The Patients Association Complaints Policy Policy statement The Patients Association strives to ensure all its services are delivered to a consistently high standard. However, no matter how diligent and skilful our staff and volunteers are, circumstances may arise where patients’ or stakeholders' expectations have not been met. We believe being able to resolve concerns or complaints as quickly and professionally as possible is in everybody’s best interests. Complainants should be able to express their views with the knowledge that they will be taken seriously, treated equitably and in a speedy and effective way. Values and quality Our core values provide the framework in which we work. These are: Diversity: we value diversity by encouraging a trusting, open and inclusive environment for staff, volunteers, patients, and stakeholders. Dignity and respect: we treat every person with kindness, respect and dignity. Inclusive: we welcome people’s differences and believe it is important people are comfortable to be themselves while they are working/engaging with us. Partnership: we work in partnership to make things better for patients so everyone can get and benefit from the health and care they need. These core values serve to guide our decision-making and the strategic direction of the Patients Association and fundamentally underpin everything we do. The complaints procedure is responsive and flexible. All complaints will be dealt with as soon as possible with a full record taken and passed to the Chief Executive for information and review. Complaints will normally only be investigated if received within six months of the incident. We provide an accessible system that enables anyone to raise concerns. This may involve using different communication methods such as the services of an interpreter or making reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 where appropriate. An important principle of our complaints policy is that we discourage complaints being made anonymously, because anonymity makes it difficult to investigate a complaint properly and almost impossible to respond to the complainant. An internal review of the anonymous complaint, however, will be undertaken. The Patients Association will ensure that the outcomes of our investigations of all complaints will be reviewed and used to improve the services offered. Where we find that we are at fault or could have done things better, action will be taken to rectify the cause of the complaint, and we will tell the complainant what we will do to improve our work and engagement. This policy sets out the way in which complaints are managed. It emphasises the importance of immediate resolution and the need for all staff to be responsive to concerns expressed by members of the public. We reserve the right to restrict contact or decline to investigate complaints we reasonably consider to be vexatious, unreasonably persistent or made in bad faith. We will explain our reasons for doing so in writing. Accountability The Chief Executive holds overall responsibility for the management of complaints. Reports of all complaints are reported to the Board of Trustees on quarterly basis. Staff and volunteers are responsible for implementing this policy and for raising any issues that may affect its implementation to the Chief Executive. Reasonable adjustments We are committed to making reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 to enable people with disabilities to access our complaints process. If you require reasonable adjustments, please let us know what specific changes would help you to engage with the complaints process. We will consider all requests and discuss with you what adjustments we can reasonably make. Verbal complaints All verbal complaints, whenever possible will be dealt with as soon as possible. If the complainant is talking directly with a member of staff (in person or over the telephone), the member of staff must refer the individual to a more senior member of staff. This staff member will then take notes of the concerns raised, including the date, time, any other person(s) involved, as well as a summary of the complaint itself. If the matter cannot be resolved during the initial call with the complainant, then we will ask the complainant to put their concerns in writing. Written complaints On receipt of a written complaint, a senior staff member will, in the first instance, contact the complainant to see if the complaint can be resolved. If it cannot be resolved the senior staff member will refer the complaint to the Chief Executive who will decide who should be appointed to lead an investigation. The person investigating the complaint will acknowledge in writing, within three working days of receipt, and send the complainant our complaints policy. If the investigation has not been completed within 20 working days, the investigator will write to the complainant explaining the reason for the delay. A full response will be made within five working days of the investigation being completed. Complainant’s right to respond The complainant has the right to respond after a full explanation has been offered. If the complainant is not satisfied with the outcome of the complaint, then they have the right to request within 15 working days a further investigation, which will be carried out by the next most senior level (this may include a member of the Board of Trustees). Once this further investigation is completed, the complaints process is concluded. Any new concerns would need to be raised as a separate complaint. If the complaint is about fundraising and the complainant is not happy with our investigation, then we will suggest that the complainant register a complaint with the Fundraising Regulator at www.fundraisingregulator.org.uk/make-a-complaint/complaints-procedure Should the complaint be about how the Patients Association is run and the complainant is not satisfied at the end of our complaints process, they can gain advice and support from the Charity Commission: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/charity-commission Communication and training All staff and volunteers will be made aware of the complaints policy and their responsibility under it. The policy will form part of new members of staff and volunteers’ induction. This will include: What is a complaint, particularly informal complaints How to receive a complaint How to deal with someone making a complaint Manage Cookie Preferences