Our teams have been hard at work supporting and engaging with residents across the country. We have made a difference in many communities, adding value beyond what people might expect from their landlord.
Supporting our customers and the environment
We’re always looking to improve our customer service and reduce our impact on the environment.
We’re about to transform our process for sharing information about our empty properties, making the process fully digital. This will vastly reduce the amount of paperwork involved, as the app allows key information and images to be recorded and shared online. At the moment, colleagues record information manually. This takes more time, involves more travel and potentially increases the length of time required to get the home ready for its next resident. This is all about our drive to improve our customer service.
We are currently working on a new application for recording estate inspections, so we can identify and monitor improvements in our estates in a more efficient way. This will be rolled out across Scotland by late 2023.
Welfare support
Our Welfare Rights Officers make sure our residents receive the benefit payments they are entitled to. Over 2022/2023, our team helped to secure over £1.7 million in welfare benefits for 486 customers, money which made a massive difference in the current financial climate. Our Housing Officers mostly work from the communities they cover, providing a more personal and often face-to-face service, enabled by the huge investment made by Sanctuary in mobile technology.
Investing in our people
One of our proudest achievements during 2022/2023 was our Investors in People (IiP) gold award.
The IiP assessment took an in-depth look at Sanctuary Scotland and in particular our employee engagement, communication, organisational culture and work practices.
Having achieved silver in 2019, our gold award recognises the progress we have made as an organisation.
The report said: “One of your most significant strengths is the shared pride and passion you have in making a difference to your customers and their communities. Collectively you foster this passion through your values, the way that you recruit like-minded talent and inspire colleagues to go beyond expectations.”
External recognition is welcome during a particularly challenging time for our sector and shows that, organisationally, we are on the right path.
Service standards
Customer outcomes are important to help us to understand the difference we make as an organisation. They tell us the result of our actions or, in simple terms, what has and hasn’t worked.
From April 2024 we’ll use our new outcomes framework to help us focus on what’s most important to you. This forms a key part of our strategy to improve the experience of our residents.
Outcomes can sometimes be difficult to define. Customer service can range from a short phone request for advice, to many years of continued support. We’re proposing four primary outcomes for our residents:
We’ll continue to consult with you and our partners to ensure these outcomes reflect what is important to you.
Complaints
Your complaints help make us better
We aim to deliver a great service to customers but, like all organisations, don’t always get it right. When things go wrong, it’s important that you let us know so we can work with you to fix the issue. We’ve worked with customers to improve how we handle complaints, which has made the process clearer and easier.
|
Stage 1 complaints received |
442 |
|
Stage 1 complaints carried forward |
1 |
|
Stage 1 complaints responded to in full |
393 (88.7%) |
|
Stage 2 complaints received |
64 |
|
Stage 2 complaints carried forward |
10 |
|
Stage 2 complaints responded to in full |
63 (85.1%) |
|
Average time in working days for a full response at Stage 1 |
15.84 |
|
Average time in working days for a full response at Stage 2 |
16.71 |
You said, We did – learning from complaints
- A customer told us that when they started their tenancy, there was a delay to their benefits being claimed. We have since trained our housing officers so they know the benefits people in a range of circumstances may be entitled to when they start their tenancy.
- Customers told us that they were frustrated when we failed to let them know that our operative would be late for a pre-arranged appointment. We now do our best to be proactive and contact customers as soon as we know of any potential delay.
- One resident told us their benefit claim was delayed at the start of their tenancy with us. When we investigated we discovered this delay was the result of a gap in their Housing Officer’s knowledge. All of our Housing Officers now receive training to know the benefits people are entitled to.
- When we were told our communication wasn’t clear enough, we reviewed what we sent customers.
Our aim is to:
- Provide clearer and more detailed responses. Simply acknowledging a customer’s issue isn’t classed as a response.
- Explain clearly what we are doing to make things right.
- Make sure our communications are in plain English. When we share information from other sources, we will re-word where necessary to make sure it is easy to understand.
- Never use coloured, highlighted or bold text in customer emails.
For more information on how to make a complaint, please visit our dedicated webpage.
Explore the report
Your Home
We recognise that this has been a challenging year for our services. Despite this, you will see there were a number of significant achievements and there are more improvements for the year ahead.
Find out more
Your Community
Working at Sanctuary involves so much more than providing people with a safe and secure place to live. We strive to create neighbourhoods with a sense of community, one you are happy to call ‘home’.
Find out more
Your Voice
We want you, our residents, to know that Sanctuary cares, because there can be no doubt – we do absolutely care about you. This is reflected in the great work our teams do every day. Engagement is at the heart of what we do.
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2021/22 Performance figures
Each year we provide information to the Scottish Housing Regulator on a range of performance information. Our performance on some of the key indicators is summarised in this section.
Find out more