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Rights and Equality West
Midlands Complaints Procedure
Who the
complaints procedure is for:
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The complaints procedure should be followed
by users of the Rights and Equality’s services, by Forum
or Board members, and by volunteers working with Rights
and Equality West Midlands. (It is not appropriate for use in the event of an accident or
injury on Rights Equality West Midland premises.)
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Employees who wish to lodge a complaint will
normally be expected to make use of the grievance
procedure.
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Forum or Board
members will normally be expected to raise directly with
the chair any concerns that they might have.
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Rights and Equality West Midlands is
committed to providing a high quality of service for its
users. A person should make a complaint if s/he is
dissatisfied with the service offered by Rights and
Equality West Midlands or believes s/he has been treated
unfairly, carelessly, unprofessionally, or
discourteously.
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The person or persons making the complaint
will normally be expected to do so in person. Rights
and Equality West Midlands will not normally take action
on anonymous or unsigned complaints.
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Complainants may for good reason (for
example, if they do not speak English proficiently)
appoint a person to act on their behalf in making a
complaint.
A
staged procedure
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The
complaints procedure is conceived as having three stages,
first informal, second formal, and third appeal.
Informal stage
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As a first
stage, the person making the complaint (the complainant)
should try to resolve the matter informally by complaining
directly to the employee most obviously involved and giving
her / him an opportunity to put matters right.
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If the
matter cannot be resolved informally, or if the complainant
considers it sufficiently serious to render an informal
approach inappropriate, the complainant may proceed to the
formal second stage.
Formal
stage
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To make a
formal complaint, the complainant should complete the
complaint form (available at the Rights and Equality West
Midlands office) and send it duly completed to the Principal
Officer.
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The
complainant will normally be expected to provide full
details of the date, time, circumstances and the names or
job titles of any individuals involved.
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On receipt,
the complaint will be referred to a designated investigating
officer, who will normally be the Principal Officer, unless
s/he is directly implicated by the complaint, in which case
the matter will be referred to the Honorary Secretary (or
Chair if there is no Honorary Secretary), who will appoint
an investigating officer.
Complaints about the Principal Officer
-
If the
complaint is about the Principal Officer, then the complaint
will be referred by the Principal Officer to the Honorary
Secretary of the Forum or Board (or Chair if there is no
Honorary Secretary) who will nominate an appropriate Forum
or Board member as investigating officer.
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Alternatively, the complainant may send the complaint
directly to the Honorary Secretary of the Forum or Board who
will nominate an appropriate Forum or Board member as
investigating officer.
Response times
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Under normal
circumstances, the investigating officer will acknowledge
receipt of the complaint within five working days, and
investigate the complaint with the aim of providing the
complainant with a written response within twenty working
days.
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If the
complaint is forwarded to the Chair, receipt will be
acknowledged within ten working days and a written response
sent within thirty working days.
Investigation process
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The events
that led up to the complaint will be fully investigated, and
notes kept of any meetings held or telephone calls made in
the course of the investigation.
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The
substance of the complaint will be evaluated and reasons
recorded for forming an opinion as to what took place and
any culpability.
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In assessing
the complaint, the investigating officer will pay due regard
to the promises relating to service standards contained in
Rights and Equality West Midland’s user charter.
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If it is
concluded that the complaint is justified, recommendations
will be made to reassure the complainant and to prevent any
recurrence of the complaint.
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If the
complaint is felt to involve the misconduct of staff and is
considered sufficiently serious in nature, the staff
disciplinary procedure may be invoked, and the record of the
investigation used in any consequent disciplinary hearing.
Responding to the complainant
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The opinion
and recommendation will be communicated to the complainant
in a suitably worded letter, which will also confirm details
of the right of the complainant to take the matter further,
if he or she remains dissatisfied.
In
addition, if it is felt to be desirable, a face-to-face
meeting will be arranged with the complainant to discuss the
events that led to the complaint and any remedial action
proposed.
Appeal
stage
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If after
receiving the letter containing the opinion and
recommendation, and after a face-to-face meeting with the
complainant, the complainant remains dissatisfied with the
opinion, the recommendation, or the conduct of the
investigation, s/he may appeal to the Chair of the Forum or
Board by writing a letter setting out the reasons for her /
his dissatisfaction.
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The right to
appeal must be exercised within twenty working days of
receiving the investigating officer’s letter.
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On receipt
of the letter of appeal the Chair will convene, within
twenty working days, a sub-committee of the Forum or Board
to consider the complaint. The sub-committee may, if it so
decides, invite the complainant to explain his/her reasons
for appealing against the opinion and recommendation of the
investigating officer.
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The
sub-committee will reach a decision on the complaint or the
conduct of the complaint, and communicate this in writing to
the complainant.
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The
sub-committee’s decision shall be final and the matter
closed, on the understanding that the complainant retains
the right to seek legal redress elsewhere.
Follow-up
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A
retrievable record will be kept on file of the complaint and
Rights and Equality West Midland’s response to it.
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The
complaint will be reviewed along with others after a
suitable period of time has elapsed, to see whether further
action should be taken, or systems need to be amended, to
avoid a recurrence.
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The Forum or
Board will receive an annual report on user services
including complaints and action taken in respect of them.
Review
This
document was approved by Rights and Equality West Midlands
Forum on 7 February 2002, amended October 2007 and reviewed
on an annual basis by the Chief Executive with the next date
of review scheduled for January 2009.
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