review ongoing and resolved complaints.
This team includes representatives from all departments in Newlon.
At the monthly meeting we assess learnings from complaints which are recorded and reviewed for each complaint, look for common themes and issues and decide on the actions required to follow up on what we have learned.
We report back on learning from complaints as part of our annual report to residents in October each year and in our annual service improvement report which is reviewed by our Board and Residents’ Forum. You can find this in the main complaints information page on our website at – https://www.newlon.org.uk/residents/making-a-complaint/.
Areas we have are currently focusing on based on recent learning from complaints include:
- Communications in relation to repairs appointments.
- Improving complaints handling.
- Improved data integration with our contractors.
- Improving our approach to recognising and recording vulnerabilities and taking appropriate actions.
Communications in relation to repairs appointments
Repairs are the area which result in the most complaints. Our learning from complaint analysis has shown that a significant proportion of complaints are related to poor communications about when operatives are attending, why they have not turned up when scheduled or why jobs have been cancelled or require follow-up works.
We are working to improve this through better systems integration. This is an important criteria for awarding our main responsive repairs contract, which is coming into effect from July 2025. This will also include other benefits such as being able to track contractors progress so that residents can see that they are on the way to their appointment.
The Head of Communications and Repairs Manager are also reviewing individual cases to understand what further improvements we can make to communications around appointments, either to residents, within Newlon, or between contractors, residents and ourselves.
We have introduced a code of practice for contractors to follow to ensure they meet our requirements for communicating with residents around the progress of repairs jobs and this is reviewed at contract meetings.
Complaint handling
We have introduced new complaint management templates and held staff training on recognising when something is a complaint and ensuring that we address all issues raised in complaints.
Put a new process in place to ensure we carry out promises made in response to complaints, this allows us to monitor and follow up on any actions agreed to resolve a complaint.
We have added additional resources to ensure that we are delivering on the agreed actions.
We have held a complaints roadshow for staff to train them on recognising complaints and knowing how to register and log them.
To help minimise delays in complaint responses we have held an All Staff Day briefing session on how and when to escalate issues.
Data systems and integration
We have been in discussions with all our contractors about accessing data from their systems and working towards system integration. For some of the contractors we work with, their systems are integrated with our IT systems, for others we have been working with them in the development of a contractors’ portal to allow better sharing of key information.
For contractors where we do not yet have systems integration we are focusing on ensuring we have access to their systems to have greater visibility of key information about repairs. For our main heating contractor our Service Centre team leaders, Service Resolution and Building Services teams now have access to their portal, following the recommendations from one complaint. This ensures that key staff can now search and review all their jobs and communications alongside our residents’ enquiries, jobs and complaints.
Recognising vulnerabilities
Some recent complaints have related to cases where we did not have vulnerabilities noted on our systems and therefore did not respond appropriately.
We have carried out staff briefings to raise awareness about the importance of recording vulnerability information if this is mentioned at any stage by a resident in relation to themselves or a member of their household.
We have also updated and merged our Vulnerability and Reasonable Adjustments policies to make it easier for staff to assess what actions they need to take to deal with a query most effectively where someone impacted by an issue has a vulnerability.