Complaints: know your rights

This online webinar will discuss complaints, which was the priority topic raised by our Resident Sounding Board. It will include:

• Speakers from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities discussing the policy context, background to their current approach around complaints, the strengthening of the powers of the Housing Ombudsman Service, and their Make Things Right Campaign  
• A representative from the Housing Ombudsman Service who will talk to the role of the Ombudsman (what it does and doesn’t do), new powers under the Social Housing Regulation Act, and proposed changes to the Complaint Handling Code.
• Resident involvement in complaints handling and scrutiny around complaints
• Residents’ experiences of being involved in the complaints process.

Speakers: 

• Andrew Dack, Team Leader of Social Housing Sponsorship and Redress, DLUHC
• Nicole Bickerdyke, Senior Policy Advisor, Social Housing Redress Policy, DLUHC
• Tom Durham, Strategic Communications, DLUHC
• Polly Cox, Sector Learning and Development Manager, Housing Ombudsman Service
• Helen Watkinson, Housing Ombudsman resident panel member, stage 2 resident panel member, now Resident Complaints Champion, Scrutiny Panel Chair, last investigation into complaints, which resulted in 30 improvement plans.
• Lizzie Spring, a retired Voluntary Sector manager who rents a flat in Central London (afternoon session)
• Leah Stephens, Cobalt tenant and member of tenant consultative panel (evening session)