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Feedback and Complaints Policy

POLICY STATEMENT

Prince’s Trust International is committed to providing a high-quality service to all people we work with, including our delivery partners, volunteers, supporters, young people on our programmes and other stakeholders. The purpose of this policy is to ensure all members of the Prince’s Trust International community and members of the public know how to provide feedback or make a complaint and ensure that the feedback or complaint is responded to appropriately and in a timely manner by Prince’s Trust International.

Complaints or concerns by staff should be raised with their line managers in the first instance or through Prince’s Trust International’s Grievance Procedure.

DEFINITION AND EXAMPLES OF FEEDBACK AND COMPLAINTS

Feedback, for the purpose of this policy, is defined as an expression of a specific opinion or view on procedures, employees, partners, fundraising activities, or quality of Prince’s Trust International’s services. We are committed to ensuring the quality of our service and we want to be the best organisation to volunteer, support and, most importantly, be supported by. Which is why feedback, highlighting great practice or when we get things wrong or could make improvements, is important to us.  We will ensure all feedback is recorded and considered, enabling improvements to be made where appropriate.

 

A complaint, for the purpose of this policy, is defined as an expression of dissatisfaction about Prince’s Trust International’s services. It is a criticism that expects a reply and would like things to be changed. This policy covers complaints by delivery partners, volunteers, supporters, young people on our programmes, other stakeholders and members of the public and could include the following (though is not exhaustive):

 

–      The standard of service provided by us, or by our delivery partners when delivering our programmes.

–      The behaviour of staff and volunteers working for Prince’s Trust International.

–      Our fundraising activities and practices.

–      Any other aspects of our work.

 

A complaint has to be about an action for which Prince’s Trust International is responsible or which is within our sphere of influence.

 

HOW DO WE RECEIVE FEEDBACK AND COMPLAINTS?

We aim to make the process as accessible as possible.  We encourage you to submit feedback or complaints through the following channels:

 

We advise complainants to include the following details:

  • The reason for the complaint.
  • The time and place of any event giving rise to the complaint.
  • The name(s) of anyone involved (if known).
  • The outcome you are hoping for.
  • Your contact details (name, address, daytime telephone number and/or email).

Everyone who makes a complaint to Prince’s Trust International will be treated with courtesy and respect. In return, we expect people who make a complaint to communicate their concerns fairly and appropriately. Where complainants harass staff, behave abusively, or unreasonably pursue complaints, Prince’s Trust International reserves the right to withdraw or modify its complaints process (see unreasonably persistent complaints, below).

 

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

We will try to resolve the problem as quickly as possible and provide you with a full response within five working days. However, sometimes we might need some extra time to investigate, in which case we will let you know when you should expect to hear from us.

We aim to resolve all complaints within 28 working days of receipt.

Complaints received about our delivery partners’ services, their staff or their volunteers will be directed to the relevant partner who should respond to this under their own complaints policy and procedures. However, please let us know if you are not happy with that response. Depending on the nature of the complaint against the partner, e.g. if this concerns some wrongdoing, Prince’s Trust International may also decide to investigate. This may be under our separate whistleblowing policy and procedures. If so, we will let you know.

 

CLOSING A COMPLAINT

Prince’s Trust International will consider each complaint carefully and decide upon an appropriate course of action. All complaints will be reviewed. In some cases, it may not be possible to investigate or substantiate complaints, or it may fall outside of our responsibilities.

If you have made a complaint and provided contact details, you will be informed of any part of the investigation which may involve you directly. However, due to confidentiality and legal restrictions, it may not be appropriate for us to disclose the outcome of the investigation, or any information gained during the investigation. For example, we may only be able to report that an investigation has been carried out and appropriate action taken.

We will respond to all complainants as per the procedures and time frames set out above.

 

Internal Appeal

If, for any reason, you are not happy with the resolution of your complaint please let us know as soon as possible. Please tell us why you are not satisfied with our response and what you would like us to do to put things right. You may either respond directly to the member of staff you have been liaising with or contact the Head of Marketing and Communications, as outlined above. Your complaint will be escalated to the relevant member of the Senior Leadership Team. The senior leader will review your complaint and try to respond within 7 workings days.

 

External Support

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact our relevant regulator.

If your complaint relates to how we collect and use your personal information, you have the right to report your concerns to the UK data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office – Make a complaint | ICO.

All complaints related to our fundraising practices can be escalated to the Fundraising Regulator – Make a complaint | Fundraising Regulator.

You may also contact the Advertising Standards Authority in respect of our advertising or the Charity Commission about other matters where these are sufficiently serious. For more information, please see: Complain about a charity – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

UNREASONABLY PERSISTENT COMPLAINTS

Occasionally, charities encounter complainants who, because of the frequency, nature and quality of their contact hinder the charity’s consideration of their, or other people’s, complaints. Below, we refer to such complainants as ‘unreasonably persistent complainants’. We must reserve our right, exceptionally, to take action to limit their contact with our staff and volunteers.

The decision to restrict access to our staff and volunteers will be taken by the CEO in consultation with the Senior Leadership Team and will normally follow a prior warning to the complainant. Any restrictions imposed will be appropriate and proportionate. The options we are most likely to consider are:

  • requesting contact in a particular form (for example, letters only);
  • requiring contact to take place with a named individual;
  • restricting telephone calls to specified days and times and/or
  • asking the complainant(s) to enter into an agreement about their future contact with us.

In exceptional cases, contact with a complainant may be terminated without restrictions first being imposed. This will be dependent on the individual circumstances, but would be an option if the complainant’s behaviour is particularly severe, or includes threats to Prince’s Trust International staff or volunteers.

In all cases where we decide to treat someone as an unreasonably persistent complainant, we will write to tell them why we believe their behaviour falls into that category, what action we are taking and the duration of that action. We will also tell them how they can challenge the decision if they disagree with it. If we decide to carry on treating someone as an unreasonably persistent complainant and we are still investigating their complaint six months later, we will carry out a review and decide if restrictions will continue.

Where a complainant whose case is closed persists in communicating with us about it, we may decide to terminate contact with that complainant about the matter. In such cases, we will read all correspondence from that complainant, but unless there is fresh evidence which affects our decision on the complaint we will simply acknowledge it or place it on the file with no acknowledgement.

New complaints from people who have come under this procedure will be treated on their merits.

 

CONFIDENTIALITY

While Prince’s Trust International will treat any information given to us sensitively, we cannot always guarantee to keep your identity confidential as we may need to disclose your identity if required to do so by law. It should also be noted that your identity may be recognisable to others during the investigation due to the nature of the complaint, although we will endeavour to limit the risk of this where possible.

All complaints will be logged by the Communications Team for reporting and monitoring purposes. Details of complaints are kept in accordance with our data protection policy.

 

LINKS TO OTHER POLICIES

Other policies which may be relevant to this policy are our:

  • Whistleblowing Policy
  • Safeguarding Children and Adults Policy
  • Data Protection Policy

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