BIRMINGHAM CHILDREN S HOSPITAL CHARITIES COMPLAINTS POLICY Version 2.02 Date of Policy November 2013 Next Review Date March 2016
COMPLAINTS POLICY 1. INTRODUCTION Birmingham Children s Hospital (BCH) Charities aims to maintain a high standard of service to all of its stakeholders. The objective of this policy is to outline the procedure people should use if they want to make a complaint about the service they receive from us. We accept that occasionally people may be dissatisfied or concerned about the service they receive, but we hope that problems can be reconciled between the parties concerned. If not, then we will deal with any complaint promptly, thoroughly, impartially and sympathetically. All complaints will be dealt with in strict confidence. The policy also aims to offer redress to substantiated complaints and to enable us to revise and review our practices and correct any shortcomings that are within our control in response to concerns. 2. DEFINITION OF COMPLAINT A complaint is a report, either written or verbal, from a staff member of Birmingham Children s Hospital, a Fund Advisor or a member of the general public. A complaint may only relate to the work of BCH Charities and for a particular service we have responsibility for, where it has not been delivered or where the service has failed to meet your expectations. For example: Failing to respond to your enquiries; Failure to achieve standards or quality of service; Failure to fulfil statutory or contractual responsibilities; and Unhelpful or discourteous staff directly employed by BCH Charities The complaint should be registered within one month of the event leading to the complaint or becoming aware of a cause for complaint. However, each case needs to be judged individually, and for those that fall outside of the time limits, the Chairman of Trustees will decide whether the Complaints Procedure should commence. Specifically excluded from this policy are complaints relating to Birmingham Children s Hospital employees or fundraising activities and events which are organised / managed by BCH employees. These are not BCH Charities activities and should therefore be raised directly with Birmingham Children s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (BCH NHS FT). Governing Docs / Policies / Complaints Policy (V2.02) Page 2
3. CONFIDENTIALITY & ANONYMITY You are entitled to remain anonymous if you prefer; however, we do suggest that you give us your name so that we can fully investigate the complaint. (We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 48 hours and aim to provide you with a verbal response within seven working days.) Be assured that if you do provide your personal details, these will be kept fully confidential, in accordance with the Data Protection Act, and only be shown to the relevant people involved in assessing the complaint. 4. ADVOCATES / REPRESENTATIVES If you prefer to make a complaint through an advocate or representative, we are happy for them to do so, if they know full details relating to the case. If someone else writes the complaint on your behalf you will normally be asked to sign their report to confirm that the contents are accurate and true. 5. INFORMAL COMPLAINTS If an informal complaint is made (i.e. verbally, bringing a matter to our attention but not wanting to make a formal complaint), we will respond verbally within seven working days, either in a face-to-face meeting or telephone conversation. This will be recorded for our records, but we will not give you a written response (unless you specifically ask for one). All formal complaints will receive a full, written response. In either case, your complaint will be taken seriously and dealt with swiftly. 6. WHO SHOULD YOU COMPLAIN TO? Both formal and informal complaints should be made to the Charity Chief Executive in the first instance, unless that person is the subject of the complaint, in which case you should ask to speak to the Chairman of the Trustees. In either case, the representative of BCH Charities will talk to you about your complaint and, and once investigated, will provide you with a verbal response within seven working days. 7. OUR RESPONSE We will provide a written response to the complainant. This will include facts that we have been able to establish through our investigation, whilst also identifying any conflicts of interest. During the investigation we will talk to all parties and witnesses to the incident. We will subsequently outline whether we believe the complaint to be justified and any proposals to address upheld Governing Docs / Policies / Complaints Policy (V2.02) Page 3
concerns. concerned. This should resolve the issue satisfactorily for all parties 8. IF YOU ARE UNHAPPY WITH OUR RESPONSE If you are dissatisfied with the response you receive or the way your complaint has been handled, you can request that it be raised with Trustees. The Trustees will then rule on the complaint at a meeting of the Board of Trustees and the complainant will receive a full written response from the Board of Trustees within seven days of that meeting. 9 HOW COMPLAINTS WILL BE RECORDED Complaints will be logged in the BCH Charities Complaints File. The log will be reviewed annually by the Board of Trustees to assess the nature and extent of complaints made in the previous twelve months (if any), how they were resolved, and to act accordingly to prevent similar incidents occurring in the future. 10. USING COMPLAINTS CONSTRUCTIVELY BCH Charities will endeavour to accept any complaint in good faith. However, complaints made on the basis of discrimination or malicious or vexatious complaints will not be tolerated. In order to protect its employees, BCH Charities will investigate such complaints in a manner so as to expose such malicious intent. This will not apply to genuine complainants. 11. NOT SATISFIED WITH BCH CHARITIES RESPONSE? If you are still not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Charity Commission, our regulatory body, for further advice. Governing Docs / Policies / Complaints Policy (V2.02) Page 4
12. CONTACT DETAILS Birmingham Children s Hospital Charities Chief Executive BCH Charities 102 Colmore Row Birmingham B3 3AG Telephone: 0300 323 1100 Email: BCH.Charities@bch.nhs.uk Birmingham Children s Hospital Charities Trustee Chairman Contact details available on request via 0300 323 1100 Birmingham Children s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Steelhouse Lane Birmingham B4 6NH Telephone: 0121 333 9999 Charity Commission Telephone: 0845 300 0218 WEB: www.charity-commission.gov.uk Further information can also be obtained from www.gov.uk/complain-about-charity Governing Docs / Policies / Complaints Policy (V2.02) Page 5