Our Commitment to You
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At Futures In Mind CLG, we aim to provide a caring, respectful, and professional service. Your feedback matters to us — especially if you feel something has gone wrong. If you’re unhappy with any part of our work — whether it involves our staff, volunteers, service providers, or the support you’ve received — we want to hear from you.
This Complaints Policy explains how you can make a complaint, what you can expect from us, and how we will do our very best to resolve your concerns quickly and fairly. Your voice helps us improve. Thank you for taking the time to share your experience.
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Scope
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We regard a complaint as an expression of dissatisfaction about our organisation, our volunteers, our partners, our contracted service providers or anyone else acting on our behalf. A complaint can be received verbally, by phone, by email, or in writing.
This policy is intended to:
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Provide a fair complaints procedure which is clear and easy to use for anyone wishing to make a complaint.
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Make public the existence of our complaints procedure so that people know how to contact us to make a complaint.
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Ensure everyone at Futures In Mind knows what to do if a complaint is received.
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Ensure all complaints are investigated fairly and in a timely manner.
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Ensure that complaints are, wherever possible, resolved and that relationships are repaired.
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Gather information that helps us to improve what we do.
All complaint information will be handled sensitively, telling only those who need to know and following any relevant data protection requirements.
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Procedure
The person who receives a verbal, written, phone, or in-person complaint shall:
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Write down the facts of the complaint on our Complaints Form.
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Take the complainant's name, address, and telephone number.
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Note down the relationship of the complainant to Futures In Mind.
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Inform the complainant that we have a complaints procedure.
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Explain what will happen next and how long it will take.
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Where appropriate, ask the complainant to send a written account by post or by email so that the complaint is recorded in the complainant’s own words.
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Resolving Complaints – Stage One
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The complaint will be formally acknowledged within 48 hours.
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An acknowledgement will confirm who is dealing with the complaint and when the complainant can expect a reply.
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A copy of this complaints procedure will be attached.
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In many cases, a complaint is best resolved by the person responsible for the issue. If the complaint has been received by that person, they should try to resolve it if possible and appropriate.
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If not already resolved, the designated person , will investigate and take appropriate action within 5 working days.
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We may ask the member of volunteer who dealt with the complainant to reply to the complaint. The volunteer may be asked to meet the complainant to discuss and hopefully resolve the complaint. This will be done within 5 days of the end of our investigation.
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Within 2 days of that meeting, we will write to the complainant to confirm what took place and any solutions agreed upon.
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If a meeting is not wanted or not possible, we will send a detailed reply to the complaint, including suggestions for resolving the matter, within 5 working days of completing our investigation.
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Escalation Process - Stage Two
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If the complainant feels that the problem has not been satisfactorily resolved at Stage One, they can request that the complaint is reviewed at Board level.
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At this stage, the complaint will be passed to the Chairman of the Board. The request for a Board-level review will be acknowledged within 48 hours of receiving it. The acknowledgement will confirm who will deal with the case and when the complainant can expect a reply.
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The Chairman of the Board may investigate the facts of the case themselves or delegate a suitably senior person to do so. This may involve reviewing the case and speaking with the person who dealt with the complaint at Stage One.
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If the complaint relates to a specific person, they will be informed and given a further opportunity to respond.
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Stage 2 complaints will receive a definitive reply within 10 working days. If this is not possible, for example, an investigation has not been fully completed, a progress report will be sent with an indication of when a full reply will be given.
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The decision taken at this stage is final.​
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Confidentiality and Data Protection
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Futures In Mind CLG will treat all complaints in confidence, sharing information only with those who need to know to resolve the complaint. Personal data will be processed and retained in accordance with GDPR and our Privacy Policy. Records will be kept for seven years before being securely deleted.
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Continuous Improvement
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We monitor and review the effectiveness of our complaints handling process to ensure that it continuously improves and learnings from complaints handling are carried through into the organisation.
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This policy does not cover complaints from volunteers who should review the Grievance Policy in their volunteer handbook.
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Overall responsibility for this policy and its implementation lies with the CEO.
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Complaints are logged and reviewed annually to identify any trends which may indicate a need to take further action.
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You can download our complaints form here.
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