General statement
TYCP aims to provide its members, organisations and individuals with the best possible service. We positively welcome suggestions you may have for how we can improve our service.
Usually, a word with the person at the point of service delivery will suffice should a problem arise. However, we recognise that from time to time there may be occasions when users of our services feel that the quality or level of service provided fall short of what they could reasonably expect. We also want to know about these occasions so that we can make good the problem and plan to avoid its repetition. If you have a complaint, we would like you to tell us about it.
This is what you should do:
- If you have a complaint to make, it should be made to the Secretary of the Board of Trustees who will try to resolve the issue informally.
- If the issue is serious, or you are not satisfied after raising it with the Secretary you should make a formal complaint.
- Your complaint should be made in writing, marked “Private & Confidential”, and sent to the Secretary who will acknowledge it in writing (normally within 7 days of receipt). Remember to keep a copy of your letter. If you need an interpreter or advocate to help you make your complaint, we can arrange this for you.
- The Secretary shall – in consultation with the Chair of the Trustee Board – investigate the complaint. (See separate check list).
- The Secretary shall communicate the results of the investigation to you within a reasonable time – normally 21 days.
- 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 two members from the Board of Trustees who were not involved in the initial investigation.
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).
- The decision of the panel will be final.
- Where appropriate, The Youth Counselling Project will make a written apology to the complainant, and agree any further action necessary to make good the cause of the complaint.
- All formal complaints and the response made to them will be recorded and filed in a secure place.
- The Trustee Board shall be informed by the Secretary 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 TYCP’s self-evaluation.
TYCP’s complaints procedure will be publicised to organisations andindividuals who use its services.
The Designated Person would normally be the most senior paid staff member ornominated Trustee.
This policy is to be read in conjunction with the following document:
