COMPLAINTS POLICY AND PROCEDURES .  Complaints Policy Statement

Warwickshire Garage & Transport Group Training Association (WGTA) is committed to providing a good standard of quality services to learners, employers and other agencies and  organisations will take seriously any concern or complaint and will look into it promptly, for resolution as quickly as possible recognises that all service users, agencies and organisations have the right to raise concerns or complaints about our services and have access to clear information on how to voice complaints and concerns

will ensure the concerns and complaints procedure is open to everyone who receives or requests a service from us

will publish our policy and procedure on our website and have a copy available in our office for anyone who asks to see it

will deal with complaints in line with WGTA Confidentiality Policy

will keep a register of all complaints, which will be reviewed regularly by The Training Director and Board of Directors

complaints procedure will be part of the process of monitoring quality, effectiveness and non-discriminatory nature of its services

staff and Board Directors are required to read, understand and comply with this policy and its procedures.

Complaints Policy
Introduction

WGTA strives for high standards in our service and delivery and welcomes feedback from individuals and users of our services, stakeholders, funding bodies and anyone who works with us, on all aspects of our services. Such feedback is invaluable in helping is to evaluate and improve our service.

The objectives of the WGTA complaints policy and procedures are to:

ensure everyone knows how to make a complaint and how a complaint will be handled
ensure that complaints are dealt with consistently, fairly and sensitively within clear time frames provide individuals with a fair and effective way to complain about our work
ensure that complaints are monitored to improve our service.

WGTA will ensure that we:

listen carefully to complaints and treat complaints as confidential, where possible
record, store and manage all complaints accurately and in accordance with GDPR (Data Protection Act)
investigate the complaint fully, objectively and within the stated time frame
notify the complainant of the results of the investigation and any right of appeal
inform the complainant of any action that will be implemented in order to ensure that there is no re-occurrence
report on an annual basis, the number of complaints received, the outcomes and any actions

Definition of a complaint

A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction by an individual. Whether justified or not.

An individual may make a complaint if they feel WGTA has:

Failed to provide a service or an acceptable standard of service made a mistake in the way the service was provided

Failed to act in a proper way  provided an unfair service.

This policy and procedure relate only to complaints received about WGTA and its services.

 

Complaints Procedure
Concern or Complaint

It is important to establish the difference between a concern and a complaint. Taking informal concerns seriously at the earliest stage will reduce the likelihood of their developing into formal complaints.

If you have any concerns about our work and services, please tell the WGTA member of staff or the Training Director as soon as possible, so they can quickly understand your concerns and try to put them right.

WGTA aims to settle the majority of complaints quickly and satisfactorily by the member of staff who provides the service. The complaint may be resolved quickly by way of an apology or by an acceptable explanation to the individual.

if you are not happy with the response to your concern and/or want to make a formal complaint please follow the procedure below.

There are three stages to the complaint’s procedure:

Stage One — the complaint
Stage Two — investigation
Stage Three — appeal.

Stage One —The Complaint

The complaint can be written or if an individual prefers, they can tell someone at WGTA, or someone else, who will write it down for them. The complainant will need to sign it. A complaint form is available to use.

Individuals wishing to make a complaint should contact the member of staff who provided the service. Alternatively, they can contact the Training Director at WGTA, 44 Holly Walk, Leamington Spa, CV32 4HY.

The complaint should include the complainants name and address, the nature and date of the complaint and how they want to see it resolved. The WGTA complaints form can be requested and can be sent to the complainant or collected by the complainant.

On receipt, any complaint will be logged on the complaints register. Complainants must receive an acknowledgement within three working days of receipt of a signed complaint.

Stage Two – Investigation

All complaints at this stage should be dealt with the Training Director. If a meeting is required with the complainant this will be done within seven working days of receiving the written complaint.

Complaints will be fully investigated and a written response provided to the complainant within twenty working days by the investigator.

The complainant will receive written confirmation of the outcome of any investigation and any recommendations/remedies made, such as reviewing of policies, staff development and training or appropriate improvement to the WGTA services.

Where the complaint is upheld, an apology should be offered.

Occasionally investigations may take longer, particularly if the complaint is complex. Should this be the case a holding letter will be sent after twenty working days and a final date given for a conclusion to be reached.

If an individual remains dissatisfied with the outcome from Stage Two, they can appeal within fourteen working days of the outcome and progress to Stage Three

The complaints register will be updated and any pending complaints flagged so they are followed up.

Stage Three

If the complaint cannot be resolved to the complainant’s satisfaction at stage two, or if the Training Director feels that the complaint is of a very serious nature, or is about the Training Director, then it will be referred to the Board of Directors.

The Board of Directors will acknowledge receipt within five working days, they will review the stage two investigation and recommend one of the following actions within twenty working days (from the date the complainant stated they wanted to take the complaint to stage 3).

Uphold the action taken by WGTA at stage two
Make changes to the stage 2 recommendation/actions.

If after WGTA has been through the three stages and the complainant is still not satisfied with the result, they should be advised that there is no further right of appeal with WGTA but they could approach the Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

Data Protection

To process a complaint WGTA will hold personal data about the complaint, which the individual provides and which other people give in response to the complaint. WGTA will hold this data securely and only use it to address the complaint. The identity of the person making the complaint will only be known to those who need to consider the complaint and will not be revealed to other people or made public by WGTA. However, it may not be possible to preserve confidentiality in some circumstances, for example, where relevant legislation applied or allegations are made which involve the conduct of third parties.

WGTA will normally destroy complaints files in a secure manner six years after the complaint has been closed.

Monitoring

Complaints are an important tool, alongside data provided by user feedback and exit reviews etc which will allow WGTA to learn about the services we provide. They provide a useful source of information on how individuals see our services and how we are serving them. To ensure WGTA can learn from complaints the following data will be collected:

Name and address
Name of person dealing with the complaint
Date of complaint and response
Nature of complaint
Action (s) taken/recommendations made in response to the complaint
Lessons learnt.

Complaint’s information will be considered on a regular basis by the Training Director and reported to the Board of Directors. Wherever possible the data will be used to improve and develop our service as part of our Quality Assurance review.

Enquiries:    Email: contact@garagetraining.com    Tel. 01926 428490

This policy will be reviewed annually by Warwickshire GTA.

Policy reviewed and updated January 2022
Policy reviewed and updated January 2023
Policy reviewed and updated January 2024

 

Signed .   

(Training Director)

Date : 15/01/2024