INSSA is committed to resolving complaints in an appropriate, fair and timely manner.
Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to set out our approach to receiving and dealing with complaints, how you can make a formal complaint, what you can expect from us when you do so and how you can escalate a complaint if you are unhappy with the outcome.
Our Approach:
Whilst the association is run in-kind by a team of volunteers, we are committed to operating in an open and transparent manner and with integrity. We recognise there may be times where we fall short of this, or the behaviour of our Committee, or those acting on our behalf are not to the standard that you expect. If you do have a complaint, please let us know so that we can try and help.
- Not all complaints require a formal approach or disciplinary action.
- We take all complaints seriously and once you have notified us of your concern, we shall acknowledge receipt within 5 days.
- This policy reflects our commitment to ensuring that we have effective and transparent procedures in place for fair and efficient handling of complaints.
- Submitting a complaint will not affect your membership of INSSA in the future or the level of service you receive from us.
- We will keep all complaints confidential, subject to the need to disclose information necessary as part of any investigation, as required by statutory authorities and/or as a result of legal or regulatory obligations placed on us.
- If you make a complaint, we will treat you with respect and we expect you to treat our members in the same way.
Feedback
If you wish to provide feedback, positive, constructive or negative, please fee free to do so. We would recommend all feedback is submitted via email to ensure we have a written record should any response or actions be required.
How to Make a Formal Complaint
If you would like to make a formal complaint, you must do this within 10-days of the alleged incident/activity taking place.
We will only accept and acknowledge a formal complaint where you provide your full name and contact details and submit all information to INSSA Chair and copy in the Secretary;
- chair@independentnssa.org
- secretary@independentnssa.org
What to cover in your email
To ensure we can investigate your complaint efficiently, please set out the facts in as much detail and as clearly as possible. Please include:
- Who you are and your contact details.
- What happened.
- When it happened.
- Who you dealt with, or who it involved.
- Why you consider this to be a formal complaint.
- What you would like us to do to address your complaint.
Complaints can be emotive and subject to personal feelings or beliefs. To ensure your complaint is dealt with appropriately we would encourage you to write down your thoughts first, then review this again the next day before submission.
We will not accept any complaint that is in breach of our code of conduct, equality charter or uses foul, abusive or defamatory language.
What is a Formal Complaint?
A formal complaint can range from an expression of dissatisfaction to an allegation concerning INSSA or an individual member.
If you have a concern or issue that you may not consider or are unsure amounts to a formal complaint, as defined above, we still want to hear from you. Please discuss the matter informally with any member of our Committee as soon as possible, so that this can be addressed at an early stage, or alternatively, you can share your views with us via email to (chair@independentnssa.org).
In addition to reporting any complaints to INSSA:
if your complaint relates to actual or suspected criminal activity or raises a serious safeguarding concern which poses a threat to a person’s life or well being, please report this to the police.
What We Will Do
All complaints will be treated without prejudice and investigated to an outcome.
- We aim to acknowledge receipt of a formal complaint within 5-days.
- Where a complaint requires further investigation / evidence, we will advise you accordingly and set out who will deal with it (a Complaint Lead).
- The Complaint Lead will investigate your complaint as impartially as possible. They may need to speak to you to assess your complaint. They will consider the subject matter of the complaint, whether they consider the complaint should be upheld and, if so, what remedial action or redress INSSA may consider appropriate.
- The Complaint Lead will usually advise you of their findings and INSSA’s conclusion within 30-days of our acknowledgement to you.
- If we are unable to give a definitive response within that time frame, for example because it is contested or more complex, we will notify you.
- If you are not happy with our response, you have the right to appeal and escalate your complaint to the INSSA Chair, who will carry out a review and let you know the outcome within 30 days. The decision taken at this stage is final.
Discipline and Sanctions
INSSA is fully operated by volunteers. Any member who is found to have breached our code of conduct shall face, but is not limited to, the following sanction.
- Warning as to future conduct
- Membership suspended
- Membership revoked
All matters of financial irregularity shall be considered by the Committee and passed on to the appropriate authorities without further consideration as required.
All matters of safeguarding, discrimination and threats of violence shall be considered by the Committee and passed on to the appropriate authorities with further consideration as required.