Customer Care & Complaints Manager
The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 provided wide-ranging powers for the Regulator of
Social Housing and made compliance with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code a
statutory requirement for all social landlords.
Oxford City Council intends to offer first class customer care and complaint handling to its tenants
and leaseholders and so we are recruiting to the new post of Customer Care and Complaints
Manager.
The successful candidate will lead a small team to improve customer service and provide effective
complaint handling relating to the Council’s landlord service. This includes activities relating to
tenancy management, tenancy sustainment, anti-social behaviour, income recovery, major works,
planned maintenance, building safety, tenant involvement and communication. The post-holder will
also work in close liaison with the Council’s day-to-day repairs contractor, ODS.
Through their work, the post-holder will ensure that the Council is fully compliant with the
regulatory framework for housing and the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code. This
will involve producing regular performance reports on complaints for committees and tenant and
leaseholder groups; the publication of an annual report on complaint handling; an ongoing publicity
campaign to promote complaints; and the publication of case studies and lessons learned.
The postholder will be personally responsible for the investigation of Stage 2 (final stage)
complaints and providing a professional response to the complainant.
In cases where the Housing Ombudsman is involved the postholder will be responsible for
ensuring that all communications via the Ombudsman Link Officer are timely and appropriate.
The Customer Care and Complaints Manager will be expected to undertake continual personal
development and will be required to work towards a Chartered Institute of Housing professional
qualification at level 4 or above.
We are a supportive and collaborative bunch of people working towards shared goals, where new
ideas and initiatives are valued. We strive to deliver service excellence, take accountability for our
actions and communicate with honestly and respect. There has never been a more exciting time to
join us! Help us to build successful places in which to live and work and build a fairer, greener city
in which everyone can thrive.
We offer a fantastic range of staff benefits that include generous holiday (from 28 days a year plus
bank holidays), local government pension scheme, subsidised leisure membership, discounted
travel and flexible working in many roles. We offer well-defined opportunities through our learning
and development programme. We also have an employee wellbeing programme, an employee
assistance programme and support via our dedicated occupational health service.
More information is available on the role profile document. Please read this document to ensure
that you meet our requirements. More information about working for the Council, our values and
vision, is available on our web site.
Applications should be made via our online application system (no CVs please).
For further information and how to apply online, please visit www.oxford.gov.uk. If you are unable to access our website please call 01865 252848.
Closing Date: 04 December 2023 Late applications will not be processed
Interview Date(s): 18 December 2023 or 19 December 2023
For an informal discussion about the post please contact Bill Graves on 01865 252428 or email
bgraves@oxford.gov.uk
We are striving to become a more inclusive employer and to represent the communities that we
support. We have policies in place to ensure that every applicant and employee can flourish and
succeed. Currently we are underrepresented in some areas and would particularly welcome
applicants from ethnic and minority communities. All applicants will be given fair consideration for
work and will not receive less favourable treatment on the grounds of any protected characteristic.