Kingston Voluntary Action (KVA) aims to provide its members, organisations and individuals with the best possible service. We positively welcome suggestions you may have for how we can improve our service.
Usually, a word with the person at the point of service delivery will suffice should a problem arise.
However, we recognise that from time to time there may be occasions when users of our services feel that the quality or level of service provided falls short of what they could reasonably expect.
We also want to know about these occasions so that we can make good the problem and plan to avoid its repetition.
If you have a complaint, we would like you to tell us about it.
What you should do, and what you can expect
If you have a complaint to make, it should be made to the Chief Executive Officer* who will try to resolve the issue informally.
If the issue is serious, or you are not satisfied after raising it with the Chief Executive Officer, you can make a formal complaint.
Your complaint should be made in writing, marked ‘Private & Confidential’, and sent to the Chief Executive Officer who will acknowledge it in writing, normally within 7 days of receipt. Please remember to keep a copy of your letter. If you need an interpreter or advocate to help you make your complaint, KVA can arrange this for you. Our address can be found here.
The Chief Executive Officer will make sure that KVA understands your complaint and will send you a signed summary of it for you to countersign and return.
The Chief Executive Officer will investigate the complaint, in consultation with the Chair of the Trustee Board.
The Chief Executive Officer will communicate the results of the investigation to you within a reasonable time - normally 21 working days.
If you are dissatisfied with the results of the inquiry, you have the right to put your case in writing, or personally, to a panel comprising at least three members from the KVA Trustee Board.
If attending personally, you have the right to be accompanied by a friend or advocate to help put your case. (The panel also has the right to have an advisor present).
The decision of the panel will be final.
Where appropriate, KVA will make a written apology to you, as the complainant, and agree any further action necessary to make good the cause of the complaint.
All formal complaints and the response made to them will be recorded and filed in a secure place.
The Trustee Board will be informed by the Chief Executive Officer at the first available meeting of the number and nature of any formal complaints and their outcome, and consideration will be given to the implications these have for the planning and management of future services annually, as part of KVA’s self-evaluation.
* If a complaint relates to the Chief Executive, read 'KVA Chair of Trustees' for 'Chief Executive Officer' throughout this policy.
KVA’s complaints procedure will be publicised to organisations and individuals who use its services.
The Company’s policies have no contractual effect. They are for guidance purposes only and may be amended at the Company’s discretion from time to time.
September 2022