Scope
The Complaints Procedure deals with complaints arising from:
1. Recruitment and Delivery (or lack of delivery) of services for education and training including teaching, course content, tutoring, assessment, feedback on progress and Internshipsupport during learning programmes
2. Incorrect or misleading information about the services provided by the Centre
3. Delivery (or lack of delivery) of support services provided by the Centre including administration of fees, enrolment processes, Centre accommodation, health and safety and Internship resource services
4. Unacceptable actions or behaviour by Centre staff and/or other Interns in the Centre.
Purpose
Graduwork will deal with legitimate complaints in a fair, prompt and objective manner.
1. Complaints will be dealt with without recrimination and Interns will not be disadvantaged by raising a complaint.
2. Graduwork will be fair in the treatment of all those who complain irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity and disability.
3. Complaints will be dealt with promptly and constructively.
4. All complaints will be dealt with in confidence but shared with any person who may be the subject of a complaint.
5. The outcomes of any complaint will be shared with the complainant and any staff involved.
6. Complaints made which, on investigation, turn out to be malicious, may result in disciplinary action.
7. The Community Manager will be responsible for the management of the Complaints Policy.
Policy Statement
Graduwork is committed to providing a high-quality service for our Interns, service users and external contacts, in a non-discriminatory way. It is our policy to take all complaints seriously and to ensure that they are promptly investigated at an appropriate level. We are also committed, whenever possible, to act to reduce the likelihood of recurrence of similar problems.
Graduwork will take extra care ensuring any information identifying complainants is kept secure and confidential, processing information in accordance with our Data Protection, Copyright and Confidentiality Policy. Any records containing sensitive information and/or identifying the complainants will be kept secure and confidential for the retention period (see below) and will then be disposed of in a secure manner.
This Policy sets out rules on how to make a complaint and explains the process of dealing with any complaints made.
The Complaints Policy and Procedure must be read in conjunction with other relevant Graduwork Policies.
Complaints Procedure
All complaints must be made in writing to the Community Manager. Support can be made available for all those involved in a complaint including:
1. Representation: parent, guardian, friend or supporter
2. Help with completing the Written Complaint.
The induction will be organised by the Centre and will provide further details regarding this process.
Informal Complaints Procedure
Graduwork aims to resolve most of the complaints by carrying out a discussion between the complainant and the appropriate member of staff.
The initial complaint may be made orally or in writing and the member of staff receiving the complaint should make a response within 10 working days, orally or in writing.
It is expected that staff are tactful and courteous in dealing with a complaint. If the complainant is dissatisfied with the response received, they should then be guided to using the formal procedure.
Formal Complaints Procedure
As a rule, Graduwork requires that a formal complaint is made in writing within 15 working days of an incident or action from which the complaint arises, or from the date when the complainant received an oral or written reply to an informal complaint (see above).
In exceptional circumstances, a longer period will be considered.
The complaint should be sent to the Community Manager.
If the complaint involves the Community Manager an alternative senior manager will be appointed to manage the process.
The complaint will be logged, and its receipt will be acknowledged to the complainant within 5 working days.
The Community Manager will carry out an initial assessment of the complaint within 5 working days.
In most cases, complaints will be referred to the appropriate staff for investigation and report.
More serious or unusual complaints will be investigated personally by the Community Manager.
The CEO will nominate a suitable member of the management team to carry out an investigation of the complaint. They may interview the complainant; the respondent; witnesses to the matter or events; and anyone they believe may have a role in establishing or disproving the complaint, as necessary.
They will prepare a summary and report back to the Community Manager within 10 working days of the initial assessment.
The Community Manager will record the outcome of the complaint and either arrange a meeting to deliver the outcome or notify all those involved in writing as appropriate.
All outcomes will be confirmed in writing to all those involved.
If the complaint involves an Intern, they will be offered support at the meeting.
All Interns will be encouraged to bring a supporter to the interview.
Vulnerable Adults and those under 16 years of age must have the support of their care worker, or a person of their choice, who can act as their advocate and the Community Managermust be informed.
The formal complaint should be resolved within 25 working days of the receipt of the original formal complaint.
If it appears that a decision will not be reached within the due period, those involved will be advised of the need for a longer period.
The decision made will be final, but this does not affect an individual’s legal rights.
Reviewing the Complaints Policy and Procedure
Graduwork will review the Complaints Policy and Practice every 12 month to include:
1. Number of complaints of each type
2. Time taken to process complaints
3. List of outstanding complaints
4. Outcomes to complaints
5. Results of appeals
6. Analysis of complaints and outcomes by age, gender and ethnicity of complainant.
Any changes to the Complaints Policy and Procedure, should these be required, will be communicated with all staff members, external contact and service users.
For audit purposes, Graduwork will keep a record of all complaints for the period of 3 years and will make these available to the relevant authorities upon request.
Related Policies
The Complaints Policy and procedure needs to be read in conjunction with other Graduwork Policies including the following:
Privacy policy
and;
Terms of use