Customer involvement and feedback

We are recruiting!

If you would like to apply to join our Resident Scrutiny Panel (RSP), we'd love to hear from you. Please read the documents and complete the application form available below and return it to feedback@castlesandcoasts.co.uk by no later than Friday the 17th of January 2025. Interviews will take place during February 2025.

Scrutinising means carrying out a close and thorough examination of how a service is being delivered. The scrutiny process aims to give residents more power in holding their landlords to account for their decisions, performance, and conduct. Resident scrutiny reviews aim to identify what is being done well, what may be going wrong, and to make recommendations as to how improvements may be made.

If you'd like to discuss this opportunity, please don't hesitate to call the Customer Experience Team on either 07435 545868, 07967507142 or email the team; feedback@castlesandcoasts.co.uk 

There are further details on this website about resident involvement, please click the purple 'Resident Involvement' box further down this page.

Customer Service & Engagement Strategy

We're proud to have launched our Customer Service & Engagement Strategy (CS&ES) 2022-27. This Strategy sets out how we will deliver our Customer Aims and Objectives over the next 5 years, ensuring the services we deliver continue to meet the needs of our residents and that our residents have a strong voice, which is used to continually learn and improve. Please see the animation below, and click on the strategy document to read and/or download your copy. 

Tenant Satisfaction Measures - a new way to give your feedback

From 1st April 2023, all social housing tenants were offered a new way to give valuable feedback on the services provided by their landlords.

The Regulator of Social Housing has created a new system, called the ‘Tenant Satisfaction Measures’ (TSMs), for assessing how well social housing landlords in England are doing at providing good quality homes and services.

Beginning in April 2023, like every social landlord in England, Castles and Coasts Housing Association (CCHA) started sending out TSM surveys to people that rent homes from us. For our tenants, this will usually be around 90 days after the anniversary of their tenancy commencement date.

Invites to complete the survey will be sent to tenants either by text message (SMS) or email - please check your 'junk' folders to ensure that you don't miss your chance to have your voice heard.

NEW - From July 2024, we will also be making telephone calls to residents to gather your feedback on the TSMs questions. These calls will be made throughout the day, but mainly during evenings and weekends.

 

The TSMs cover the following key areas:

  • Overall satisfaction   
  • Keeping properties in good order  
  • Maintaining building safety  
  • Safety checks  
  • Respectful and helpful engagement   
  • Effective handling of complaints/anti-social behaviour (if you’ve reported either to us)  
  • Responsible neighbourhood management   

The survey has 12 questions and starting from autumn 2024, the results will be published annually to show residents how their landlord compares to others. We have now published our TSM results for 2023/24. Please click here for more details.

You can find out more about the new TSMs and why they are being introduced here: Introduction of tenant satisfaction measures – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

If you have any queries or would like to find out more about the new TSMs, please contact CCHA’s Customer Experience Team on 0800 085 1171.

 

We have two excellent opportunities available for residents who would like to be involved in shaping our services.

1. You may like to join our Resident Feedback Group (RFG) and give your views from the comfort of your own home - and at your own pace.

2. If you're really interested in how CCHA works, and would like to become very involved indeed,  you can register your interest in becoming a member of our Resident Scrutiny Panel (RSP).

Please see the sections below for more details about these two involvement options.

If you're interested in either option, we'd love to hear from you. Please email feedback@castlesandcoasts.co.uk and we'll be in touch very soon.

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, and provide a range of ways in which you can be involved to meet the diverse needs of our customers. Please contact us to discuss any accessibility needs you may have.

 

The ten members of our Resident Scrutiny Panel (RSP) meet around once per month, often in person and sometimes online. We have a good blend of residents in terms of geographic location and tenure types. Members look at resident satisfaction data to select particular areas of our services to scrutinise - of their own independent choosing. The RSP then carry out a detailed scrutiny exercise, which often involves site visits and interviews with managers. Ultimately, the RSP make recommendations as to how we can improve our services, which are presented to our Audit & Risk Committee.

The panel are very friendly and welcoming, and training is provided as required to bring new members up to speed. We also provide computer equipment to allow members to attend online meetings where required. Expenses are paid for any travel costs you may incur in travelling to meetings, and the experience is highly rewarding. It's likely that you'll find yourself speaking to senior managers and Board members of CCHA through your role. Please look out for adverts being sent to you when a vacancy arises.

Resident Feedback Group (RFG)

Our Resident Feedback Group (RFG) are asked to provide their feedback on a particular service or service area, policy or contract.

RFG members provide their feedback to us on a 'non-contact' basis using mainly online surveys. We ask our RFG for their feedback approximately six times a year, each survey will have a specific focus on a particular service area, these include;

- Repairs & Maintenance

- Grounds Maintenance

- Communal Cleaning

- Housing

- Customer Services

- Contract Procurement

- Income Collection

- Policies

If you are interested in taking part, please let us know if you are interested by emailing feedback@castlesandcoasts.co.uk. 

For details of recent RFG feedback exercises please use the link buttons below.

We look forward to working with you!

If you would like to compliment us on a service we have provided, or about a member of staff, or one of our contractors, we would love to hear from you.

We will acknowledge the receipt of your compliment within 5 working days and will thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback.

If we have failed to meet your expectations, please tell us. We want to hear from you. As a customer of CCHA, you have the right to make a complaint if you feel we haven’t met your expectations or have failed to deliver one of the commitments made in our Residents' Charter.  We are dedicated to resolving any issues quickly, fairly and transparently, and to ensuring customers are kept up to date at each stage.

How can I make a complaint?

You can make a complaint using the contact details below or by using the form at the bottom of this page. 

For further information about our complaints process, please refer to our Complaints Policy below.

The Housing Ombudsman

Complainants have the right to contact the Housing Ombudsman at any time while your complaint is going through our complaints process. The Housing Ombudsman is available to offer advice and can provide help to find a resolution. To access advice from the Housing Ombudsman, please visit www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/ or telephone 0300 111 3000.

 

CCHA welcomed the launch of the Complaint Handling Code from the Housing Ombudsman (HO). The code was initially released in July 2020, in an attempt to drive consistent and good complaint handling practise across the Housing Association sector. The most recent edition of the Code was published in February 2024, and took effect in April 2024.

As a landlord, we are required to self-assess annually against the Code, to establish CCHA’s current level of compliance and determine actions required in order to adhere to the Code.

CCHA welcomes complaints, compliments and feedback, as this is key to helping us to inform services to residents. We equally welcome the Code as a great opportunity to inform and improve our complaints process.

Please feel free to review our self-assessment, a copy of the Code and our Complaints Policy, all available below.

Further details of the Housing Ombudsman’s service can be found on their website; housing-ombudsmman.org.uk

 

Get in touch

If you would like to take part in any of these resident involvement opportunities, or would like to find out more, please contact us.

Email: feedback@castlesandcoasts.co.uk

In writing:

Customer Experience Team

Castles & Coasts Housing Association

5 Paternoster Row

Carlisle

Cumbria

CA3 8TT

Telephone: 0800 085 1171

Online: by using the form below

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