Charity Excellence Complaints Policy

We receive virtually no complaints but recognise that even the best organisations make mistakes and we take any complaint extremely seriously and as an opportunity to improve our support to the sector.  This complaints policy explains how to complain and how complaints are managed.

If you wish to complain about another charity, use our guide to the Charity Commission complaints procedures.  If you want to create a complaints policy for your own charity, you need to register (everything is free), login, click the AI Bunny icon in the bottom right of your screen, click his Policy Button and tell him you want a charity complaints policy.

How to Make a Complaint

Whilst we make every effort to meet peoples’ expectations, circumstances may arise where an individual has a concern and wishes to bring this to our attention.  We will take all reasonable steps to resolve the situation, in everyone’s best interests.

If you wish to bring a matter to our attention, contact us at ian@charityexcellence.co.uk.  We always prefer to resolve any concern informally but also have a formal complaints process, including a right of appeal.  If you wish to complain about myself, you should write to our registered address (14 Blackmore Gate, Buckland, Bucks, HP22 5JT). You must mark the envelope 'Confidential - FAO Charity Excellence Chair'.  It will be forwarded unopened to the chair.

Whilst we would ask that you first give us the opportunity to address your concerns, submitting a complaint to us does not preclude you also complaining to a regulator or other relevant authority, such as our charity regulator, the Charity Commission for England & Wales.

Submitting a Complaint

To help resolve the complaint as quickly and effectively as possible, you should do so as soon as possible and include in your complaint:

• Name, organisation (if relevant), address, telephone number and e mail.
  • If you do not wish to be contacted in a particular way, please let us know and we will of course respect this.
• Up to 500 words - as much relevant information as possible, such as what happened, where, when (date/time), who was present and any action taken, and by whom.
• Up to 150 words - what it is you felt to be unsatisfactory.
• Up to 150 words - what you believe should be done to address your concern.

Managing Your Complaint

Receipt will be acknowledged, if possible, within 7 working days.  The complaint will then be investigated.  If necessary, specialist advice will be sought.  Where clarification or further information is felt to be necessary, we will contact you to request this.

A response will be sent within 14 working days.  If this is not possible, a holding reply will be sent after 14 days advising when we estimate the investigation will be completed.  The complaint response will  explain our findings and what action we will be taking/have taken, subject to the constraints of the Data Protection Act, which will almost certainly not allow us to disclose sensitive personal information.

Complaint Appeal Process

If you are not satisfied with the response, you may appeal the decision, by writing to the Chair, the contact details of whom will included in our response.  Appeals must be submitted within 28 days of our response to the complaint.  Your appeal should be specific about why you feel the decision made was wrong and provide the facts and information necessary to demonstrate this.

A decision will be notified within 28 days and will be final.

Wider Action Complaints Action

Irrespective of the outcome of any complaint, we will consider if there is any requirement in respect of wider action and/or statutory reporting to the Charity Commission, H&SW Executive, other regulator, or the Police.

Consideration will also to be given to whether any changes should be made to policies, procedures, training etc to see if anything might reasonably be done to prevent a similar issue arising in future.

Anonymous Complaints

Anonymous complaints will be recorded and any facts available looked in to.  However, in doing so we will be mindful that anonymous complaints can sometimes be malicious.  Everyone involved in our work, even incidentally, has a right to complain and we will hold anyone accountable but, equally, individuals have a right to be protected from unsubstantiated and, potentially, malicious allegations.

Consequently, anyone wishing to complain is strongly encouraged to provide the information requested above and his or her contact details.  This will also allow us to advise him or her of the outcome.

Confidentiality

The complaint will be treated as confidential and any communication on this issue, including responding to the complainant, will be subject to compliance with the Data Protection Act.

Lengthy or Repetitive Complaints

Please note that we are a charity with limited capacity and we are not lawyers.  If we were to receive a complaint that in our view includes:

• An excessive volume of correspondence.
• Repetitive or irrelevant submissions or.
• Overly long or unfocused documents.

We may ask you to help us to respond to your complaint by summarising it to focus on the key facts, what you feel is unsatisfactory and what you wish us to do in response, in no more than 300 words.  We will pause the complaints process pending receipt of this.

Artificial Intelligence 

We accept the use of AI in drafting a complaint.  However, it must still comply with this policy. You should also check it for accuracy, tone and relevance before submitting it, as this will help to ensure we are able to resolve your complaint as quickly as we can.  The reason we ask you to do this is that AI makes mistakes and also can make things up (called hallucinating).

We believe that individuals are entitled to challenge, appeal or seek redress for a decision made by or with the help of an AI system.  We will ensure:

• Human oversight of systems that allows decisions to be reviewed and, if appropriate, overturned.
• Transparency about how decisions are made and what data was used.