Issue - meetings

Purpose of Report

To seek approval of the new Unacceptable Customer Actions Policy as detailed within Appendix 1 to the officer’s report.

Decision

1.    That the new Unacceptable Customer Actions Policy be approved.

2.    That the assistance given by the Lincoln Tenant’s Panel in developing this policy be noted.

3.    That authority be delegated to the City Solicitor in conjunction with the Portfolio Holder for Customer Experience, Review and Resources, to consider and approve any suggested amends recommended by the Policy Scrutiny Committee on 19 November 2024. If any of the recommendations were major changes they would be referred back to the Executive for approval.

Alternative Options Considered

None.

Reason for Decision

The Council now had a statutory duty to handle customer complaints in line with the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) Complaint Handling Code. (The Code)

Section 5.14 of the Code self- assessment stated that:

·       Landlords must have policies and procedures in place for managing unacceptable behaviour from residents and/or their representatives. Landlords must be able to evidence reasons for putting any restrictions in place and must keep restrictions under regular review.

Whilst we had existing procedures for reporting incidents and handling reports of unacceptable behaviour it was not a formal policy document and therefore, we needed to develop and agree one to ensure that we were compliant with The Code.

The new policy had been developed with the assistance of Lincoln Tenant’s Panel who were keen to help ensure that while protecting staff the policy was also proportionate in terms of the action taken.

The policy was reviewed at Housing Scrutiny Sub Committee on 31 October 2024 and it was supported that the policy be referred to Executive for approval. It was also discussed that the report and policy should be presented to Policy Scrutiny Committee on 19 November for further review and consideration.