Complaints Policy
AIM AND SCOPE
Cynthia Spencer Hospice Charity aims to provide a high-quality, responsive service and is committed to providing excellent levels of service. We are constantly striving to meet the rising expectations of our supporters and we welcome every opportunity to monitor and improve the services we provide and having a ‘complaints and compliments’ policy and a clear procedure for resolving complaints is one way of doing this.
This policy covers complaints and compliments relating to the service provided by Cynthia Spencer Hospice.
COMPLIMENTING OUR SERVICE
Compliments are valuable, welcome and important and when they are received, either verbally or in writing, they will be recorded. Compliments enable us to:
understand that our service is being provided to the satisfaction of all third parties
provide positive feedback to our staff
influence our organisational and service development
inform our quality assurance programme
It is good practice to acknowledge any compliments received.
COMPLAINING ABOUT OUR SERVICE
We define a complaint as a situation or instance where either an individual or organisation considers that Cynthia Spencer Hospice Charity has fallen short of their reasonable expectations and wishes to express dissatisfaction.
We do recognise that there will be times when we make mistakes and/or get things wrong. In order to learn from such mistakes, the Director of Income Generation and/or Board of Trustees needs to know about these mistakes and encourage people to comment or complain.
Such comments or complaints will always be taken seriously, recorded or responded to as set out in the procedure which forms part of this policy. We recognise that we can learn from our mistakes and improve our service from the learning we capture in the process.
PROCEDURE FOR RESOLVING COMPLAINTS
We take all complaints seriously and aim to resolve complaints quickly, fairly and effectively. We promise to deal with your complaint sensitively.
Stage 1
We hope that most complaints can be resolved informally by speaking directly to the person or persons involved. If, however, this does not prove possible, then Stages 2 and 3 are available to support complainants.
Stage 2 – Director of Income Generation & Communications
We ask all complainants to either put their complaint in writing and send this, marked Private & Confidential, to:-
Director of Income Generation & Communications
Cynthia Spencer Hospice Charity
Pondwood House
Pondwood Close
Moulton Park
Northampton
NN3 6RT
OR
email the Director of Income Generation & Communications directly at anita@cynthiaspencer.co.uk
Once we have received your complaint, the Director of Income Generation & Communications will acknowledge receipt of your letter in writing within 48 hours (excluding weekends) and you can normally expect a full written response within 10 working days of this acknowledgement.
When expressing concerns, it is helpful to include all relevant details such as nature of complaint, date, people contacted and the other circumstances relating to your complaint. This helps us to understand the nature of your complaint and begin our investigations quickly and fully. Our aim is to resolve the complaint to your complete satisfaction at this level.
Cynthia Spencer Hospice Charity is regulated by the Fundraising Regulator, the independent regulator of charity fundraising. The Fundraising Regulator sets and promotes the standards for all fundraising activity known as the Code of Fundraising Practice.
If you still feel that your concerns have not been fully addressed, you can ask for your complaint to be referred to Stage 3.
Stage 3 – Board of Trustees
If you continue to have concerns you can ask us to review your complaint further.
At Stage 3 your letter will be acknowledged within 5 working days of receipt by a Trustee and we aim to provide a full written response within 25 working days. If this timeframe is delayed because of annual leave or sickness absence you will be informed of this when your complaint is acknowledged.
This is the final stage in the complaints and compliments procedure. If, following completion of Stage 3, you are still not satisfied this does not affect your right to contact the Charity Commission, or, in the case of fundraising complaints, the Fundraising Regulator Complaints | Fundraising Regulator
MONITORING OF COMPLAINTS
All complaints will be recorded regardless of whether or not the complaint was meritorious. This is to enable Cynthia Spencer Hospice Charity to analyse the complaint to determine what actually happened or what could potentially have happened arising out of the issues of which the complaint was made.
Complaints will be tracked by the CEO and Director of Income Generation & Communications and a report will be prepared by the member of staff responsible for concluding the complaint providing an overview of the complaint and how it was resolved. The report will also set out the findings and recommendations for measures to be taken to prevent further complaints of this nature or to improve/adapt/adjust our services to minimise the likelihood of any further complaints.
Quarterly reviews of any complaints received will be carried out to identify any emergent trends or patterns. If patterns or trends do emerge, this will be recorded and will be considered by the Senior Management Team (SMT). Measures will be identified to prevent further complaints or minimise the likelihood of such complaints and to continually improve our services. This may include, but is not limited to, adapting paperwork and procedures and carrying out additional training.
REVIEW
This policy will be reviewed on an annual basis to check its effectiveness.