Our vision
Improving residents’ lives and landlords’ services through housing complaints
Our values:
Fairness: We are independent and impartial; we take time to listen carefully and to understand the evidence
Learning: We share knowledge and insights to maximise our impact and improve services
Openness: We are accessible and accountable; we publish information on our performance and decisions
Excellence: We work together to provide an efficient, high-quality servic
Our vision and values were reviewed and updated in July 2020.
Our strategic objectives
- Extending fairness
- Encouraging learning
- Increasing openness
- Achieving excellence
Our Corporate Plan 2022-25 sets out how we will deliver our strategic objectives.
Our dispute resolution principles
The principles are based on the Ombudsman’s experience of resolving disputes. Over more than 20 years we have considered thousands of disputes and seen many examples of good and bad practice.
Who are the principles for?
The Ombudsman’s team applies the principles in the way we consider disputes and the support that we give to everyone who uses our service. The principles give examples of good practice to be used by anyone involved in or managing a dispute.
Landlords can use the principles as a good practice guide in complaint handling. They will improve success in resolving disputes, encourage better relationships and save resources.
Tenants can expect their landlord to apply the principles when it responds to a complaint. Tenants can also use the principles as a guide to help make their complaint more effectively.
Designated persons can apply the principles when considering a landlord’s complaint handling. It will also help to resolve complaints more effectively if they apply the principles themselves.
How do the principles work?
There are three principles behind effective dispute resolution:
- Be fair – treat people fairly and follow fair processes
- Put things right
- Learn from outcomes
An organisation’s culture must be right for the complaint handling process to resolve disputes effectively and in order to learn from the outcomes. While a good procedure and well trained staff will achieve results for maximum impact a positive complaints culture is essential.
Although the three principles are simple, applying them effectively means having the right culture, process and behaviours.
I would most definitely recommend other people to join the Service. Not only because the work we do makes a real difference to people’s lives but also to have the opportunity to work with colleagues, and an organisation, that really values you, not only for the work that you do but also the person you are.
Claire, Adjudicator (Investigations)
Staff Testimonials
Did you know…?
In our most recent employee engagement survey we scored
80%
Employee involvement and wellbeing is important to us and we run a bi-annual employee engagement survey so employees can give feedback and express their opinions on different aspects of the organisation. Our engagement scores continue to improve.