Welcome to the seventh edition of Castles & Coasts Housing Association’s (CCHA’s) Residents’ Voice Report.
Your feedback is important to us. It helps us learn what is going well and where we need to focus our attention to improve our services. This report provides an overview of feedback we have received from complaints, compliments and satisfaction surveys. Within this report, you’ll find out how our Residents’ Scrutiny Panel have helped to identify service improvements, and how we have learned from complaints. It also includes some of the activities we have delivered across communities over the six-month period from April to September 2024.
A big change for the housing sector this year was the introduction of new Consumer Standards, launched by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) in April 2024. The Standards aim to ensure all social housing residents have safe and well-maintained homes, that their voice is heard, that services can be appropriately adapted to meet individual needs, and that you live in communities that are well managed and maintained. We are committed to ensuring we meet all of these expectations.
We hope you find the report interesting. If you have any suggestions for improvements, we’d be really pleased to hear from you. Details of how to get in touch can be found at the end of this report.
Complaints
The Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code
The Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code (CHC) was introduced four years ago. The third update of the code was launched in February 2024. All social housing providers must comply with the expectations set out within this when handling complaints. The code is designed to make it easier for residents to raise a complaint, and to ensure housing providers are consistent when dealing with complaints.
Each year we conduct a self-assessment against the CHC. Earlier this year, we also updated our Complaints Policy to ensure it is fully aligned to the requirements of the CHC. Our Self-Assessment and Complaints Policy can be found on our website here.
To ensure there is oversight and scrutiny of complaints at every level of CCHA, we have a Board Member Complaints Champion. Erica Morriss is our Champion, who routinely conducts spot checks of our complaint handling processes, to ensure we are meeting the requirements in the CHC. Erica then reports findings and any recommendations to our Board.
When things go wrong, we’re committed to apologising and putting things right. Receiving complaints is very valuable for us, as they help us understand where something might not be working, how we can improve, and prevent the same issues happening again.
If you’re ever unhappy with how we have handled your complaint, you can contact the Housing Ombudsman Service. Details of how to do this are on our website.
Complaints performance
Our annual target for this financial year (1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025), is to receive fewer than 2% of complaints, compared to our overall number of CCHA properties. This works out at around 152 complaints per year, or 13 new Stage 1 complaints per month.
As shown in the table below, we received 103 new Stage 1 complaints between 1st April and 30th September 2024. This is 1.39% of CCHA properties. We are closely monitoring the number of complaints we receive, as there has been a slight increase compared to last year.
Complaints by service area
We hold quarterly review meetings with department managers to scrutinise resident satisfaction results and complaints data to:
• Identify any trends
• Make sure that any learning from complaints is captured
• Make sure that if changes are required, they happen, and we track that they happen, so we can improve services and help prevent recurrence of complaints.
As the table above shows, we received 44 more new Stage 1 complaints than we did in the same period during 2023. We are monitoring this closley to check if there are any trends or patterns that we need to be aware of.
Before this year, complaints relating to CCS were usually managed by our responsive repairs managers. These complaints are now managed and responded to by senior managers in CCS. This change was made so learning from complaints is better understood by the people who directly lead this service area, to help bring about any improvements needed for the benefit of residents.
Most service areas have seen a small rise in complaints this year. However, the area of greatest increase relates to Property Services, particularly our responsive repairs. We’re committed to managing and reporting complaints in an open and honest way. While we see higher complaint volumes as learning opportunities, we are closely monitoring for any new patterns or issues to address urgently if identified.
We’ve also seen a reduction in the number of complaints in some areas, particularly Housing Services.
Complaints compared to the number of transactions
It can be difficult to compare the proportion of complaints a department receives against the number of services they have delivered, as many departments have a lot of contact with residents in the delivery of services. However, we continue to look at ways we can measure this.
The table below shows the proportion of complaints a department has received between 1st April and 30th September 2024, compared to their ‘headline’ transactions, along with a definition for each:
Primary cause of complaints and lessons learnt
The charts below provide an overview of the primary cause of complaints, and the lessons learnt from complaints.
Refused complaints
We didn’t refuse to accept any complaints between 1st April and 30th September 2024.
Primary cause of complaints Lessons learnt from upheld complaints
How we learn from complaints
The issue
A resident complained about the age and condition of their bathroom, and the lack of matching tiles available for any necessary repairs. Their next door neighbour’s home was getting refitted throughout.
How we resolved it
We carried out any urgent repairs and are scheduling a full bathroom replacement for the resident.
Learning
Communication can be improved between CCHA and partner contractors. A repair job had been raised correctly but the outcome delivered at the resident’s home was different to the specification provided.
The issue
A prospective resident placed a choice-based lettings bid for a property which had been advertised as having three bedrooms. However, during the bidding process this was changed to two bedrooms due to the small size of one of the bedrooms. The resident needed three bedrooms, so was then not eligible for the property during the bidding process.
How we resolved it
We found that the property was advertised incorrectly initially. It is now classed as a two-bedroom house in accordance with the Nationally Described Space Standards. We apologised for the error, and the applicant has since been offered and moved into a three bedroom CCHA home.
Learning
Room sizes to be checked before future property advertisements are published.
The issue
A resident complained about the length of time it had taken to repair their boiler after repeated breakdowns. They had to give up hours at work to be at home for repairs to be carried out several times.
How we resolved it
We apologised for the length of time before the boiler was repaired and compensated the resident for their loss of earnings and inconvenience.
Learning
The repair was originally presented as a ‘containable leak’, which then became uncontainable. Attending to the containable leak earlier would have stopped the issue getting worse. There were bank holidays around the time of the complaint, and there were delays waiting for parts to arrive, which should have been communicated to the resident.
The issue
A resident living in one of our Independent Living schemes complained about some ongoing refurbishment works. These were causing dust in the air and the resident was disappointed that they weren’t informed about the works beforehand.
How we resolved it
The complaint manager agreed that communication could have been much better around the works carried out. The complaint manager visited the scheme and found that the works were now being carried out to a higher standard of cleanliness, with operatives vacuuming as they went along.
Learning
Communication regarding upcoming works has been much improved, with prior notice given to residents.
Compliments
We’re really pleased to report that between October 2023 and March 2024, we received over eight times more compliments about the services we deliver, compared to the number of complaints.
The gas service that you provide is a brilliant service. The customer service of the young man that serviced my boiler was impeccable.
Please give a huge thank you to my Income Officer for his expert advice, patience and support. He has been an absolute pleasure to deal with through the process.
The Income Officer was very good, patient and knowledgeable. He explained things in slow time but not so slow he made me feel stupid. Every company needs someone like him, thank you so much.
Everyone I dealt with at Castles and Coasts couldn’t have been more helpful. It was an extremely easy process and I’m grateful for all the help and speed in which we moved.
My surveyor is a very kind man. He is polite, has really good customer service and I feel very relaxed and happy whenever he visits.
I just wanted to say what a good team Castles & Coasts have. I brought a lady who was struggling to register to apply for one of your properties. The lady we met was very helpful when we arrived and made us very welcome. She had to go to an appointment, but she set the computer up and said it was quite straightforward. We struggled at the first hurdle but a young lady who was on reception stepped in and helped us. We couldn’t have done the application without her. It is very rare that people get praise, but can I just say she is a huge asset to your team. Her professional manner and work ethic were amazing.
My email is to highlight the over and above service provided by your Wellbeing & Compliance Assistant, not forgetting the Lettings & Neighbourhoods Officer who also was superefficient and helpful. It is a comfort for the family knowing my brother is safe. The amount of help they provided to assist him in the transition, such as calculating and advising with utilities, is worthy of reward.
Your plumber has attended this afternoon. What a lovely, friendly, knowledgeable, genuine person. He assessed and identified a few issues and had spare parts on his van. Really impressed with his professional manner and attention to detail.
Today I received a new oven. I was expecting a new element for the existing oven, but I was told that it was not possible to get one. To have a new oven is very nice and I was very pleased with the young men who delivered and fitted it.
Resident satisfaction
Tenant Satisfaction Measures
Following consultations with residents and housing providers, the Regulator of Social Housing created a new system called Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs), to understand how residents feel about how their landlord is performing.
Since April 2023, like all social landlords, we have been sending TSM surveys to residents, asking 12 questions about how they felt we were performing.
In September 2024, we published our first set of TSMs from 2023-24. You can read more about TSMs and see how we have performed on our website here.
The questions look at a range of satisfaction indicators. The regulator will be publishing results from all housing providers across England, and we will share these results with residents when they are published.
If you haven’t yet received your TSM survey this year, please be assured that you will, around the anniversary of your tenancy start date. We urge you to complete the survey, as it will help us understand where we need to focus to help improve the services we provide for you.
Satisfaction survey feedback
In addition to the TSMs, we also ask for feedback on the services we deliver as soon as you receive
service from us, with the exception of grounds maintenance and communal cleaning, which we ask you for feedback on once a year, due to the number of visits we undertake.
This feedback is important, as it helps inform where we can make improvements. The table below provides an overview of the feedback we received from these surveys between 1st April and 30th September 2024, as well as a comparison to the 2023/24 and 2022/23 financial years:
Overall satisfaction with CCHA services, which we work out by taking the average score from different satisfaction surveys, was above the target of 90%. We’re pleased that nearly every service area met or exceeded the target.
Satisfaction with our grounds maintenance service was below the 80% target, at 68%.
We’re closely monitoring feedback from the grounds maintenance service to identify where improvements can be made. This feedback is discussed in detail at monthly meetings with our contractors and allows us to focus on specific areas, or geographic regions.
Resident satisfaction data is shared with our Resident Scrutiny Panel (RSP). If feedback for a service area is falling short of expectations, the RSP may choose to select this area as the topic for their next scrutiny exercise, and they recently reviewed our grounds maintenance services. Their findings were reported to our Audit & Risk Committee in February 2024. There is now an action plan in place to make service improvements in this area which we are hoping will increase resident satisfaction.
Other resident satisfaction surveys
Between April and September 2024, we’ve also asked for views of residents on other areas through Resident Feedback Groups. :
• We asked for feedback on the communications shared with residents regarding the 53-week rent year taking place in 2024/25. This feedback was valuable and will be used to continue to improve the information we provide to residents when a 53-week cycle happens again.
• We asked for feedback on our Pet Policy, which sets out how residents can ask for permission to keep a pet at their home, how we make our decisions, and how to manage pets in their home going forwards. The feedback provided will be incorporated into a revised version of the policy.
• We asked for feedback on our CCTV Policy, which sets out how we will manage CCTV that we provide and/or own, and what we expect from residents in terms of installing their own CCTV systems, including camera doorbells. The feedback provided will be used during the next review of the policy.
Following a recent RSP exercise, we asked the residents of one our schemes if they would like us to trial reduced grass cutting during the growing season to encourage wildlife and natural habitats. Whilst some residents were interested in this proposal, the majority of residents declined the offer.
If you would like to be part of our Resident Feedback Group, or would like to find out what’s involved, please get in touch with our Customer Experience Team by emailing feedback@castlesandcoasts.co.uk or by using any of the other contact details on the page 27 of this report.
Summaries of all the recent feedback provided by our residents are available on the ‘Customer Involvement and Feedback’ section of our website
Resident involvement
Residents’ Charter
Our Residents’ Charter was co-created using feedback from over 1,000 residents and our RSP around two years ago. The Charter outlines our key commitments to residents, along with how these commitments are measured. There are currently six key commitments within our Residents’ Charter.
• Communication
• Accountability
• Quality
• Relationships
• When things go wrong
• Voice and influence
The National Housing Federation (NHF) guidance document, ‘Together with Tenants’ helped to shape and inform the Charter. The NHF recently refreshed this guidance to include Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion, and we are currently working with our RSP to update our Charter in light of this new commitment. You can read the current version of the Charter here.
Each year as one of their scrutiny exercises the RSP will review how CCHA is performing against our Charter commitments, and we will to continue to publish the outcomes of their reviews within this publication. You can read more about the last RSP review of our Charter commitments on page 18.
An update from our Residents’ Scrutiny Panel (RSP)
Scrutiny Exercise: Residents’ Charter
We co-produced the Residents’ Charter with the help of Tpas, who are independent tenant engagement experts, and residents during 2021/22.
The aim of this scrutiny exercise was to review the performance of CCHA against two of these six commitments by reviewing evidence submissions provided to the panel, following a review of all six commitments in 2023/24.
The Panel found that we are meeting the commitments set out in the Residents’ Charter. They recommended a further review is carried out during 2025/26, and that the recent amendments to the ‘Together with Tenants’ charter be incorporated into the CCHA Residents’ Charter.
Scrutiny Exercise: Development
CCHA is committed to bringing new housing to the communities we serve.
The aims of this scrutiny exercise were to look at:
• How the homes developed meet the needs of residents and how these needs are identified
• Assess how well we are delivering against the aims in the CCHA Development Strategy 2021/26
• The involvement that residents had in the production of the strategy, and to recommend measures to further improve the services provided.
The Panel found the service was effective with minor improvement recommendations, which were around resident consultation for future Development Strategies.
Would you like to find out more about the work of our RSP?
Summaries of all the scrutiny exercises completed by our RSP are available on the ‘Customer Involvement and Feedback’ section of our website
Key strategies
To help us make sure we’re providing a high-quality service that meets the needs of our residents, we have two key strategies in place:
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy
Customer Service and Engagement Strategy
Both of these strategies were launched in 2022, and work continues to ensure we are meeting the aims we set out to achieve.
Each has its own dedicated Delivery Plan. These Delivery Plans are living documents highlighting actions for this make sure that the strategies are front and centre of the work we do.
The actions for the Delivery Plan are informed by feedback from residents, colleagues, the Regulator of Social Housing and best practice.
Although each of the strategies was due to be refreshed in 2027, we will be reviewing them later this year, to ensure they reflect the updated Regulator of Social Housing Consumer Standards. There are four Standards within the Consumer Standards:
1. The Safety and Quality Standard
2. The Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard
3. The Neighbourhood and Community Standard
4. The Tenancy Standard
You can read our strategies here: Click here
How we support our communities
Our Community Fund
Our Community Fund provides much-needed funding to local organisations and groups for projects across our communities that support the following objectives:
• Sense of community – bringing communities together
• Training and employability – supporting residents to gain or develop skills
• Health and wellbeing – improving this for our residents
• Increasing financial and digital inclusion for residents
Since the last Residents’ Voice Report, our funding has helped support more local organisations across Cumbria. In total, we have supported 13 projects since our last report, three of these are highlighted here.
Cumbria Pride 2024
To help make Cumbia Pride accessible to all, we were proud to support the organisers with a £500 grant to provide a fully accessible toilet on the day of the event. A group of colleagues from CCHA’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion group also attended the event. It was a fantastic opportunity for us to connect with residents and members of the community.
Wigton Community Luncheon Club
A group that helps to provide much needed hot meals in Wigton were in urgent need of a replacement cooker and water boiler. Our Community Fund contributed £400 towards the cost to ensure that the vital service was able to continue.
Every Life Matters
We contributed £1,000 towards an event organised by Every Life Matters, a Cumbrian charity that offers practical and emotional support to people bereaved and impacted by suicide. A touring exhibition raising awareness of male suicide and how to seek help will visit Barrow, Carlisle, and West Cumbria.
Other organisations we’ve helped include Kendal Walking Festival, Carlisle Sea Cadets, Carlisle Tri Club, Vulcan Park Bowling Club, Cumbria Gateway Limited, Carleton Park Recreation Group, Carlisle Vineyard, Stomping Ground CIC and AWAZ Cumbria CIC.
Details of the how to apply to the fund can be found on our website by clicking here.
Spotlight on anti-social behaviour
We believe that everybody has a right to enjoy their home and live safely and peacefully. That’s why we’re committed to working with residents, our local communities and other agencies to tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB) and neighbour nuisance.
ASB is defined as ‘behaviour by any person that causes, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not in the same household as them.’
Examples of ASB include violence or threats of violence; verbal abuse; hate crime and harassment; domestic abuse; possession, selling or growing illegal drugs; noise nuisance (loud, persistent); damage to property; nuisance from vehicles; criminal activity at a property.
As you can see from the list, ASB covers a wide range of issues and we know it can cause residents distress, so we take any reports very seriously. If you’re a CCHA resident being affected by ASB, or if it’s happening within a CCHA property and affecting you, it’s really important that you report it.
Between April and September this year, we have successfully closed 94% of our ASB cases.
Thanks to your ASB reports, we have also been able to secure one eviction, four injunctions and one ‘Section 21’ eviction to support residents to live safely and peacefully in their homes.
Working in partnership to tackle ASB
As well as dealing with reports of ASB, we also work with partners throughout the year in your communities.
We are members of Resolve, the UK’s leading community safety experts, and support national campaigns such as ASB Awareness Week in partnership with local councils, the police, fire and rescue services and other housing providers.
We also work with Cumberland Council local focus hubs and lead community days as part of its annual multi-agency ‘Operation Respect’ campaigns, which aim tackle ASB, fly tipping and promote health and wellbeing within communities.
In August this year, we led a community clean up event in Harriston, Aspatria. Throughout the day, CCHA colleagues were joined by local residents and teams from Cumberland Council, Cumbria Police, Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service, Citizens Advice, Family Action Allerdale, local health services and Tivoli to litter pick, load up community skips, remove rubbish and promote health and wellbeing.
Also in attendance was the newly elected MP Markus Campbell-Savours who had nothing but praise for the event. Dozens of local children mucked in to help and were rewarded with free ice creams.
After a successful day:
• 1 x 40ft roll on/roll off skip was filled
• 1 x specialist skip was filled with items like soft furnishings
• 30 bags of litter were collected
• Many vulnerable residents’ gardens were cleared, and bulky items removed
We will report on ASB in every Residents’ Voice Report going forward to let you know how we’re performing.
One local resident said: “I just want to pass on my thanks for today. Lots of people have said what an amazing day it was, people talking and helping. All the other agencies being there was really good - more people know what is out there for them. The work that was done has made such a big impact.”
Supporting independent living residents
Pre-loved clothes support lifesaving GNAAS
Kind-hearted residents at our Sneckyeat Court independent living scheme have donated a whopping 64 bags of pre-loved clothes and shoes to the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS), one of our nominated corporate charities, since August.
Margaret Sewell, Independent Living Wellbeing & Compliance Assistant at Sneckyeat, has been supporting the residents to organise the donations.
Margaret said: “The residents enjoy knowing that their unwanted preloved items of clothing are being used to benefit a good cause, and what better organisation to donate them to than one of CCHA’s nominated charities to help raise vital funds?”
The GNAAS team collects unwanted clothes and shoes from County Durham, the Wear Valley, Tees Valley, Northumberland and Cumbria and transforms these kind donations into vital funds.
They receive a very good price for the clothing from their buyers, many of whom are based in mainland Europe. Donated items are also sold in clothing shops, so nothing is shredded or sold as rags.
The GNAAS brings pioneering pre-hospital care to a scene, rescuing hundreds of severely injured or ill patients every year. It is not NHS funded and costs £23,200 per day to operate, relying completely on donations. Last year the GNAAS was called out 2,216 times.
You can read more about the charity’s amazing work here.
Pictured is one of the two GNAAS vans loaded up and ready to go back to Darlington.
Anyone can arrange a collection at a time that suits you. Just call the GNAAS team on 01325 308139, or fill out the enquiry form online.
Resident ‘braves the shave’ to help fundraise
A resident has ‘braved the shave’ as part of a successful coffee morning held at our Carisbrooke Court independent living scheme in Sunderland, raising an impressive £320.
The scheme also held a Macmillan Coffee Morning for residents, family and friends with a raffle, delicious home baked cakes and other tasty treats, and the final fundraising total came to £866.
Macmillan’s ‘Coffee Morning’ is its biggest fundraising event to support people living with cancer. People all over the UK host their own Coffee Mornings and the money raised is donated to Macmillan.
So far this year, over £4 million has been raised, which is enough to fund 61 Macmillan nurses for a full year.
You can find out more on the charity’s website.
Judith Arundel, our Wellbeing and Compliance Assistant for Carisbrooke Court said “It’s always great to see residents getting involved in social activities, especially when they know they’ve also supported a wonderful charity.”
Giving back to the community
CCHA’s Charity and Volunteering Committee have been busy over the last few months, here are a few examples of what they have been up to:
Ashfield School
CCHA rallied a team of enthusiastic colleagues keen to volunteer their time to help a local primary school.
Ashfield School, adjacent to CCHA’s Stoneleigh office in Workington, had received a building from a local college with the vision of transforming it into a sensory room and facility for additional student support. However, the school quickly became overwhelmed by the amount of work needed to bring this dream to life.
Colleagues from across CCHA stepped forward, all eager to use their annual allocated volunteering day to support this worthy cause. The volunteers’ contributions were invaluable, painting rooms, doing repairs and tidying the garden area significantly helped he project’s progress.
Great North Air Ambulance Service
To raise much needed funds for the Great North Air Ambulance Service, colleagues from across CCHA completed a 9.5-mile hike up Haystacks, one of the well-known Lake District Wainwright fells. The walk was led by an experienced guide and a former mountain rescue volunteer who lives at our Greta Gardens extra care scheme in Keswick. Colleagues raised over £8,000 in sponsorship!
Maryport Rescue
When we heard that Maryport Rescue needed volunteers to tidy up their station, we just had to help! Colleagues helped by repainting the station’s floor and carrying out some much-needed repairs.
A spokesperson for Maryport Rescue said: “We are humbled and thankful for the generosity, time and effort, of the team from CCHA who spent time this past week on station to repair and repaint the station floor. Thank you, CCHA!”
How you can get in touch with us
We aim to make it as easy as possible for residents to access our services, in a way that meets individual needs and preferences, and have lots of ways for you to keep in touch.
Visit us at our offices at 5 Paternoster Row, Carlisle or Stoneleigh, Park End Road, Workington on a Tuesday or Thursday between 10am and 2pm
0800 085 1171
cs@castlesandcoasts.co.uk
View your account, pay your rent and log a repair anytime via our Residents’ Portal, which can be accessed here
Visit the ‘Contact us’ page on our website at castlesandcoasts.co.uk/contact
On our ‘Contact us’ page, you’ll find lots of ways to get in touch:
Webchat
The ‘Chat now!’ button (pictured above) connects the resident with a member of the Customer Service Team to help with any queries.
Callback service
Request a callback
If you click the ‘Request a callback’ button (picture above), you’ll be asked for your name and the number you’d like us to call you back on, free of charge. Then, as soon as a Customer Services Adviser is available, they’ll give you a call back.
Reachdeck website accessibility tool
The icon above is on every page of the website. Clicking on it gives you the options of adding a ‘screen mask’ in different colours, having the page read out loud, translated, displayed in larger text or simplified.
If you have any specific communications needs or need documents like this one in an alternative format, please contact our friendly Customer Services team on 0800 081 1171 or using any of the contact methods on page 27 and they’ll be happy to help.
