Purpose
Hull Training and Adult Education is committed to providing a high quality experience for all its customers. It encourages a positive environment in which informal contact and feedback from learners and other customers is welcomed and where complaints can be dealt with effectively.
Aims of the Policy
- To celebrate compliments and recognise comments to continually improve our services
- To provide a clear framework to help anyone who is not satisfied with Hull Training and Adult Education services to raise their concerns and to ensure that Hull Training and Adult Education responds effectively
- To ensure that Hull Training and Adult Education has systems in place to make improvements happen as a result of a complaint or a concern
- To encourage prompt resolution at an early informal stage
- To ensure that all complaints and concerns are dealt with seriously, fairly and sensitively, with no resultant victimisation of a complainant
- To raise awareness of the policy and procedures and ensure that staff understand the processes through appropriate training
- To define responsibilities and allocate duties to individual members of Hull Training and Adult Education staff in relation to the procedures set out in the Customer Feedback Procedure
Scope
This document should be used by anyone who wishes to formally complain about our services, including learners, employers, schools, partners, parents/guardians of learners under 18, local residents and other users. It is also used to record and deal with informal feedback including compliments, concerns and comments.
Parents/guardians, or other third parties with a close connection to the learner, wishing to complain on the behalf of the learner (including those under 18 years of age) must produce written agreement from the learner that they can act on their behalf.
Please note, this policy is for learners not staff. Staff wishing to make any complaints should do so under Hull City Council policies.
The policy should be read in conjunction with other service policies and procedures including the -
- Customer feedback procedure
- Appeals Policy
- Exam Policy
- IQA policy
- Malpractice Policy
- Plagiarism Policy
- Learner Conduct Policy
Definitions
For the purpose of this policy the following definitions have been used -
Compliment
A compliment is a communication containing positive feedback or praise about our services.
Comment
A comment is an opinion or expression of a point of view about our services or policy, and may include a suggestion as to how we can improve things.
Concerns
A concern is when a customer wishes to tell us to look at something to help avoid a problem happening.
Complaint
A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction with our quality of service - whether that service is provided directly by us, a sub-contractor or partner - that calls for a response. Complaints about why we do things, rather than what we do will be treated as a Comment, not a Complaint.
Roles and responsibilities
All staff have a responsibility for recording and acknowledging customer feedback. All complaints will be dealt with by a curriculum manager. At Stage 2 a more senior member of staff will be allocated to deal with the matter. If resolution is still not satisfactory for the person raising the feedback then there is recourse at Stage 3 to the Hull City Council Customer Feedback Team.
Please note, certain complaints if not resolved can also be investigated by the ESFA. These include complaints about -
- the quality or management of education and training
- undue delay, or non-compliance with published procedures
- poor administration by the provider
- equality and diversity issues (except where there is a more appropriate mechanism for dealing with the matter through the court, tribunals or other organisations)
In the above case please forward advise the learner to forward the complaint to the -
Complaints Team
Education and Skills Funding Agency
Cheylesmore House
Quinton Road
Coventry
CV1 2WT
or email complaints.esfa@education.gov.uk
Confidentiality
All complaints will be handled sensitively and with discretion. If a learner makes a complaint against a member of staff, that member of staff may be informed about the substance of the complaint so that they are in a position to make a response. If, in exceptional circumstances and for justifiable reasons, a complainant wishes to remain anonymous from the individual about whom the complaint is made, this may be considered, for example in cases of harassment.
Hull Training and Adult Education will not normally investigate anonymous or malicious complaints.
Review
This policy will be reviewed July 2022.