Ombudsman to inspect council over ‘concerning’ recurrence of cases

In February this year, the watchdog revealed that it had found five severe cases of maladministration for the council, including a child with a mould allergy breaking out in eczema after a leak in the bathroom.

At the time, the ombudsman called for the council to “radically improve” and expressed concern for how its actions were at times disrespectful of residents and lacked empathy for the impact of its service failures.

But the watchdog has decided to intervene with an inspection after Lambeth residents from a previously resolved case had the problems return, with the council “once again” not dealing with the issues satisfactorily and the ombudsman finding maladministration.

The poor complaint-handling in these subsequent cases included not following its policies, failing to fully investigate the issues, and not offering appropriate remedies.

The inspection process involves speaking to landlord staff and residents to establish how the landlord allowed the issues to resurface. 

The ombudsman will evaluate evidence of the landlord’s complaint-handling, including compliance with recent orders and recommendations and previous decisions relating to service improvements.

The ombudsman is also due to hold an open meeting – hosted by Lambeth Council – with residents in September to hear about the issues facing them and the landlord.

Speaking to Inside Housing, housing ombudsman Richard Blakeway explained the decision to use the power for the first time.

He said: “Just over a year ago we did a wider investigation with Lambeth… and there were very clear, repeated and common points of service failure.

“The council co-operated fully with that wider investigation [and] co-operates fully with the individual investigations that we do and the compliance around them.

“The problem is that we keep seeing the issues reoccurring. And in particular we’re seeing the same residents are having to raise complaints again for service failures that were meant to have been addressed previously and other service failures reoccurring even with the same residents.

“So what we need to do is get a greater level of understanding about how they are seeking to put right the service failures that we identified in our reports and progress the recommendations that we made for service improvement.

“We think to do that we need to do something additional with the landlord than the usual process of evidence engagement that we undertake.”

Mr Blakeway explained that Lambeth is the first landlord to be subject to the new power because it was the first to be subject to wider investigation into systemic issues. 

He said: “Following these special reports, we have a period where we do monitoring: the landlord said it’s going to make these changes, is that reflected in the casework? 

“And that inevitably means that we need a period of time where we start to see cases coming back and we can see whether or not there’s an improvement. 

“We’re seeing the same issues arise on cases since the special report was done, since the changes were made and that’s why the timing is now: it’s a natural step after the use of our wider powers.”

Other landlords subject to special reports and recommendations include Clarion, Birmingham Council, Catalyst, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and Haringey. 

“If those changes are embedded and successful, that should be reflected in the complaints and if it’s not reflected in the complaints, I think it’s incumbent on us to raise it with the landlord,” Mr Blakeway said. 

In a statement, a spokesperson for Lambeth Council said it has more than 33,000 council homes and its “priority is ensuring that all of these are safe and well-maintained for our residents”. 

The council said: “When problems arise, we work hard to deal with them quickly and fairly. We are extremely disappointed that, on this occasion, we fell below our standards, and apologise for failings experienced by this resident and acknowledge that our response to the resident’s complaint was not as helpful, considerate or timely as it should have been.

“Lambeth has worked intensively with the Housing Ombudsman and with residents to improve the way we respond to complaints and tackle any issues raised, to ensure we provide the best possible service to all our tenants.

“The council recognises the importance of addressing complaints received efficiently and effectively with a view to providing viable resolutions for our residents when things go wrong.”

The spokesperson said the council has recently implemented a number of improvements aimed at all staff responsible for handling complaints.

They include:

• The introduction of dedicated complaints officers with experience of different subject matters across housing services

• Increased engagement with our stakeholders both internally and externally – that is, operational service areas and contractors – enabling the complaint-handlers to obtain the most up-to-date information to address issues raised

• Additional complaint-handling training to improve the quality and timeliness of responses

• Increased monitoring of agreed remedies and service commitment of works, together with retrospective case reviews capturing the learning, driving through any identified necessary improvements

“These wide-ranging changes, alongside our collaborative work with the ombudsman, are already delivering benefits, with more to come. 

“We accept the ombudsman’s findings in this case and we welcome this inspection as an opportunity to work with them, to demonstrate the work we’re doing, and to continue improving the service we provide to all our tenants,” the spokesperson added.