25 July 2023

Complaints Panel

As part of our commitment to learn from complaints, to listen to customers’ views and to act upon them, YHN recently launched the new Customer Complaints Panel. As customers they have unique, first-hand experience of our services. They know what is going well and what could be better at YHN.

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The panel members were recruited from customers who had expressed an interest in further engagement with YHN following the Your Home, Your Voice survey.

An introductory meeting was held online and included two members of the Customer Insight & Engagement (CI&E) team and four customers. As the panel will be customer-led, this meeting gave the members a chance to decide on the outline of the group. It was decided that future meetings would take place in person every other month.

The CI&E team explained how they are currently learning from complaints and established the information the panel would need going forward. The members were keen to learn about the volume of complaints, how many are upheld and whether there are any trends in the data.

The Complaints Panel members were also invited to attend an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion training session alongside the Customer Voice Group. The training was given to empower the members and to cultivate a diverse, inclusive, and productive environment to openly discuss and analyse our complaints processes.

The Complaints Panel later had a hybrid session with three members in person and one online. The CI&E team presented the data on complaints that had been requested and discussions took place around the trends of repairs and damp and mould. Gaps in the complaints process were identified and clearer communication of YHN’s responsibilities towards ASB were acknowledged as a necessity. A member of the Customer Experience Team went through ‘a day in the life’ demonstration to better inform the panel members of their role.

Since the panel started, a further two members have joined, bringing the total members to six.

The Complaints Panel members have decided to allow their involvement to evolve as the panel becomes more established. The initial roadmap that they have decided on is for the CI&E officers to bring complaints data and trends to them for scrutiny.

The team will also present any problems identified through complaints to the panel. Any suggested improvements will be relayed back to the relevant areas, actions and satisfaction levels will then be monitored and the Complaints Panel will be given progress reports.

Find out more about how to get involved with us here and just get in touch if you'd like to join the panel yourself.