Gather all the information regarding your complaint. This may include information from other parties involved, to establish the facts.<\/li><\/ul>Step one: Initial review<\/h3>
We aim to acknowledge all complaints as quickly as possible (and within 10 working days).<\/p>
We will conduct an initial review of your complaint to determine how best to deal with it. If it falls within the remit of this complaints procedure we will aim to resolve the issue informally in the first instance. We will notify you of our conclusions and the next steps.<\/p>
We retain the right to resolve the complaint outside of this procedure if we feel there is a better way to address and resolve the issue. In this case, the complaints process will go no further.<\/p>
Please ensure that all necessary information is provided at the outset and that your complaint is as detailed as possible. We may need to ask further questions or ask you to provide additional documents or materials at this stage, or during the investigation, to clarify the issues and to ensure we understand the full nature of your complaint.<\/p>
Please note that a request for further information is not an opportunity to introduce additional complaints. Only information which directly supports your complaint under consideration will be considered. If additional complaints are made during this process, they should be lodged as a separate complaints.<\/p>
We will only accept amendments or further information after the investigation stage if we determine that there are extenuating circumstances requiring these.<\/p>
To deal with your complaint to the best of our ability, and as swiftly as possible, we will focus on your primary complaint.<\/p>
Step two: Referral<\/h3>
If your complaint falls within the remit of this complaints procedure we will refer it to the appropriate person; this will usually be the head of team to which the complaint relates. If your complaint is about the SoA as an organisation or a voluntary office-holder, your complaint will be referred to a member of the senior management team in the first instance.<\/p>
We will inform you about the person or people who will be investigating your complaint, including any subsequent referrals during the process where we consider it appropriate to escalate the complaint, for example, to the Chief Executive or the Management Committee (board).<\/p>
We will ensure that your complaint is fully documented, identifying the policies alleged to have been breached, areas for concern and any third parties cited whom we may need to contact when investigating your complaint. We will send you this document for your information.<\/p>
If there are any third parties cited in connection with your complaint, we may need to contact them for their response. If we do contact any third party we may \u2013 after obtaining agreement from you \u2013 send them redacted information or documents that have been submitted to us.<\/p>
If you have informed us that you wish to remain anonymous, we will seek your approval before sending any documents to third parties, and we will redact any information contained in documents in order to protect your identity.<\/p>
We understand that people should have a right of response to allegations made against them. Please bear in mind that there may be some circumstances where we may not be able to continue with your complaint if you do not give us permission to raise it with the person complained about.<\/p>
In order to discuss the complaint and any outstanding issues, we may suggest a phone call or a meeting with any party involved.<\/p>
If we deem it necessary, we may appoint an external third party to assist us with the investigation, in full or in part.<\/p>
We will investigate your complaint and gather as much information as we consider necessary until we determine that we have enough information to make a decision.<\/p>
In cases where we draft an official report on our investigation into your complaint, we will send a copy of our draft report to any person named in the report, or who is the subject of the complaint, for comment before we send the report to you. We will protect your identity if you have informed us that you wish to remain anonymous and that is possible.<\/p>
We aim to deal with your complaint, and to resolve issues with a satisfactory resolution for all parties involved, within 30 days of receipt of your complaint. However, depending on the nature of your complaint, or the need to gather information from third parties, it might mean that resolution within 30 days is not possible. In this case, we will keep you informed about the progress of our investigation and use our best endeavours to resolve your complaint as soon as possible.<\/p>
We will inform you about the outcome of your complaint in writing and, where applicable, notify you of any actions taken or to be taken.<\/p>
Step three: Appeal<\/h3>
If you feel that your complaint has not been dealt with fairly or you are unhappy with the outcome, you will be given the opportunity to appeal in writing to the Management Committee requesting a review of the previous decision.<\/p>
Please note: there is no right to appeal if the Management Committee made the original decision. In such a case, their decision is final.<\/p>
In your letter you should explain why you wish to appeal the decision. An appeal will require your complaint to be brought to a meeting of at least two members of the Management Committee. You may be requested to attend a conference call or meeting with the Management Committee.<\/p>
The Management Committee may appoint a member of staff or an external third party to investigate and report to the Management Committee with a recommendation. The final decision on any appeal will be made by the whole Management Committee.<\/p>
After the appeal, we will notify you of this final decision in writing and, where applicable, we will notify you of any actions taken or to be taken.<\/p>
The decision of the Management Committee is final and there is no option of a further appeal.<\/p>
Please let us know if you need any extra support when we contact you, for example, a larger font size.<\/p>
If you have questions about this complaints procedure, please email us.<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The process we follow when we receive a complaint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"parent":124534,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[839],"tags":[],"content-control":[],"ppma_author":[769],"class_list":["post-126192","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-complaints"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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