A complaint made by an external party about the Community Foundation, its staff, or board members
This policy exists to make it easy for all service users and stakeholders to tell us when they are unhappy, or have a comment on any aspect of our service. All complaints will be taken seriously and we aim to treat the complainant with respect and consideration throughout the complaints process.
Informal
In the first instance the complaint should be addressed to the member of staff who has been dealing with the matter. If the complainant prefers, then the matter may be referred to that employee’s line manager or the Chief Executive. Complaints will be accepted in person, by telephone, by email or in writing, but should ordinarily be made through the online system available on our website. The person dealing with the complaint will listen to what the complainant has to say, apologise whenever necessary, and try to agree a way forward with them.
The aim is to deal with the complaint to their satisfaction immediately. However, there will be occasions when this may not be possible, (for example during holiday periods). If there will be a delay, the complainant will be informed.
Formal
The formal complaints procedure may be used at any time, and complainants do not have to go through the informal process first if they believe that the complaint is too serious for that approach. Once the complaint has been received it will be logged. The aim is to deal with the complaint within 10 working days. However, there will be occasions when this may not be possible. In either case the complainant will be kept informed.
Next Steps
Receipt of a formal complaint will be acknowledged within 5 working days, in writing, by post or by email. All parties concerned will be interviewed to begin the investigation into the complaint, examining records and ensuring accuracy. Great care will be taken to concentrate solely on factual information, disregarding personal feelings or emotions.
Once the investigation has been completed, findings will be presented to the Chief Executive. Following this a reply will be sent to the complainant.
Where the complaint is about a member of staff, the outcome will be passed immediately to the appropriate line manager. Where the complaint concerns the Chief Executive it will be passed on to the Chair of the Board of Trustees.
The Community Foundation aims to resolve all complaints quickly, and to keep the complainant informed throughout the process. The complainant should receive a full written response within 10 working days. If for any reason this is not possible and a delay occurs, the complainant will be kept informed of the delay and given reasons for it.
Appeals
A complainant may appeal against a decision. Appeals should be made in writing to the Chair of the Board within 21 calendar days of receiving the final outcome. The Chair of the Board, (or member of the Board as nominated by the Chair), must inform the complainant in writing within 20 working days of receiving the appeal as to the decision.
Notes
- At all stages a complainant is welcome to have a representative accompany them. The complainant must notify the Community Foundation of who the representative will be within 14 days of the date of the meeting.
- The Community Foundation is entitled to have a representative present in addition to the person conducting or chairing the hearing. Notification of the identity of the representative, or their role, will be notified to the complainant within 14 days of the date of the meeting.
- Whilst investigating the complaint staff involved may wish to have further discussions with the complainant about the nature of their complaint and may wish to set up meetings with all parties concerned to discuss the complaint.
- At all stages of the procedure written records will be kept.
- A quarterly report will be made to the Board of Trustees regarding the numbers and type of complaints.
Make a complaint, comment or compliment
If you wish to make a complaint, or leave a compliment, please use our online customer portal, which can be found here.
Other ways to contact us
Relay UK: If you are deaf or hard of hearing, or have speech difficulties, you can contact us using Relay UK. This is a free service and you can find out more here. Using Relay UK means you would type your question to a Relay Assistant who would speak the question to us. They would listen to our reply and type the response back to you. If you are already using Relay UK you can call 18001 01785 339540 to engage the service. If you are not currently using Relay UK you can contact them to sign up.
British Sign Language: You can contact us using video services using BSL. There are many different providers, but two examples are SignVideo, and Sign Solutions using InterpretersLive! These are services where you can video call a BSL interpreter, speak with them using BSL and they will relay the call to us, and give our response back to you. If you use British Sign Language please email us to arrange a BSL-interpreted call or video meeting.
Tell us how you’d like to be contacted
If you don’t want to use Relay UK or BSL calls, or don’t want to, please get in touch with us by email at office@staffordshire.foundation, telephone on 01785 339540 or by text on 07383 722064 and let us know how you’d like us to contact you.
If your enquiry relates to a data access request, a complaint, a whistleblowing issue, or reporting an incident, you can also use our online customer portal here.