COMPLAINTS POLICY

How to make a complaint

We take complaints very seriously, as we want every member to have an excellent experience with RAD. We treat complaints as an opportunity to develop.

Complaints should be made via email to: trustees@radassistancedogs.org.uk, detailing the specifics of the complaint including names of anyone involved and any witnesses, any available evidence, dates, and any steps you would like to see us take to resolve the matter.

Complaints about a specific incident should usually be made within 4 weeks of the incident taking place. This offers the best chance of staff members being able to remember the incident, should they need to be interviewed as part of the investigation process. Also, if a complaint relates to any potential ongoing harm, it is important that we are able to respond to this as soon as possible.

How long will it take?

You will receive an acknowledgement of your complaint within the first 5 days of receipt. At that point we will outline the process and seek to give you an indication of how long it will take to fully investigate and conclude the complaints process. The timescale for this may vary, depending on the nature and extent of the matter you are reporting.

As a small organisation all complaints are investigated by our Trustees. We hope you will recognise that they are all volunteers, and as such the investigation process may take place on evenings and weekends around their other commitments.

What will we do?

We will endeavour to fix problems, correct mistakes and address concerns when these are identified. Please feel free when contacting us about a complaint, to let us know how you think it could be resolved. We want to reach the best possible outcome for everyone involved.

We will always treat you with courtesy and respect, listen to what you say, keep you informed about our progress and provide you with a prompt response.

We recognised that it is often a difficult decision to make a complaint, and that complainants often do not wish to be identified if a specific person is the subject of their complaint. It can, however, be difficult to investigate fully without the parties being identifiable. We will talk to you about what we can do, and complainants will be offered relevant options as to how the complaint can be investigated and addressed.

We will usually communicate with you via email in the first instance and will look to set up a video or phone call with you if we consider this necessary to ask specific questions about your complaint.

What we won’t do

We are a charity with limited resources and we must use these in the best way possible. This means that there may be occasions when we chose not to investigate a complaint, or on rare occasions we may not respond to a complaint at all. These include:

• When a complaint is about something that RAD Assistance Dogs has no direct connection to. We may choose to reply to clear our name but we are not obliged to.
• When someone pursues a complaint that we have already responded to. In this event we will inform you of our decision. 
• When a complainant is being obviously abusive, prejudiced, or offensive in their manner.
• When a complainant is harassing a staff member.
• When a complaint is incoherent or illegible.
• When the passage of time between a reported incident and the report being made makes an effective investigation impossible or impractical.
• When a complaint has clearly been sent to us and numerous other organisations as part of a bulk mailing or email. In this instance we can chose whether it is necessary for us to reply or not.
• When a complaint is made anonymously this may limit our ability to investigate fully, but we will seek to use the information to improve in any way that we can.
• Our dog training team sometimes need to impart information which is difficult or disappointing for members, such as concerns about a dog’s confidence or welfare; to advise that they are unlikely to meet RAD’s standards for public access; or give advice about retiring a dog. A member’s disagreement with the training team’s professional opinion will not normally be considered grounds for a complaint.

Who else can help?

If your complaint is to do with fundraising and you feel that it has been unresolved by us then the Fundraising Regulator can investigate your complaint.

You must contact them within two months of receiving your response from us.

Contact can be made via the online complaints form here or via telephone: 0300 999 3407. They can also be contacted at the address below:

Fundraising Regulator
2nd Floor, CAN Mezzanine
49-51 East Road
London, N1 6AH
  www.fundraisingregulator.org.uk

Alternatively if your complaint is related to another area of our work and you do not feel completely satisfied by our response then you can contact The Charity Commission at the address below.

The Charity Commission
PO Box 1227
Liverpool
L69 3UG
0845 3000 218
  www.charity-commission.gov.uk