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management & education news

HOUSING OMBUDSMAN HIGHLIGHTS

GAS SAFETY AND REPAIRS ISSUES

THE HOUSING OMBUDSMAN has of the service in response to the
highlighted issues relating to gas safety, Grenfell Tower fire.
repairs and anti-social behaviour as it In the latest release, the ombudsman
publishes its latest batch of decisions. highlighted three cases concerning
The latest set of decisions has been housing associations where it had made
published by the ombudsman as part a decision.
of a bid to increase transparency within This included a finding of
the social housing complaint-handling maladministration regarding Notting
process, reports Inside Housing. Hill Genesis (NHG) for its response to THERE HAS BEEN A MAJOR OVERHAUL OF THE
It brings the total number of decisions a resident’s concerns about her boiler. SERVICE FOLLOWING THE GRENFELL DISASTER
in the ombudsman’s online casebook to Following the resident raising
roughly 500, following an initial release concerns, an issue was identified matter, the ombudsman ordered an
of 350 decisions two weeks ago. with the placement of the flue that independent investigation be carried out
The ombudsman has committed had not been identified during previous to establish what went wrong and identify
to publishing new decisions every gas safety checks. any service improvements to prevent a
two weeks following a major overhaul Given the potential seriousness of the similar situation happening again.

MORE THAN A THIRD OF OVER-55S DID NOT RECEIVE are also the age group most likely to
WORKPLACE TRAINING IN LAST DECADE, STUDY FINDS say that the last workplace training
they received was not useful for their
current role (20 per cent).
As a result, less than half (47 per
cent) of older workers think they have
all the required skills to succeed at
work. This is despite only one fifth
planning on retiring soon, according to
the survey of 2,000 working adults.
Only one in seven businesses
stated they would consider turning to
recruiting or retraining older workers
or retirees to tackle skills shortages,
the research revealed.
The City & Guilds Group is calling
on businesses to invest in upskilling
valuable older workers or “risk further
productivity shortfalls during the
recovery period”.
Kirstie Donnelly, Chief Executive
of the organisation, said: “With the
pace of change in businesses only
exacerbated by the pandemic, we risk
consigning a generation of valuable
workers to the scrapheap when many
industries are crying out for more
workers post-Brexit and as we unlock
OLDER WORKERS ARE LESS LIKELY
TO RECEIVE THE TRAINING THEY NEED society after the pandemic.”
She added that organisations
THE OVER-55S are most likely to miss workplace training, compared to 67 also need to “create opportunities”
out on workplace training, according per cent of 35- to 54-year-olds and 83 for older workers to re-enter
to new research. per cent of 18- to 34-year-olds. the workplace through flexible
A study by City & Guilds Group And over a third (38 per cent) of working arrangements and training,
found that in the past five years, only people aged over 55 reported last otherwise they will be unable
half (53 per cent) of people aged 55 receiving workplace training more to “contribute effectively to the
and over have taken part in formal than 10 years ago, or never at all. They economy in years to come”.

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