Complaints Policy and Procedure

Reviewed February 2023

1. Introduction

• 1.1 Access Social Care is committed to providing a high-quality service, so that the legal education and advice that we offer has the biggest impact for people who are in need of care and support.

• 1.2 We can learn and develop our service by listening to feedback, compliments and complaints from our clients and other people who come into contact with our service.

• 1.3 The following document lays out what you can expect if you are not happy with our service and wish to make a complaint.

2. How to make a complaint

• 2.1 If you are not happy with our service, and would like to let us know what has gone wrong, you can do one of the following:
  - speak to the person you are dealing with at Access Social Care. If you cannot resolve the issue with them, let them know you would like to make a complaint - email enquiries@accesscharity.org.uk, marking your email ‘Complaint’ in the subject line
  - write to us at Access Social Care, 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE, making clear that your letter is a complaint
  - phone us on 02476 978903 and let us know you want to make a complaint

3. What happens next – first stage

• 3.1 We will let you know within three working days that we have received your complaint, and how we plan to deal with it.

• 3.2 Your complaint will be investigated by a manager. They will look at the evidence you have provided, review any records relating to the issue, and interview the member of staff or volunteer concerned if appropriate. They will also consider whether you have suffered or are likely to suffer any harm or loss and what might be done about that. We will also consider whether we should report any issues to our insurers or other bodies.

• 3.3 We will endeavour to write to you with the outcome of your complaint within 15 working days of receiving your complaint. We will explain what we did to investigate your complaint, what the outcome of this process is, and where appropriate, how we will change how we work as a result of your complaint.

• 3.4 If we decide not to investigate your complaint, we will write to you, giving reasons for our decision.

4. What happens next – second stage

• 4.1 After receiving our written response to your complaint, you will have the opportunity to decide if you are satisfied with this response.

• 4.2 If you are not satisfied, you can let us know that you would like to move to the second stage of our complaints process. We are obliged to complete investigation of some complaints within 8 weeks. So, we ask that you send a request for stage 2 consideration and further information in support within 14 days of receiving the stage 1 outcome.

• 4.3 In the event that we move to the second stage of our complaints process, a member of our senior leadership team will review your complaint, the evidence used in our response, our letter of response, and any new evidence that you have provided.

• 4.4 A senior leader will endeavour to write to you within 15 days of your request to move to the second stage of the complaints process. This letter will contain the findings from his/her review of the evidence and will let you know what further steps you can take if you are not happy with his/her response.

5. Further steps

• 5.1 Access Social Care is regulated by the Charity Commission and the Fundraising Regulator.

• 5.2 If you are not happy with the outcome of our complaints process, you may be able to approach one of them depending on the nature of the complaint. You can read more about them and what they deal with on the websites here:
  i. Fundraising Regulator – in brief this body considers complaints about fundraising. It prefers that complaints are raised with organisations directly and at least 4 weeks allowed for a response from us before referral is made.
  ii. Charity Commission – in brief this body considers complaints about a charity not following the law and about serious risk of harm to abuse of charities, their beneficiaries or assets.

• 5.3 We are a charity and do not charge for our services but any concerns about us taking or losing money could be raised with above bodies.

• 5.4 Please note that as we do not carry out regulated legal activity, Access Social Care as an organisation is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this respect. However some of our staff are solicitors and are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Where your complaint concerns a solicitor you might escalate the complaint to

  • i. The Legal Services Ombudsman
    The Legal Services Ombudsman may consider complaints about things like
    - not replying to your correspondence or calls
    - losing your documents
    - giving unclear advice
    - not explaining things in ways you understand
    
    They are independent but before accepting a complaint for investigation the Ombudsman will check that you have tried to resolve your complaint with us.
    
    The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within one year of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.
    
    If you would like more information on the Legal Services Ombudsman, please see here: www.legalombudsman.org.uk. You can contact the Ombudsman on telephone 0300 555 0333 between 9.00 – 17.00 or by email to enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk. The address is Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
    

  • ii. The Solicitors Regulation Authority
    The Solicitors Regulatory Authority could help if you are concerned about behaviour of a solicitor. This could be things like dishonesty or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic. You can raise your concerns with the Solicitors Regulation Authority via their website or 0370 6062555.

• 5.5 If your complaint relates to how we have handled your data or information you could complain to the Information Commissioner's Office. They say that you should complain to us first and allow 30 days for a response. Any onward complaint to the Information Commissioner must be made within 3 months of contacting us. Complaints can be submitted on line at the above link. There is also a helpline 0303 123 1113. The postal address is Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

• 5.6 There are approved dispute resolution schemes but we have not agreed to use any of those.

6. Records of your complaint

• 6.1 We will retain a record of your complaint for 6 years after the last contact with you about the complaint.

• 6.2 We will then destroy all records of the complaint securely.

• 6.3 You can read more about how we look after your records and your rights as a data subject in our Privacy Notice.