Almost half of responding staff to a survey have received training since Ombudsman criticised sector in 2023
Dozens of social landlord staff who handle complaints have received training on data handling since the Housing Ombudsman released a report critical of the sector’s knowledge and information management (KIM) in May 2023.
At the time, it made 21 recommendations, including providing staff training on using data systems and the requirements of the Equality Act 2010.
The Ombudsman today released analysis of a follow-up survey, to which 99 landlord complaint handlers responded.
When asked if they have received any training or guidance in relation to how they create, use, store or share data since the June 2023 report, 43% said they had, with a further 25% receiving training before the Ombudsman report.
A total of 28% have not had the training before or since the report.
The Ombudsman’s 2023 KIM report said landlords’ services ”can be held back by weaknesses in data and information, that can turn an ordinary service request into an extraordinarily protracted complaint.”
Since the report was published, nearly half of respondents (46%) also received training on the Equality Act 2010. While an additional 33% had already been given training before the report, 15% said they had still not completed any training.
Meanwhile, 45% of those surveyed reported receiving guidance on recognising and recording vulnerabilities since the release of the KIM report, 16% completing it prior, and almost one-third of respondents not undergoing training.
According to the report, 1,696 individuals completed CPD accredited KIM e-learning and 144 individual landlord members attended KIM workshops. Feedback also shows that 89% of respondents who had experienced changes to the databases they use or systems they follow to record and access data reported that the changes had improved their approach.
However, 25% of respondents said they were having issues accessing the necessary information to inform their decision making. While this figure is down from 56% from a 2022 KIM survey, barriers persist, with those struggling citing poor quality or vague information, and databases not synchronising as the main challenges (19%), followed by poor communication from other teams (18%) and resident contact not always being recorded, creating information gaps (17%).
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “We recognise that landlords face many challenges navigating knowledge and information management with low budgets.
“Records made by operatives every minute will impact the experiences of residents – both positive and negative – and in aggregate will inform the decisions made in the boardroom about the landlord’s future. In turn, these will shape the view of risk in the sector and even national policy priorities.
“Since the publication of our report in 2023, the need for good KIM has only increased, with it being central to the new consumer regulation.
“Agreeing and implementing a KIM framework effectively can take time and resources and we understand that landlords only have a finite resource. However, from speaking to landlords, it is clear that effort invested can be seen in both incremental gains and longer-term benefits.
“Challenges around data need to be considered in both the strategic sense and the practical application day-to-day at operational level. We hope that in sharing some of the improvement actions and innovative approaches, we offer encouragement to those landlords who are working to meet the recommendations.
“Ultimately understanding residents and homes better will allow landlords to better target interventions, an improved experience and fewer complaints.”
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