When dealing with complaints we will endeavour to communicate politely, be open and transparent, deal with complaints promptly, treat complaints as an opportunity to learn, and ensure that complaints are treated in confidence.
We aim to respond to all complaints and escalated complaints as quickly as possible. However, if this is not possible, we will update you and provide an estimate of the time it will take us to respond in full.
If you are not happy about an element of our work, please let the colleague you are dealing with know directly.
To help us to resolve the issue efficiently and fairly, please provide your full name, contact details, relationship to the charity, a detailed description of your complaint, any supporting documents, and what you would like us to do to resolve the matter.
We will take steps to investigate anonymous complaint as far as we can, but providing your details makes it easier for us to fully investigate the complaint, verify information and update you on the progress of our investigations.
Complaints should usually be made within three months of the events being complained about. We may agree to investigate complaints made after more than three months if you explain why you did not make the complaint sooner, and we think we are still able to deal with the complaint fairly.
Sometimes we may not be able to deal with your complaint, for example if the complaint relates to someone else and we were not involved in the issues you are complaining about, or if we have already exhausted our procedure for dealing with the complaint and you are not satisfied with the final outcome.
We will always try to deal with your complaint quickly and informally first.
If we are unable to resolve the complaint informally, you are not satisfied with the response, or you would like to speak to someone else, you can ask for your complaint to be dealt with as a formal complaint.
We will acknowledge formal complaints as soon as reasonably possible after we receive them and will aim to respond fully within 20 normal working days of that acknowledgement. Sometimes there may be good reasons why we need more time to respond to your complaint, in which case we will let you know our amended response times.
Formal complaints will be investigated and responded to by an appropriate member of staff, depending on what the complaint is about.
Where a complaint relates to an individual, we will usually inform them of the complaint made against them and give them an opportunity to respond.
Once our investigation is complete, we will tell you the outcome of your complaint. If your complaint is upheld, we will explain the steps we are taking to put things right.
If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you can request that it is escalated to somebody else to investigate independently of the previous reviewer. We will again acknowledge receipt as soon as reasonably possible and aim to respond fully within 25 normal working days of that acknowledgement. If we need longer than this to respond, we will let you know our amended response times.
If you are still unsatisfied with our response, you may wish to consider referring your complaint to the Charity Commission, the Fundraising Regulator, or the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Please see our privacy policy for more details about how we use your personal information.