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Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs)
In 2020 the Social Housing White Paper identified a need to improve how tenant satisfaction is measured.
From December 2021 to March 2022 landlords were invited to give their views about the proposals. The initiative evolved into the Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) and in 2022 a formal set of TSMs were published. All registered housing providers must use the TSMs to collect resident feedback from April 2023 and report on them from summer 2024.
Establishing the measures well ahead of the game, we adopted a sample of TSMs into our customer satisfaction framework in April 2022 so we could get a year’s worth of baseline data and experience ready for ‘go live’ in April 2023.
The mandatory element of TSMs only provides quantitative data via customer scoring, but there is also an option to add in questions where the customer can provide narrative responses. We took this option as we value hearing customer voice in the data. To help us analyse the written responses within the TSMs, we are trialling an innovative method using enhanced language analytics to identify positive and negative sentiment which will enable us to respond more quickly and effectively to our customers’ views.
C11. In the last 12 months, how many complaints have been upheld by the Ombudsman. How have these complaints (or others) resulted in change of practice within the housing provider?
During 2022/23, four complaints were upheld by the Ombudsman regarding service failures, and there were no findings of maladministration. All cases were heard by Karbon in 2021 and the complaints were upheld due to the time period which elapsed to resolve the complaint. We have since focused on supporting our colleagues to close cases within the specified timescales as set out in our complaints policy. Where the lifespan of the complaint does need to be extended, we have issued further guidance on how this should be managed.
