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Family fund complaints policy and procedures

Family Fund recognises that complaints are important feedback. We are committed to ensuring that our services are of the highest quality. The aim of this policy is to enable us to respond clearly and properly to complaints and appeals and to know when and why people are not satisfied with services, so that we can improve them.

Complaints must be made within two months of the date of the incident. When we receive a complaint or an appeal, our policy is to:

provide a fair complaints procedure that’s clear and easy to use for anyone
publicise our complaints procedures so people know how to contact us to give feedback
make sure everyone within the Family Fund group knows what to do if we receive a complaint
make sure all complaints are investigated fairly and in a timely way
make sure that complaints are resolved, where they can be, and that relationships are repaired
gather information which helps us improve what we do
deal with complaints in confidence. The only exception to this is when others could be put at risk by matters referred to in the complaint or appeal.

Please note that there are slightly different procedures for contacting us and how we address your complaint depending on the nature of the issue you wish to raise.

Family Fund activity complaints procedure

This procedure relates to complaints received regarding the way in which Family Fund Group conducts its activities in providing families with help, support and assistance including but not restricted to the way in which we handle applications. To raise a complaint, you can;

write to:
First Contact Team
Complaints
Family Fund
Unit 4 Alpha Court
Monks Cross Drive
York
YO32 9WN

email: [email protected] or submit a form via our website

How we will deal with your complaint

Stage 1: Our response

We will acknowledge receipt of a complaint or appeal within two working days of receiving it and will give a full reply within 28 working days of receiving a complaint or appeal.

If achieving a full resolution is taking longer, we will communicate the following:

why a full resolution will take longer
what we are doing to achieve a resolution
when we expect the matter to be resolved.

Stage 2: Escalation

If, for any reason, we have not resolved the complaint to your satisfaction, please bring the matter to our attention and explain clearly why you feel that your complaint has not been properly resolved. Let us know what you would consider a resolution to look like.

A senior member of staff will then acknowledge this, undertake a further review, and give a reply within 28 days of the escalation.

Stage 3: Further Escalation

If you are still not satisfied with our response, please bring the matter to our attention and a senior member of staff, at Director level or higher, will fully consider the complaint and carry out further investigation.

We will write to you with the results of the investigation within 28 working days. This is the final stage of the complaint or appeal process.

Appeals procedure

If you disagree with a decision that we have made regarding the outcome of your grant application. You can contact us asking for our decision to be looked at again. To do this you can;

write to:
First Contact Team
Appeals
Family Fund
Unit 4 Alpha Court
Monks Cross Drive
York
YO32 9WN

Email: [email protected] or submit a form via our website.

In all circumstances we will ask you to write to us giving reasons why you disagree with our decision and ask that you provide any additional information that supports your appeal.

Please note if our original decision relates to information, for example income or residency, the request will not be dealt with as an appeal, but as a request for discretionary help.

Grant Provider (Third Party Supplier) complaint

This procedure explains how we handle complaints about any issues with the organisations and companies that you spend your grant with. Complaints may include quality issues, delivery delays, or customer service problems.
It is always better to raise the complaint directly to the supplier organisation. However, you can send the complaint to Family Fund if you;

write to:
First Contact Team
Supplier Complaints
Family Fund
Unit 4 Alpha Court
Monks Cross Drive
York
YO32 9WN

email us: [email protected] or submit a form via our website

If you make the complaint about a supplier to Family Fund, we will acknowledge receipt of the complaint within 3 working days and forward the complaint to the relevant supplier.

Fundraising complaint procedure

If you wish to make a complaint, or express dissatisfaction, about any aspect of our fundraising work, please contact:
Head of Fundraising
Family Fund
Unit 4 Alpha Court
Monks Cross Drive
York
YO32 9WN

Tel: 01904 550033

Email: [email protected] or submit a form via our website.

We will acknowledge receipt of a complaint within two working days. We will fully investigate any complaint and advise the complainant of the outcome of the investigation, within 28 days of our acknowledging receipt of the complaint.

Should you be dissatisfied with the outcome of our investigation, you will be able to refer your complaint to the fundraising regulator. This must be done within two months of Family Fund’s response.

Fundraising regulator contact details:

Fundraising Regulator
Eagle House
167 City Road
London
EC1V 1AW