Our STAIRs Publication Scheme.

Any tenants or individuals who wish to learn about Orwell Housing’s governance and decision making can explore our About Us page, or explore the below bullet points to find out more. Documents relating to our decision-making processes can be found here.

Senior staff names and roles

If you wish to discover who Our Board Members or Executive Team Members are then please follow these links.

Governance arrangements

You can explore our Governance Reports and our Strategic Plans through these links, and you can view all of our Published Reports here.

Our Declaration of Interest page explains how interests are declared and reviewed and how you can request access to the register.

Prioritisation of complaints

To understand our complaints procedure better you can view our Complaints Page, which details every step of the process.

Information on tenant consultations

There are many ways in which we engage with tenants: Orwell Housing customers can use the Get Involved page to interact with us through methods like the Orwell Residents Group, Surveys, and more.

Orwell Housing Group are committed to transparent finance and spending practices. Explore the links below to find out more.

• You can explore all of our Annual Accounts, our Annual Reports, Gender Pay Gap, and Value for Money Reports information by clicking the links provided.
• All of our procurement details can be found on our Procurement page.
• Our Environmental, Social and Government (ESG) reports can be found on our publications page.

Housing Stock Management refers to how we supply, manage, and service/repair our homes for tenants.

• Under the Your Tenancy page we have lots of resources that explain how your home is managed.
• You can find how we care for your home on the Repairs and Maintenance page.
• The Care and Support page details a more specialised set of information about what homes we provide.
• The Looking for a Home page provides information about access to becoming a tenant or exchanging your tenancy.
• Our Sustainability page explains our environmental commitments and the progress we are making towards net zero.
• Our Asset Management Strategy sets out how we plan to invest in and maintain our homes over the coming years.

To ensure we are providing a good level of service to our customers we monitor and publish the results of our performance.

• Our Performance page brings together how we are performing across repairs, safety compliance, rent and customer satisfaction.
• Our Complaints and Service Feedback report sets out the complaints we have received, how we handled them, and what we have changed as a result.
• Our Complaint Handling Code Self Assessment shows how we measure up against the Housing Ombudsman’s Compliant Handling Code.
• Our regulatory judgement and gradings from the Regulator of Social Housing are published on the gov.uk website.
• Our regulatory judgement and gradings from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are published on the CQC website.
• You can read our latest news and announcements on our News & Updates page.
• Effective procurement is essential for the provision of quality services and delivering value for money. More information can be found on our Procurement page.
• You can see how we gather our reports by visiting the Tenant Satisfaction Measures page.

At Orwell Housing Group we pride ourselves on the level and extent of support and guidance that we offer to our tenants. You can view these resources by exploring the following links:

• The Support and Wellbeing page has advice and information regarding: Your Home, Money, Employment and Health and Wellbeing.
• We also provide a Support and Advice Toolkit that has an extensive range of topics and information within it.
• Further guidance and advice for tenants can be found on the I am a Customer page.
• Orwell has a proud history of helping people gain independence, skills and the confidence needed to live well and get the most out of life. To understand what we offer please explore our Care and Support page.

As part of managing your home, Orwell keeps a number of registers and records. Some of these are required by law, and others help us manage our homes and estates.

We publish how we are performing against these in our Performance Report, which is updated regularly. Because these records relate to individual homes, we publish our performance across all of our properties rather than property by property.

Registers we are required to keep by law

• Gas safety: We hold a gas safety record for every property with a gas supply.
• Electrical safety: We hold Electrical Installation Condition Reports for our properties.
• Asbestos: We hold an asbestos register covering communal areas of our residential buildings.
• Fire safety: We hold fire risk assessments for our communal and multi occupied buildings, along with the actions arising from them.

Other records we keep

• Damp and mould: We record and track cases of damp and mould so we can monitor how quickly they are resolved.
• Adaptations: We record adaptations we have made to homes to help customers live independently.
• Estate inspections: We keep a schedule of the estate inspections we carry out.
• Water hygiene logs/legionella: Where required, we hold water hygiene logs and legionella details for all properties, as well as building safety, performance documents and inspection outcomes.

Information about your own home

If you would like a copy of a certificate or record relating to your own home, such as your gas safety certificate or electrical safety report, please email STAIRs@orwell-housing.co.uk and we will provide it.

If a record relates to a communal area or a shared building, we will provide the information for that building rather than for an individual home.

To best understand the standards and procedures we have when managing social housing please visit the Our Policies page.

In line with our Procurement Strategy, all procurement related information, including live tenders, will be contained on our Procurement page.

Awarded contracts

Details of Orwell Housing Association’s awarded contracts are available on the Central Digital Platform (CDP) via the Find a Tender service. Please note: When searching please type ‘Orwell’ in the keyword box. Tick only ‘award’ and then click ‘update results’.

 

You can find information about the number and types of properties owned or managed by Orwell here.

If you believe Orwell holds information which should be published on our website but is not, or if you feel that we have removed too much from a document we have published, you can ask us to carry out a review. This is known as a STAIRs review.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information request, or with the response we have given you, you will also be able to ask for a review.

Please be aware that a STAIRs review is not the same as a complaint and it is handled separately from our complaints procedure. If your concern is about the standard of service you have received, rather than about information, please visit our Complaints Page instead. If you raise both, we will deal with each part under the relevant process and let you know which is which.

How to ask for a review

Please email us at STAIRs@orwell-housing.co.uk, or write to us at Orwell Housing Association, Crane Hill Lodge, 325 London Road, Ipswich, IP2 0BE, explaining what information you believe is missing, or what you are unhappy with. If you would like help putting your request in writing, please call us on 0345 6010030 and a member of our team will assist you.

We would ask that you request a review within three months of finding the information missing or receiving our response.

What happens next

Your review will be carried out by a senior manager who was not involved in the original decision. Orwell will normally respond within 30 calendar days. Should we need longer, we will let you know why, and when you can expect to hear from us.

If you are still unhappy

If you remain dissatisfied following our review, you can take your STAIRs complaint directly to the Housing Ombudsman. You do not need to go through Orwell’s complaints procedure first.

Find out more on the Housing Ombudsman STAIRs page

Please note that requests for information about yourself are handled as a Subject Access Request (SAR) rather than under STAIRs, and further details can be found in our Privacy Policy. If you believe Orwell has handled your personal information incorrectly, you can raise this with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Full details are set out in our STAIRs Policy.