Government Launch ‘Make Things Right’ Campaign

Posted on March 8th, 2023

The ‘Make Things Right’ campaign aims to ensure more social housing residents who need support know how to make a complaint.

Make Things Right: Social housing complaints campaign

The ‘Make Things Right’ campaign aims to ensure more social housing residents who need support know how to make a complaint.

It is based on the idea that everyone deserves a home that is safe, secure and well maintained, and anything less is unacceptable. And if a resident has reported an issue and it hasn’t been fixed, it’s now easier to make things right.

The campaign sets out the steps of the complaints process that residents can take if they are unhappy with the service from their social housing provider.

This toolkit provides materials which landlords, stakeholders, and residents can use to spread the word among residents about how to make complaints, including by signposting to gov.uk/social-housing-complaints for advice.

What is included in the campaign?

The campaign will be running across the following channels:

• Social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, NextDoor)
• Radio and digital audio
• Online search promotion (e.g. Google, Bing)
• Media relations
• Campaign website (gov.uk/social-housing-complaints)

Advertisements on radio and digital audio, social media, and toolkit resources will be translated into Arabic, Bengali, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian and Urdu.

The advertising campaign will run until April 2023, with the use of communications toolkits continuing. Campaigns toolkits will remain live online after April 2023. Planning is underway for future campaigns.

Why is it ‘now easier to make things right’?

The campaign uses the phrase “it’s now easier to make things right”.

While the government is acting in many ways to improve the complaints process and conditions in social housing, the phrase’s use in this campaign mainly refers to the recent removal of the “democratic filter” and the introduction of a Complaint Handling Code for social housing providers.

The removal of the democratic filter means it is quicker and easier for residents to take complaints straight to the Housing Ombudsman Service. It has done this by removing the need to go to an MP, local councillor or tenants’ panel first, and to wait 8 weeks after completing the landlord’s complaints processes, before being allowed to take a complaint to the Ombudsman.

The Complaint Handling Code took effect from 1 April 2022 and landlords had until 1 October 2022 to become compliant. In short, it sets out good practice that will allow landlords to respond to complaints effectively and fairly. This includes good communication with residents about how to complain, and saying only two stages are necessary in landlord’s processes, with clear timeframes set out so residents know when to expect a response.

How can I support the campaign?

1. Signpost residents to the campaign website at gov.uk/social-housing-complaints for advice about the step of the complaints process.
2. Use the campaign materials (such as the leaflet, posters and social media posts) to support and add to your own communications. You could print the posters and leaflets for distribution locally. This will help the campaign reach more residents so they know what to do.
3. If you are in an organisation that manages social housing, share this website and gov.uk/social-housing-complaints with your staff
4. If you are in an area where many people speak a language to which we’ve translated assets, help to spread the message by printing and/or sharing online the posters, leaflets and social media posts. If you think a particular language that’s not supplied in our toolkit should be, please let us know by contacting externalaffairs@levellingup.gov.uk
5. Let us know any case studies where a resident has been helped by the complaints process, and ideally where a landlord has found the process useful too, by contacting externalaffairs@levellingup.gov.uk.

If you have any questions about the campaign, or can share a case study of a resident helped by the complaints process (and even where landlords have learned from the process), please contact externalaffairs@levellingup.gov.uk.

 

Article by Gov.uk; https://www.gov.uk/guidance/make-things-right-introduction-and-how-to-help