If you wish to make a complaint about a service or any aspect of Socitm you are not happy about, or conversley wish to register a comment or pass on praise about the society, services or officers, this policy sets out the procedure and what you can expect to happen to resolve the issue to your satisfaction.
When making a complaint
Please take the time to try and give us as much detail as possible, for example:
- What service, policy, person or aspect of the Society you are complaining about.
- Any expectations you may have had of the Society’s services or activities, as a result of information we provided or what staff may have said.
- Your name and contact details so that we can respond to your complaint.
- Anything else which you think would help to make your point and help us to investigate your concerns.
- a decision we have made
- any aspect of our work
- a member of our staff providing incorrect information or treating you unprofessionally.
If you are concerned about a policy issue, including its impact on you, we will reply to you providing information and an explanation. Where appropriate we will provide you with local contact details and sources of further information.
How we deal with complaints
In the first instance, where appropriate, your complaint will be handled by the service or activity area concerned, otherwise the support services manager will deal with the complaint as required. We will always try to resolve your complaint informally, satisfactorily and as quickly as possible as soon as we receive it. But if the matter cannot be resolved immediately, we will respond to you to acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 5 working days of it being lodged, and then provide a fuller response. We will send you a written response to your complaint within 15 working days of it being lodged. This could be our final response to your complaint or a progress report of how we are investigating your concerns. Where we have provided you with a progress report, we will continue to provide you with further progress reports, until your complaint has been dealt with. If we have not acknowledged your complaint within 5 days of receiving it or have not provided you with a full written response within 15 days, then we will write to explain the reasons why and to give you a date by which time we expect to be able to give you a full or final response.
When we have provided you with a full response we will ask you whether you are satisfied with the way in which your complaint has been handled. If you are not satisfied, a Senior Officer from the Society who will contact you and explain how your complaint will be handled at this second stage will formally investigate your complaint. We will send you a full written response within 20 working days. Any extension to this period will be with your agreement and we will continue to provide you with further progress reports until your complaint has been dealt with. 2
When we have provided you with a full response at this second stage, we will once again ask whether you are satisfied with the way in which you complaint has been handled. If you are not satisfied, your complaint will be referred to our Managing Director of Corporate Services who has overall responsibility for administering the Council's complaints procedure and for arranging further investigations where necessary. The timescale for investigation and response at this third stage is 25 working days. We want to help you resolve your complaint as quickly as possible. We aim to answer your enquiry fully. If we fail to do this please let us know and we will try and add to our original reply.
Anonymous Complaints
Anonymous complaints will be thoroughly investigated where it is possible and appropriate to do so.
Quarterly Report of Complaints
Each quarter we will present a report on complaints handling to the Membership Benefits Division Board outlining details of:
- The number and types of complaint.
- The average time taken to respond.
- The number of satisfied complainants.
We will also indicate what changes we have made to particular policies, procedures or practices in response to complaints.
How you can contact the Society to make a complaint.
By online form (preferred)
An online form is available for complaints, comments and plaudits at via the Soitm link below.
By email
feedback@socitm.gov.uk We will respond to web forms and emails within 5 working days of receipt. If you have a complaint but are unable to access the web or email, we will make a written note of your complaint and provide a response in the format you prefer.
By telephone
Please contact Socitm Office on: 01604 497774 (lines open from 10.00am to 3.00pm Monday to Friday, excluding Bank Holidays). We will try, whenever possible, to resolve telephone complaints immediately.