Housing association priority panel hearing

[sashajade1975]

Hi i wonder if someone could help me please?
I am on a housing register with a HA and they took my case to their social and welfare panel who were all HA staff as a council representative was not there.
The social and welfare panel had a hearing to decide if i would be given priority which was based on the evidence i provided and then i am awarded a banding based on my vulnerability and effect on that vulnerability caused by location.

I provided a letter from my mental health team that says in their professional opinion i should be awarded urgent need to move band B and that i am being severely effected by my location, this should of resulted in being awarded a moderate vulnerability with a severe effect which means a band B award.
The panel ignored the letter and awarded me a band C as they said i was a moderate vulnerability with a moderate effect, they have nothing to base this on.
I then requested an explanation and asked what reason/evidence did they have to disagree with the mental health teams opinion/recommendation and the HA have refused to give me an explanation as i have just finished a stage 3 complaint against them, they say they wont correspond and basically if i want to know i have to escalate my complaint to the ombudsman, they wont even give me an explanation on why they did not uphold my stage 3 complaint.
I believe they think because i suffer with mental health conditions i wont want the stress of going to the ombudsman so wont do it.

I received the social and welfare panel document which includes limited minutes, it does not include the panel talking about my supporting letters, discussing my vulnerability, or effect from location or even them discussing how they came to their decision so i asked for the full unedited minutes of the social and welfare panels hearing and have been told thats all they have and that IS the full minutes, to me it reads like someone has read the minutes and then written a report about them and not the actual minutes that they have given me.

Is it a legal requirement that they take full minutes as it was a panel hearing?
Is it a legal requirement that they give me a full explanation on why they did not uphold my complaint?
At the moment i have just been basically told we dont think we did anything wrong, we think you have had a fair assessment and we agree with the social and welfare panel but they have not said why.

I cant go in to details as i will be taking this further but there have been lots of "mistakes" regarding my application, banding/assessments, the complaint process and some of my supporting letters have not been omitted to the medical panel and social and welfare panels "mistakenly" at least 3 times that i know of and they were given incorrect information by the HA.
I requested the stage 3 complaint hearing minutes but was ignored so i asked again and have been told they will send me them but i have not got them yet.

Any help would be great thanks, i put this in "housing" but no one has replied so might of put it in the wrong place.

[Tools]

Re: Housing association priority panel hearing

Apologies if your thread has been overlooked, it may be that no-one feels able to respond positively.

From reading your post my limited opinion would be to take the Ombudsman route who will look into your case, sorry I cannot be of more help as I do not know enough to advise you better.

[NotPaying]

Re: Housing association priority panel hearing

You could try asking them again, this time using the Equality Act 2010 questionnaire here https://www.gov.uk/government/public...ality-act-2010

[SpringerSpaniel]

Re: Housing association priority panel hearing

You could also ask for help from your MP or your local councillor.

In some areas Mind or other mental health support organisations can provide advocates to help you tackle things like this.

[wales01man]

Re: Housing association priority panel hearing

The biggest problem whether someone has Health problems or is homeless is the lack of available Social Housing.
Until his is solved the OP and many others will suffer its a situation that will not change quickly

[sashajade1975]

Re: Housing association priority panel hearing

Apologies if your thread has been overlooked, it may be that no-one feels able to respond positively.

From reading your post my limited opinion would be to take the Ombudsman route who will look into your case, sorry I cannot be of more help as I do not know enough to advise you better.

Thank you for your reply.
I think i will have to take it to the ombudsman in the end, i have been trying to settle it between myself and the HA as the ombudsman is the last hope.

[sashajade1975]

Re: Housing association priority panel hearing

You could try asking them again, this time using the Equality Act 2010 questionnaire here https://www.gov.uk/government/public...ality-act-2010

Thank you for replying and supplying that.
I got advice from EASS as the HA were not treating me as equally disabled as a person with a physical disability as i fit the criteria, they have now after quoting what EASS told me to say listed me as disabled, took them 3 years though.

[sashajade1975]

Re: Housing association priority panel hearing

You could also ask for help from your MP or your local councillor.

In some areas Mind or other mental health support organisations can provide advocates to help you tackle things like this.

Thank you for your reply.
I am having help from a councilor but they have not replied to her letter, i also had a mental health advocate but they ignored her too.
Shelter are now involved and looking in to it.

[sashajade1975]

Re: Housing association priority panel hearing

The biggest problem whether someone has Health problems or is homeless is the lack of available Social Housing.
Until his is solved the OP and many others will suffer its a situation that will not change quickly

Thank you for your reply.
That is what is so frustrating the HA do have plenty of properties that they place on a website then the applicant places a bid on the properties but the properties go to the highest on the bidding list so unless you are in the top 2 bands you wont win the bid.

[sashajade1975]

Re: Housing association priority panel hearing

I have looked all over the internet but still cant find out if a HA are legally required to take full minutes at a social and welfare hearing.
"IF" full minutes had been taken of the panel discussing my case something "could" of been said in them that could be classed as discriminating as they have only just listed me as disabled even though they should of 3 years ago.

As i said i cant go in to details on here but they mention in the limited social and welfare minutes that they had concerns about "blank" and noted it.
Equality act states that a person should not be treated less favorably because of a effect of their disability... "blank" is a effect/result of my disability and would place me at a significant disadvantage.

Now they have finally classed me as disabled they shouldn't of taken "blank" in to consideration when assessing me and if they did that could result in discrimination.
A Staff member i shall call (A) took the minutes or should i say stopped taking the minutes was also the staff member who investigated my stage 1 complaint which she did not uphold so she was involved at stage 1 and stage 3.....also another staff member who i shall call (B) acknowledged my stage 1 complaint but also wrote the stage 3 complaint report so was also involved at stage 1 and 3.
Staff member B was responsible for not giving the panel all my supporting letters twice and could possibly be the staff member who also did not give the doctor all my supporting letters either which could of resulted in a different outcome.

[MissFM]

Re: Housing association priority panel hearing

Hi Sashajade

Thanks for your kind PM and for redirecting me to this thread. I'm sorry I missed it and hence reiterated some of what's been said on here on your other one.

One further thought FWIW is that "minutes" taken at meetings with such agencies are often, in my experience, woefully inadequate and it may well be that what they have provided constitutes what they believe to be "full" minutes.

If you have any contemporaneous notes as to what occurred in the meeting(s) they will carry legal weight and certainly it's worth keeping a detailed diary of everything that happens, inc. all communications, as things unfold.

In case it's any help, the only way my family could get any (desperately needed) action for my disabled son (different situation but similar lack of effective support from the very people paid to provide it), following useless meeting after unsatisfactory meeting, was to write to the CEO of the local council and the head of social services holding them each personally responsible for any further consequences of their agencies' inaction, baldly listing events so far. In our case, it worked like magic.

It's always worth identifying the organ grinder and communicating directly, IMHO, as it leaves nowhere to pass the buck.

It sounds as if you are doing everything by the book and you will get much support and encouragement here.

Good luck. x

[sashajade1975]

Re: Housing association priority panel hearing

Hi Sashajade

Thanks for your kind PM and for redirecting me to this thread. I'm sorry I missed it and hence reiterated some of what's been said on here on your other one.

One further thought FWIW is that "minutes" taken at meetings with such agencies are often, in my experience, woefully inadequate and it may well be that what they have provided constitutes what they believe to be "full" minutes.

If you have any contemporaneous notes as to what occurred in the meeting(s) they will carry legal weight and certainly it's worth keeping a detailed diary of everything that happens, inc. all communications, as things unfold.

In case it's any help, the only way my family could get any (desperately needed) action for my disabled son (different situation but similar lack of effective support from the very people paid to provide it), following useless meeting after unsatisfactory meeting, was to write to the CEO of the local council and the head of social services holding them each personally responsible for any further consequences of their agencies' inaction, baldly listing events so far. In our case, it worked like magic.

It's always worth identifying the organ grinder and communicating directly, IMHO, as it leaves nowhere to pass the buck.

It sounds as if you are doing everything by the book and you will get much support and encouragement here.

Good luck. x

Hi thank you for replying and your support.
So sorry to hear you were not given the help you needed for your son.

I have never talked to them on the phone so i have everything in letters and emails so they cant say they never said something.

I have looked back through some emails when i first requested an explanation of the social and welfare panel hearings decision, i asked for the reason in the panels own words and staff member (A) ignored me so i asked again and staff member (B) informs me to refer to the "notes" of the social and welfare panel hearing in the stage 3 report, she does not call them the minutes.
I then emailed saying that the notes only give limited information and are just a report of the minutes not the full minutes so could i please be sent the full minutes? and to include any information the panel were given by me and by the HA. staff member (B) then said the report included the information considered and the minutes. There is no extra information.
I just realised they skirted around what i had asked for, i asked for the minutes and she says there is no extra "information" not that there is no more minutes...... They really dont want to give them to me it seems, could imply because there is something said in them that amounts to discrimination?

I informed them that i was not given a fair assessment so requested that they take my case back to the social and welfare panel and if they have no reason or evidence that contradicts the mental health teams opinion/recommendation then to place me in the band they say and if they refuse i will take this further and they will be forced to answer the questions they wont answer to me and explain why so many "mistakes" have happened and the reasoning behind disagreeing with the mental health team and am expecting the official response by Friday and if i am still fobbed off i will take it to the ombudsman, contact the CEO of the council and contact the HA board among other bodies.

Thanks xxx

[sashajade1975]

Re: Housing association priority panel hearing

Quick update i now have a legal adviser from shelter looking in to my case.

[MissFM]

Re: Housing association priority panel hearing

Quick update i now have a legal adviser from shelter looking in to my case.

That's very good news - we'll all have everything crossed for you! x

[atendoftether]

Re: Housing association priority panel hearing

Hi,
I know that social services Housing Panels are minuted as I used to do that job as part of my housing consultant role have you spoken to Social services, in Westminster we were given a very limited number of housing allocations/ properties that we could refer to if there were cases in dire need . If you are not in rent areas you also have the option to swap with another social housing tenant though it is prudent to be cicumspect as to why they are moving and you are not moving to a worse situation. I think the ombudsman is good advice but painfully slow. are the Housing Association a member of a professional body , in which case they may have an appeals system. You could also get Social Services to call a case conference in which all professionals are called together to try and sort out problems including medical professionals/social workers housing officers and other interested parties are invited to attend it would carry far more weight that latters which are largely ignored. it may be that the local housing authority could have an impact. Good luck
sorry about the typs my keys are sticking