Complaints Policy
Purpose and Scope
This policy establishes NSEMM’s framework for handling complaints about our services, operations, and conduct in a fair, transparent, and timely manner. It applies to all complaints received about NSEMM’s activities including tutoring services, donation processing, administrative functions, and general service delivery.
NSEMM is committed to learning from complaints to improve our services and ensuring that all individuals feel confident about raising concerns. This policy demonstrates our commitment to accountability, transparency, and continuous improvement in serving our charitable mission.
This policy integrates with our existing safeguarding procedures and governance arrangements while providing clear pathways for complaint resolution that respect both complainant rights and organisational capacity as a small charity.
Legal Framework and Regulatory Compliance
NSEMM operates under legal and regulatory frameworks that require appropriate complaints handling procedures. We are accountable to the Charity Commission for England and Wales under the Charities Act 2011, which establishes duties regarding public benefit and proper administration of charitable resources.
We also respond to the Fundraising Regulator regarding fundraising activities and donation processing. Our tutoring services fall under consumer protection legislation including the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which establishes service quality expectations and dispute resolution requirements.
The General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018 govern how we handle personal information during complaint processing, ensuring appropriate privacy protections and information management throughout the complaints process.
What is a Complaint?
A complaint is when you tell us you’re unhappy with something we’ve done (or haven’t done) and you want us to look into it and fix it. This is different from general feedback, suggestions, or questions – though we welcome all of these through our feedback page at /feedback.
Service complaints are about problems with our tutoring, booking system, payments, donations, or how we communicate with you. For example, if a tutor doesn’t show up, if there’s a billing error, or if we don’t respond to your emails.
Conduct complaints are about how our staff behave. For example, if a tutor is unprofessional, if someone is rude to you, or if you think someone has broken our rules.
Policy complaints are when you disagree with our rules or how we make decisions. For example, if you think our refund policy is unfair or if you’re unhappy with how we’ve applied our procedures.
What we don’t handle through this process: Safeguarding concerns about safety go straight to our Designated Safeguarding Lead through our safeguarding procedures. Governance complaints about our trustees go directly to [email protected]. Copyright or legal issues can go through our standard feedback system.
How to Make a Complaint
You can complain to any member of NSEMM staff – all our staff members, including tutors, are trained to accept and record complaints properly. Staff must record all complaints they receive, including complaints about themselves, and pass them to the appropriate person for handling.
Official complaint submission happens through our website feedback page at /feedback. This is our main system for tracking and responding to complaints properly. You can also use this page to give general feedback or suggestions about our services.
What information to include: When making a complaint, please provide your contact details, a clear description of what happened, when it happened, what you’d like us to do about it, and any documents or evidence that might help us understand the issue.
Alternative submission methods: If you cannot use our online system, you can tell any staff member about your complaint and they will help you submit it through the proper channels. For governance complaints about trustees or board decisions, you can email [email protected] or write to our office address.
When the complaint process starts: Your complaint officially begins when it’s submitted through our feedback page or recorded by a staff member. This is when we start counting the time for our response.
Time Limits for Making Complaints
Most complaints: You have three months from when the problem happened (or when you first knew about it) to make a complaint. This gives you time to think about what happened while making sure we can still investigate properly.
Complaints about tutoring sessions: You have 30 days from the session to complain. This shorter time helps us fix problems quickly while they’re still fresh in everyone’s memory.
Late complaints: If you miss these deadlines, we might still look into your complaint if there’s a good reason why you couldn’t complain earlier (like illness or family emergency). We’ll decide case by case.
When time starts: The clock starts ticking from when the problem happened or when you first knew about it, whichever is later.
How We Handle Your Complaint
We’ll confirm we got it: Within 2 working days, we’ll send you a message confirming we received your complaint. This will include a reference number and tell you what happens next.
We’ll give you an initial response: Within 5 working days, we’ll tell you what we think about your complaint initially, what we need to investigate, and how long we expect it to take.
We’ll investigate and respond fully: We aim to give you a complete response within 4 weeks. This includes looking into what happened, talking to relevant people, and telling you what we found and what we’ll do about it.
If it takes longer: Some complicated complaints might take longer to investigate. If this happens, we’ll tell you why and give you a new deadline.
What our investigation includes: We’ll look at all the evidence, talk to staff involved, check our policies, and consider all sides of the story. We might get advice from outside experts if needed.
What Happens After We Investigate
We’ll tell you what we found: We’ll explain whether we think your complaint is justified (upheld) or not, and why. We’ll be clear about what went wrong (if anything did) and what we’re going to do about it.
If we made a mistake: We’ll apologize, explain what we’ll do to fix it, and tell you how we’ll prevent it happening again. This might include changing our procedures, training staff, or improving our systems.
If we didn’t make a mistake: We’ll explain why we think our actions were reasonable and point you to the next steps if you still disagree.
Learning from all complaints: Whether we uphold your complaint or not, we always look for ways to improve our services. Every complaint teaches us something about how we can do better.
If You’re Not Happy with Our Response
You can ask us to look again: If you’re not satisfied with how we handled your complaint, you can ask for it to be escalated to someone more senior. You have 14 days after getting our response to ask for this.
Three levels of review:
- First level: Senior staff (Financial Officer, senior education staff, or CEO) handle most complaints initially
- Second level: If you’re still not happy, senior management will review it
- Third level: If you’re still not satisfied, our Board of Trustees will review it
Please use all our internal steps first: Before going to external organizations like the Charity Commission or Fundraising Regulator, please let us try to resolve your complaint through all our internal levels. This gives us the best chance to fix the problem and learn from it.
External review options: If you’ve been through all our internal steps and you’re still not satisfied, you can complain to the Charity Commission (for governance issues) or the Fundraising Regulator (for fundraising issues), or seek independent mediation.
Specialised Complaint Procedures
Safeguarding complaints are handled through NSEMM’s Safeguarding Policy procedures rather than this general complaints process. Safeguarding concerns are referred immediately to the Designated Safeguarding Lead and processed according to statutory safeguarding requirements and timelines.
Governance complaints about trustee conduct, board decisions, or organisational governance are submitted directly to the Chair of Trustees through [email protected] or by post to the charity’s registered office address. These complaints bypass standard procedures due to their governance nature.
Copyright complaints, DMCA takedown notices, and intellectual property concerns are submitted through the standard feedback system or by post to the charity’s registered office address. These complaints require legal consideration and may involve external legal advice.
Whistleblowing concerns about serious wrongdoing, illegal activities, or public interest issues are handled through enhanced protection procedures outlined in our Whistleblowing Policy, which forms part of this complaints framework while providing additional safeguards for whistleblowers.
Conflicts of Interest in Complaint Handling
Staff members with personal involvement in complained-about incidents or decisions are excluded from complaint handling and investigation processes. Alternative staff members are assigned to ensure impartial consideration of complaints and fair resolution processes.
Senior staff conflicts of interest result in escalation to trustee level for handling. Trustee conflicts of interest are managed through our Conflicts of Interest Policy, which establishes procedures for declaration, exclusion, and alternative decision-making arrangements.
External expertise may be engaged for complaints involving complex conflicts of interest, specialist technical matters, or situations where internal capacity for impartial handling is limited. External involvement ensures fair consideration while maintaining organisational accountability.
Record Keeping and Monitoring
Complaint records include all submission documentation, investigation evidence, correspondence with complainants, resolution actions taken, and learning points identified. Records are maintained securely and confidentially in accordance with data protection requirements.
Complaint tracking systems monitor response timelines, resolution outcomes, escalation patterns, and complainant satisfaction levels. This data informs service improvement and enables proactive identification of systemic issues requiring attention.
Trend analysis is conducted quarterly to identify recurring complaint themes, service areas requiring improvement, policy effectiveness, and training needs. Analysis results inform service development and staff training programmes.
Annual complaint reporting to trustees includes complaint volumes and categories, response time performance, resolution outcomes, learning points implemented, and recommendations for policy or service improvements.
Learning and Continuous Improvement
All complaints, whether upheld or not upheld, are analysed for learning opportunities and service improvement potential. Learning focuses on prevention of similar issues, improvement of policies and procedures, and enhancement of service quality.
Service improvements resulting from complaint analysis are implemented through appropriate channels including policy updates, staff training, procedural changes, and system enhancements. Implementation progress is monitored and reported to trustees.
Staff training incorporates complaint trends, resolution techniques, customer service skills, and policy awareness. Training ensures consistent, effective complaint handling while building staff confidence in managing difficult situations.
Best practice sharing across the organisation ensures learning from complaints benefits all service areas and prevents similar issues occurring elsewhere. Regular team discussions incorporate complaint insights into operational practice.
External Regulatory Relationships
Charity Commission complaints may be submitted by individuals dissatisfied with NSEMM’s internal complaint handling or raising concerns about charity governance and administration. We cooperate fully with Commission investigations while maintaining our internal complaint resolution commitment.
Fundraising Regulator complaints about fundraising activities or donation processing are handled through their established procedures. We maintain compliance with Fundraising Regulator standards while operating our internal complaint resolution processes.
Independent ombudsman services provide external review for complaints that cannot be resolved through internal procedures. We respect ombudsman decisions and implement their recommendations while learning from their findings.
Legal proceedings may result from unresolved complaints, particularly those involving consumer rights or contractual disputes. We seek appropriate legal advice while maintaining focus on fair resolution and relationship preservation where possible.
Communication and Transparency
Complainant communication throughout the process is clear, respectful, and timely. We provide regular updates on investigation progress, explain our decision-making processes, and maintain professional communication standards even in difficult situations.
Public accountability includes annual reporting of complaint statistics, service improvements resulting from complaints, and our commitment to learning from feedback. This transparency demonstrates accountability while maintaining individual complainant confidentiality.
Staff communication about complaint handling emphasises learning opportunities, professional development, and service improvement rather than blame or criticism. Positive complaint handling is recognised and celebrated as part of our service excellence commitment.
Support and Advocacy
Complainants may be supported by family members, friends, or advocacy organisations throughout the complaint process. We welcome appropriate support while maintaining direct communication with the complainant about resolution progress.
Vulnerable complainants receive additional support and consideration during complaint handling, including accessible communication methods, extended timelines where appropriate, and referral to specialist support services where relevant.
Cultural sensitivity in complaint handling recognises diverse communication styles, cultural differences in conflict resolution, and language barriers that may affect complaint submission or resolution. We adapt our approach while maintaining procedural fairness.
Data Protection and Privacy
Personal information provided during complaint submission is processed in accordance with GDPR and our Data Protection Policy. Information is used only for complaint investigation and resolution purposes unless legal requirements dictate otherwise.
Information sharing during complaint investigation is limited to individuals with legitimate need to know and direct involvement in resolution processes. Confidentiality is maintained except where disclosure is required for safeguarding or legal reasons.
Retention periods for complaint records balance accountability requirements with privacy rights. Records are retained for seven years following complaint closure to enable learning and regulatory compliance while respecting individual privacy.
Staff Training and Complaints Handling
All NSEMM staff receive annual training on how to handle complaints properly. This includes recognizing when someone is making a complaint, how to record it accurately, who to pass it to, and how to communicate professionally even in difficult situations.
All staff can accept complaints: Any staff member, including tutors, can receive and record complaints. They’re trained to listen carefully, write down what you’ve told them, and make sure it gets to the right person for investigation.
Staff must record all complaints: Even if someone complains about them personally, our staff are required to record the complaint accurately and pass it on. This ensures all complaints are handled fairly and consistently.
Ongoing development: We provide regular training updates on customer service, conflict resolution, and communication skills. This helps our staff handle complaints effectively while maintaining positive relationships wherever possible.
Contact Information
For complaint submission, please use our official feedback system accessible through our website feedback page. This is the only official channel for complaint submission and ensures appropriate tracking and response.
For governance complaints, contact the Chair of Trustees at [email protected] or by post to Suite 74, Sneinton Market Unit 6 Gedling Street, Nottingham, NG1 1DS.
For urgent safeguarding concerns, contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead through the safeguarding reporting systems outlined in our Safeguarding Policy.
This policy is reviewed annually and updated to reflect changes in regulatory requirements, best practice developments, and organisational learning from complaint handling experience. All staff receive training on policy updates to ensure consistent application of complaint handling standards.