Derventio set to share resident feedback to help raise industry standards

Derventio Housing Trust has agreed to share information on how we gather and handle feedback and complaints from residents to help other UK housing providers improve their service.

We have become the latest organisation to join the nationwide drive to develop the UK Housing Data Standards, a set of shared protocols designed to help housing providers improve their service.

More than 50 housing associations across the country have helped to develop the UK Housing Data Standards, which are being compiled by the Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust (HACT), since they were established in 2018 so that organisations can share and then implement the best ways to manage housing services.

Derventio, which manages 600 bed spaces of supported accommodation for single homeless people, is the smallest housing provider ever to have got involved in the project, which is now focussing on the ways in which organisations gather, record and respond to resident feedback and complaints.

We operate a robust complaints and feedback process and carry out a comprehensive annual survey of all residents in our supported housing. We significantly increased the level of communication this year to ensure that residents were safe and well during the coronavirus lockdown.

Jackie Carpenter, assistant director of strategy at Derventio Housing Trust, said:

We strive every day to improve our supported housing in the line with our core value that people do matter, which is why we are committed to gathering feedback from residents, both positive or negative.

The way in which we analyse and respond to that feedback is vital to our own learning, but we felt that we wanted to help other organisations to share in that process, which is why we wanted to contribute to this vital data standard.

This is the first time we have engaged in a national initiative of this kind and we’re proud to be involved. We’ve learned a great deal in this area during 2020 and have a wealth of information that we are keen to share to help the whole industry support homeless people in the future. And I am sure that there will be things for us to learn as well, and we’re eager to improve what we do, too.

Matthew Grenier, associate director of communications at HACT, said:

The more organisations we can get involved in developing the Housing Data Standards the better, so we are very grateful that Derventio Housing Trust has agreed to take part.

The coronavirus lockdown means that there will be a wealth of data from all of the welfare visits that will have been carried out this year and our aim is to ensure that the which in which housing associations use such data is standardised across the industry.

We are always looking for more housing associations to work with us and we welcome Derventio’s input because, as one of the first organisations involved which offers specialist supported housing, the feedback and complaints it will be dealing with may be different to those of other housing associations.

More than 400 organisations have downloaded the standards over the past two years, with more than 180 housing associations implementing them directly into their business practices.