Standard 12

Deal with complaints quickly and openly

We will deal quickly and openly with complaints about our decisions and services.

12.1. Complaints about the standard of our service will be answered as fast as we can.

12.2. When people complain to us we try to fix the problem immediately.

If we cannot fix the problem immediately we will record the complaint.

The complaint will then be looked at using a system.

Complaints will be sorted out locally when we can.

12.3. When we get a complaint we will record that we have got it.

We will tell the person who sent the complaint that we have got it.

We will do this as fast as we can.

We will answer your complaint as fast as we can.

We must answer your complaint within a time limit.

12.4. We will not answer complaints about things that happened more than 1 year ago.

If there is a good reason why it took more than 1 year to complain we will look at the complaint.

12.5. We will be truthful when we answer complaints.

We will not use hard legal words. We will explain our answer in full.

When we have made a mistake we will tell you and we will say sorry.

We will tell you what we will do to make sure the mistake doesn't happen again.

12.6. Sometimes a complaint involves other groups like the police or the courts.

If this happens we will talk to the group involved. We will try to agree an answer with them.
We may ask them to talk to you about the complaint.