Housing Ombudsman Case Study

About The Housing Ombudsman Service

One of the key aims of the Housing Ombudsman Service is to increase awareness of dispute resolution best practice across the housing sector, hoping that this will reduce the number of escalated complaints.

They are also interested in gathering data and intelligence into the sector to inform future developments and decisions. This approach to dispute resolution is the basis of their work with landlords and tenants, MPs, councillors and tenant panels.

Virtual College are well established in the housing sector and currently work with over 130 social housing providers on staff, board and tenant training. This strong history within the housing sector was a key factor in the Housing Ombudsman Service’s choice of development partner.

The Challenge

The Housing Ombudsman Service has over 2,000 members of varying size and knowledge base on dispute resolution, so producing content which was suitable, technically correct and engaging, was always going to be a challenge.

The primary objective was to raise awareness to as many people as possible, therefore developing a flexible learning solution that could be rolled out to an unlimited number of staff within all member organisations was required.

In addition to this, the training had to produce change with a measurable impact on performance. To do this successfully, Virtual College needed to identify the best way to reach learners within the rented housing sector organisations.

The Housing Ombudsman Service brand was important to the success of the project; the training design and supporting materials needed to be consistent with established guidelines for branding, iconography and visual representation.

/n/n### The Delivery

Recognising that face-to-face training was not viable, the Housing Ombudsman Service adopted a cost-effective, practical, and modern solution—online training.

To increase awareness of dispute resolution best practices across the housing sector, the training was made free and accessible through a self-registration website.

With varying levels of expertise among member organisations, the training needed to be tailored to individual learners. A pre-training skills analysis was introduced to assess key organizational development areas.

Learners must complete this before accessing the training, ensuring content is relevant and time is used efficiently.

The training is delivered in three bite-sized 20-minute modules, which learners can prioritize based on their skills analysis results.

A strong emphasis is placed on practical application, using real case studies and interactive examples to reinforce learning.

The Results

The training initiative successfully engaged organizations with the Housing Ombudsman Service and raised awareness of dispute resolution best practices. Within the first week alone, over 100 landlords registered for the free training.

Key results from learner feedback include:

• 94% of participants would recommend the course to others.
• 53% expressed interest in further support from the Housing Ombudsman on dispute resolution.
• Over 80% agreed the training would improve their approach to dispute resolution, with an additional 5% stating it reinforced existing knowledge.

Paul James Neville emphasised that the initiative provides expert learning advice at the click of a button, based on the Housing Ombudsman Service’s extensive case experience and sector-wide consultation.

He highlighted that using these principles leads to better tenant relationships, resource savings, and early-stage dispute resolution success.

Kevin Young, Community Participation Manager at Slough Borough Council, noted that the training challenges current processes and thinking, encouraging organizations to integrate complaints handling rather than react to issues only when they arise.

The project was highly collaborative, with Virtual College working closely with the Housing Ombudsman Service to refine content throughout the process.

Paul James Neville praised the professional and solution-focused approach of the Virtual College team.