Tpas & Housing Ombudsman Complaints workshop - What I learnt!

Wednesday 31st of July 2019

Mo Martin from Greenfields Community Housing talks about her experience of attending our recent Complaints workshop

On the 15^th July I went to a Tpas and Housing Ombudsman Complaints and Customer Involvement workshop at Greenfield’s Community Housing.

Two Ombudsman Adjudicators David Simmons and Jonathan Ball, explained about the role of the Ombudsman. This is to resolve disputes involving members of the scheme, including making awards of compensation or other remedies as appropriate, as well as to support effective landlord/tenant dispute resolution by others.

The Ombudsman Dispute Resolution Principles are:-

BE FAIR – treat people fairly and follow fair process
PUT THINGS RIGHT – as far as possible
LEARN FROM OUTCOMES – make changes that improve services.

The day went very well with other housing association and councils attending the session from London, Essex and Kent. There were lots of questions asked and answered.

During the lunch break there was a lot of networking with the other volunteers and staff members that attended. I personally exchanged phone no, and email with volunteers from SCDC. Information about each others Housing association, councils and volunteers involvement and future training was discussed.

What have I taken from this event is some pointers about how to avoid a complaint from escalating. One of the best ways to accomplish this is first to apologise. An apology helps to defuse a situation. The next step would be to resolve the complaint as quickly as possible.

I found the day to be very informative, it made me think about what I need to look for when I will be on a complaints panel. The presentation that Paula Briggs gave regarding Greenfields complaints figures was excellent generating lots of questions.

Over all an excellent day. When any other training becomes available I would be first in line to attend.