Lench’s Trust
Annual Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report
2023/24
Message from Lench’s Trust Board of Trustees
Our Trustees have reviewed the 2023/24 report and identified there was no significant increase or decrease in the amount of received complaints from the previous year.
Our Trustees recognises the upheld complaints were regarding one individual and took appropriate action in line with policy and procedures. They also requested the need to review our current policy to better understand the differential between a formal complaint, concern or service request, which we are looking at with a newly established residents scrutiny panel.
Our current Compliments, Concerns and Complaints policy & procedure is due to be reviewed in October 2024, however this will be brought forward to simplify the policy and bring in line with the new Complaints Handling Code 2024.
The Board has confirmed the data within this report is an accurate reflection of the performance of the Charity in this year.
Complaints received in relation to stock 2.19
50% of received complaints were
It is noted that whilst we do not receive a large number of complaints, we recognise there are areas of improvement, specifically relating to staff behaviour and how our staff perceive a complaint.
Stage 1 = 20 working days
Stage 2 = 15 working days
One complaint escalated to stage 2, fell outside of our not meet our 15-day response timescale. The additional time was agreed in advance with the complainant to provide further time to provide additional evidence.
Housing Ombudsman Cases
No Lench’s Trust complaints were escalated to the Housing Ombudsman In
Service Improvements
Our Compliments, Concerns & Complaints Policy was approved by our Board of Trustees in October 2022, to be reviewed in October 2024, however it is agreed the Policy should be reviewed earlier with the following improvement to be implemented:
Improvement required Outcome
New policy to be discussed at resident meetings & to be available on display at each scheme as well as on our website
Staff training on recognising what is a complaint and how to perceive this.
New Policy issued and embedded and to meet the new complaints handling code 2024.
All training to include reading and understanding Policy & Procedure.
Dedicated person to regulate and report on complaints Dedicated complaints Officer
The Trust to welcome complaints. To embed complaint as an improvement tool.
Specialist training with the care management team.
Specific staff training on conflict resolution
April 2024
We have introduced a new Compliments & Complaints Policy which implemented the requirements of the new Complaints Handling Code 2024 and simplified our Policy for a clearer understanding of what a complaint is.
We also introduced a new Unreasonable Behaviour & Persistent Complaints Policy.
Both policies are published on our website and in each scheme communal rooms and all staff have received individual copies of both policies, which have been implemented into our inhouse training modules.