Galop's complaints process

Introduction

We are committed to providing high quality services to LGBT+ people who have experienced Gender Based Violence (GBV) and abuse. Our intention is to help the community recover from these experiences and prevent further harm.

In addition to our direct service delivery we support other organisations through consultancy, training and research on LGBT+ experiences of gender based violence. We carry out fundraising and community awareness raising to support more LGBT+ survivors of abuse and violence.

We welcome complaints, comments, suggestions and feedback from our service users, other stakeholders and members of the public on any aspects of our work and see them as an opportunity to learn and make our services better for the future. We aim for a learning culture where all feedback is welcomed.

We will make it as easy as possible for you to raise concerns and set out here a variety of formal and informal ways that you can tell us if we might have got something wrong.

If you do want to make a complaint we want to make it as easy as possible for you and reassure you that people who do complain about our services are protected from discrimination. A complaint about our service will not change the service you are eligible for.

Our intention is to respond to all complaints and feedback in line with our values of accountability, kindness, expert and evidence led.

If you feel that we have not dealt with your complaint appropriately or with enough care then there are other professional bodies you can raise a concern with.

General principles

We will ensure that we follow these same principles regardless of who is making a complaint or the subject of the complaint. We will;

• Be transparent – we will tell you what we are doing with your concern and any action we have taken as a result.

• Take you seriously – we will ensure that we believe you and take the steps we need to understand your feedback or complaint.

• Treat you with respect, politeness and protect your confidentiality and privacy.

• Not discriminate against you or withhold a service on the basis of any complaints you may make about us.

We will take complaints about our services, and organisation more generally from, people who have used our services or are using our services, individuals or organisations connected to our service.

We might take complaints about;

• The way an individual worker, volunteer or freelancer has provided services.

• Our operating policies and procedures.

• A publication or a comment we have made in print or on socials.

• Any of our fundraising or promotional material.

We will ensure a speedy, just and open investigation into all complaints and aim to resolve them as quickly and transparently as possible.

Please note we are unable to respond to the following concerns under this policy;

• Complaints about allegations of serious or sustained misconduct by those in management and control of our charity. Concerns of this nature should be referred to the Charity Commission in England and Wales.

• Complaints about employment or contractual matters, either from a member of the public, an employee or third-party agency.

• Complaints that have already been brought to the attention of, and are being investigated by, the police.

• Complaints where legal action is being taken.

In the event that we are not able to resolve your complaint under this policy we will advise you of the action we are taking and why.

All complaints are handled in line with our confidentiality and safeguarding policies, which are available on request.

Complaints Process

1. Informal complaints

Any member of the public or person using our services can talk to us about how they have found our service or our organisation more generally with us. This feedback can come via a call, an email or a message on socials. This could be picked up by any member of the team.

The member of the team should respond to the feedback with kindness. Making sure that they are listening to the other person’s experience and taking it seriously.

It is important that everyone making a complaint or giving feedback is asked what they want us to do with this feedback.

Survivors should be offered the chance to speak with a manager to discuss their concerns more fully.

All staff should let the person making the complaint or giving feedback know that you will share it with a manager and ask if the person gives consent to have a follow up conversation – detailing the actions that we’ve taken as a result of their feedback.

1.1 Records

All staff members should make a note of the conversation, the date, time and method that the feedback was given and the outcomes that the person wants as a result of the feedback. This should be shared with their line manager on the same working day. The manager should save the complaint on the complaint record excel spreadsheet on the manager’s SharePoint site.

1.2 Outcomes of feedback

Managers should discuss feedback received with the member of the team in their next scheduled one to one, or pass the feedback to the relevant line manager to do so.

If the feedback is about the team or the way a service is run it should be discussed at the next team meeting.

Any actions agreed to address the feedback should be noted in the complaints excel spreadsheet.

If the person has given their consent we should let them know what we have done as a result of their feedback, in a reasonable amount of time – no longer than a month.

If the person is still not happy then they can escalate into a formal complaint.

2. Formal complaints

Formal complaints are complaints that are received in writing and clearly marked as a formal complaint, there is no obligation to have completed an informal process first.

Formal complaints can be made to us by letter or email:

By email: info@galop.org.uk

By letter: 8 – 9 Talbot Court, London, EC3V 0BP

If a member of the public needs support to make a complaint to us, we should provide support or signpost to the Citizen’s Advice Service for support with a complaint.

Formal complaints are forwarded to the relevant member of our senior management team, these people will log the complaint on the complaints record and identify the right manager or member of the senior management team to investigate. This member of the senior management team is responsible for being the main point of contact throughout the complaint and during the investigation. It is important that they are transparent and accountable until the outcome of the complaint.

All formal complaints require an investigation, we will inform the person making the complaint about the timescale of the investigation and the predicted timeframe for an outcome. In the event that it is not possible to keep the person who has made a complaint informed due to client safety or confidentiality concerns then we will provide them with confirmation that we investigated and whether we are taking actions as a result.

2.1 Timescales

A formal complaint will be acknowledged by the member of the senior management team who has been allocated to the complaint within three working days.

They will arrange to speak to the person to complete a fact finding call so that they can get the full details of the nature of the complaint, where possible this fact finding call or meeting should be carried out within ten working days of us receiving the complaint.

This fact finding call should be summarised in a letter to the person with the complaint, with clear information on who will be spoken to as part of the investigation and when the person making a complaint can expect a response from us. We will aim to have this letter sent within a working week of the fact finding call.

Although it is not ideal, there might be situations when we aren’t able to complete our investigation in the desired time frame. In this event we will send a brief update each week until the investigation is concluded.

2.2 Outcome

The final letter of response should outline how the complaint was investigated, whether the complaint was upheld, what action has or will be taken, including lessons learned and how this learning will be implemented.

We should always give details of how to initiate a stage two complaint in case people are still unhappy with us.

2.3.1 Stage two formal complaint

We will escalate a stage two complaint to a member of our senior leadership team. A stage two complaint often concerns whether information was missed in the first investigation, how the investigation was managed, or about something that arose in the course of the investigation. It doesn’t normally review the original detail of the complaint.

2.3.2 Timescales

When we have received a stage two complaint a member of the senior leadership team will write to the person to let them know that they have the complaint and how they are proposing to deal with it. This will be done within five working dates.

It might be that the stage two complaint can be done through an internal review or it might be that we need an additional fact finding call to make sure we have the accurate context.

In this event we will try to arrange the call/meeting within 10 working days.

We will ensure that the person dealing with the stage two complaint has not been involved in the matter previously.

After establishing all of the details the member of our team who is holding the second stage complaint will review the details available, identify any gaps and questions they have and seek out additional and supplementary information.

Once they have completed this review they will write to the person concerned and let them know their outcome. They will aim to do this within 20 working days.

If, for whatever reason, we have not completed the above within time frames set out we will communicate promptly. We will establish how long it is likely to take and provide details of an updated outcome.

2.3.3 Outcome

The final letter of our response should outline how we have investigated, whether the complaint was upheld/what parts of the complaint have been upheld or dismissed, what action has or will be taken, including lessons learned and how this learning will be implemented. We will always offer information on how to initiate a Final Complaint if the person with concerns is not satisfied with this outcome.

2.4 Final Complaint

A final complaint is heard by a complaints panel of three people, at least one of whom must be a Galop board member. Other members of the panel might be managers, staff or volunteers who have been unconnected with the complaint so far but who have enough experience and expertise to make an informed decision about the complaint.

If we feel it is appropriate and useful we might ask an external representative to sit on the complaints panel.

The complaints panel will review how the original investigation was completed, how the second stage was completed and check for any additional information or concerns in how the process has been completed. The outcome delivered by the complaints panel is final and no further action is possible within our process.

The panel will review documentary evidence only.

2.4.1 Timescales

Due to the logistics complaint panels may take a little while to convene.

We will write to the person concerned to let them know that we are setting up a complaints panel, we will inform them on who we have identified to invite and check for any conflict of interest, we will set out when the date of the meeting is and when the expected outcome is likely.

The panel will aim to come to a conclusion within 21 working days of their meeting and informed the person with a complaint of their decision by letter.