What we have done with resident feedback

Getting involved

We know lots of you want to get involved, give your feedback and help us improve our services. We are creating options with residents to make sure there are several ways we can hear your views such as discussion groups, mystery shopping, online consultation and surveys. 

Keep checking our consultation website and tenant and homeowner involvement pages for more information how you can have your say.

Surveys, focus groups and other ways to have your say

Join the Resident Involvement Register and you can take part in online and telephone surveys or focus groups about housing topics that really matter to you.

There are other activities too, like “mystery shopper” (where you report back on our services without our staff knowing you will be doing this) or attending drop-in sessions on estates.

This year we have carried out “mystery shopping" of our repairs service and held focus groups with our residents on: 

• what you want to see in our annual report
• how we are training our repairs staff 
• whether our webpages were user friendly
• helping us with our review of our Tenants and Resident Associations handbook.

We have 244 residents on our Resident Involvement Register. 65 residents joined this year.

We want to make sure that our diverse borough is represented and we hear the views of people from all walks of life. To sign up fill in our form. For more information about what is available and how you can take part: 

• email service.development@islington.gov.uk
• call 020 7527 4498.

Tenants and Residents Associations

We have 42 Tenants and Residents Associations (TRAs) on our estates. Find out more about this and how to join a TRA - email partnerships@islington.gov.uk.

What we have done

Estate Champions

Estate Champions work on our estates. They are there to help and work with residents to improve our housing services.

As well as being available at estates during the week, they also:

• run drop-in sessions for tenants to tell us about the issues that are important to them
• organise fun days for residents
• get feedback from consultations and surveys
• work with the council, residents' associations and voluntary and community services.

The Estate Champions team embarked on a series of events in the year. The aim was to provide residents with an opportunity to address any concerns they had while fostering a sense of community involvement and participation.

In August 2023, the Estate Champions team introduced four fun days for residents and staff to get together. These events let residents voice their concerns and ideas, provided family-friendly entertainment and attracted large attendances.

The drop-in events have also helped foster community participation and dialogue. Through drop-in sessions and fun days, residents have been empowered to actively contribute to the improvement of their neighbourhoods and services. They have also increased participation, resident engagement, and empowerment.

The Estate Champions team will build upon these ideas and continue to strengthen the relationship between residents and the council. With more collaboration and dialogue, the team will ensure that the voices of the community are heard and valued as part of decision-making.

Resident Service Improvement Group

We formed our Resident Service Improvement Group in April 2024. Ten resident volunteers - six tenants and four leaseholders - are now working with us to improve services. The group has been working to improve our plans for resident participation, the way we handle complaints and will also be working with us to improve our repairs and anti-social behaviour services.

We will recruit two new members of this group for 2025. We're also looking for residents to join new tenant and leaseholder forums. We'll advertise on our council tenant and homeowner involvement page, social media channels and estate notice boards. 

Complaints

We work hard to deliver high quality services at all times to every one of our residents, but we know that we don’t always get it right. 

When things go wrong, it’s important that we listen to what you are telling us, act quickly to put it right and learn from our mistakes.

Your feedback in 2023/24 and what we are doing about it

You told us that you are most concerned with: 

• repairs in your homes
• anti-social behaviour (ASB)
• our handling of complaints.

Based on these complaints, we have:

• developed new policies and reviewed and updated existing ones to improve our performance in several areas, including:
  • how we support vulnerable tenants
  • tackling damp and mould
  • managing ASB and noise nuisance
  • supporting residents through the management transfer process
• focused on improving record keeping by introducing a new procedure and asking each service to develop action plans for continuous improvement and oversight
• carried out a complete review of our approach to tackling ASB which has led to improved case management and reporting and reduced area sizes so there are more resources for case management
• made improvements to our repairs service, including:
  • introducing a team to deal with high-risk cases
  • rolling out summer testing of boilers to reduce breakdowns in winter
  • working with our communal heating contractor to improve communication and customer service
  • reviewing our call centre scripts so that we record accurate information to reduce missed and repeat appointments
  • significantly reducing historical work in progress cases.
• introduced audits of Stage 1 complaints three times a year, senior management review of responses, and telephone satisfaction surveys to find ways to improve our complaints handling.

How to make a complaint and what you can expect when you make a complaint

To make a complaint:

• use the council complaints form and under 'what service does your complaint relate to?', scroll to 'Homes and Neighbourhoods' and choose the service you need
• email customer.solutions@islington.gov.uk
• call the team on 020 7527 7701
• write to us at Customer Solutions, Housing Operations, 222 Upper Street, Islington, N1 1XR

You can also make your complaint to a member of staff, such as your caretaker, concierge or a repairs operative, and ask that they pass your concerns on to the Customer Solutions team.

When we receive your complaint, you should receive an acknowledgement of your concerns within five working days and a formal response within 10 working days after that.

If for any reason we can't meet these deadlines, we will contact you to let you know and to keep you updated on the progress of your complaint. 

Let us know what you think of our annual report

If you would like to give any feedback on this year’s annual report to residents, contact service.development@islington.gov.uk. Tell us what you found interesting or what you thought was missing and what sort of information you want included in future annual reports.