Hope For The Community CIC (“H4C”) Complaints Policy and Procedure

GENERAL STATEMENT

Receiving feedback and responding to complaints is an important part of improving H4C’s accountability. Ensuring our stakeholders can hold us to account will improve the quality of our work in all areas.

SCOPE

This policy applies to H4C and is global in its application. A complaint can be made by any supporter, partner organisation, community or individual with whom we work, or any member of the public whether an individual, company or other entity, in the UK or anywhere else in the world.

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about the standards of service, actions or lack of action, by H4C or its staff and associated personnel. It is a criticism that expects a reply and would like things to be changed.

If you have a complaint, we would like you to tell us about it. This is what you should do:

Contact details: Chief Executive Officer gabriela@h4c.org.uk or Founder andy.turner@h4c.org.uk

1. If you have a complaint to make, it should be made to the Chief Executive Officer* who will try to resolve the issue informally.

2. If the issue is serious, or you are not satisfied after raising it with the Chief Executive Officer, you should make a formal complaint.

3. Your complaint should be made in writing, marked “Private & Confidential" and sent to the Chief Executive Officer* who will acknowledge it in writing (normally within 7 working days of receipt). Remember to keep a copy of your email/letter.

4. The Chief Executive Officer shall - in consultation with the Chair of the Board of Directors - investigate the complaint.

5. The Chief Executive Officer shall communicate the results of the investigation to you within a reasonable time - normally 21 working days.

6. You have the right - if dissatisfied with the results of the inquiry - to put your case in writing or personally to a panel comprising at least three members from the H4C Board of Directors.

7. If attending personally, you have the right to be accompanied by a friend or advocate to help put your case. (The panel also has the right to have an advisor present).

8. The decision of the panel will be final.

9. Where appropriate, H4C will make a written apology to the complainant, and agree any further action necessary to make good the cause of the complaint.

10. All formal complaints and the response made to them will be recorded and filed in a secure place.

11. The Board of Directors shall be informed by the Chief Executive Officer at the first available meeting of the number and nature of any formal complaints and their outcome, and consideration will be given to the implications these have for the planning and management of future services annually, as part of H4C’s self-evaluation.

* If a complaint relates to the Chief Executive Office, read Founder for Chief Executive Officer

Version control: V02_10/2022 due for review 01/2024