1. POLICY STATEMENT

The Society of St James (SSJ) seeks to continually improve its performance and service delivery in order to achieve positive outcomes for service users and staff.

Feedback received through our Complaints and Compliments policy will be used to improve our service delivery and responsiveness.

Service user consultation has repeatedly highlighted the need for SSJ to provide an environment in which service users feel able to make complaints and receive the appropriate response without the fear that their complaint will be taken out of their hands and will lead to unforeseen and uncontrollable outcomes including reprisals against the complainant.

The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014:

Regulation 16 is intended to ensure that people can make a complaint about the service they receive and subsequently receive a proper and detailed response, and be reassured that any necessary action will be taken where failures have been identified.

The Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard states that Registered Providers shall have an approach to complaints that is clear, simple and accessible that ensure that complaints are resolved promptly, politely and fairly. Customers of Jamie’s Computers, The Café in the Park or any other Social Enterprises will be dealt with under a different process.

In order to meet these intentions we will do the following:

• Ensure that the Complaints Policy and procedure are properly publicised in services.

• Provide easy to use forms and ensuring they are accessible.
• Ensure a fast response to complaints with set time limits for action.
• Keep people informed throughout the process.
• Ensure a full and fair investigation is undertaken.
• Respect people’s desire for confidentiality.
• Address all aspects of the complaint and providing appropriate redress.
• Provide information to management so that services can be improved.

SSJ does take complaints seriously and we will always endeavour to achieve a satisfactory outcome however we reserve the right not to respond to complaints that we believe are inappropriate, vexatious or unreasonable.

Following feedback from service users we will also adapt the process to enable people to compliment good practice and service when they wish to.

2. DEFINITIONS

For the purposes of this policy the following definitions are used:

• Complaint - an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action by the organisation, its own staff, or those acting on its behalf, affecting an individual service user, group of service users or member(s) of the public.

• Complainant – the person making the complaint
• Investigator – the person investigating the complaint
• Informal complaint – just letting staff know there may be a problem but you don’t need to be told what has happened or require an outcome. Staff still should follow this up and there may need to be a formal response.

• Formal complaint – a full response is required and the complainant will need a written outcome. A formal complaint will be logged on the register and the complainant will be issued a Complaint Record number.

3. RESPONSIBILITIES

3.1 The Board is responsible for ensuring the policy is fit for purpose and to receive and review the annual complaints report.

3.2 The Senior Management Team is responsible for writing the annual complaints report and for ensuring that prompt progress is made when they have been informed that the Investigator has not met the timetable for responding, which may include taking over the investigation.

3.3.1 Managers are responsible for carrying out prompt investigations within the timetable when they have been nominated as the Investigator.

3.3.2 Managers are also responsible for ensuring that all staff are aware of this policy and the requirement to lodge a formal complaint.

3.4 All Staff are responsible for checking whether any complaint or perceived complaint needs to be logged as a formal complaint and, if so, logging the complaint with

Admin with all the relevant details.

3.5 Admin are responsible for logging of complaints, the initial correspondence informing the complainant that their complaint has been logged, informing the complainant who the investigator will be and providing them with detail of the complaints Policy and Procedure.

4. RESPONDING TO COMPLAINTS

4.1 Once we accept a complaint a Complaints Record must be started for each complaint received. The member of staff receiving the complaint must contact the Admin Team at Head Office who will allocate the number and acknowledge the complaint in writing within five working days of the complaint being received, regardless of whether it is made verbally or in writing.

4.2 All complaints will be investigated initially by a manager for the service that the complaint relates to. The way in which a complaint is investigated will be determined by the severity of the allegation and who is implicated in the complaint.

4.3 If the complaint relates to service delivery or is a housing management issue then the Manager of the service may delegate the task of resolving the issue to a Project Worker.

4.4 If the complaint relates to a specific member of staff it must be investigated by a more senior member of staff. If any allegation against a member of staff includes any safeguarding concerns it must also be reported to the Safeguarding Officer who will advise on any specific action that needs to be taken.

4.5 If the complaint is from a service user about the behaviour of another service user, the Manager has discretion to decide the best way to respond but is advised to seek guidance from their Line Manager before taking any action.

4.6 If the complaint is from an SSJ service user about a service problem or housing management problem that is the responsibility of another organisation, the service user must be supported to make their complaint to the proper authority.

4.7 If the complaint is about a member of staff who works for a different organisation the service user must be supported to make their complaint to the proper authority.

4.8 If the complaint is made by a member of the public, a neighbour or anyone who does not have a formal relationship with SSJ, the complainant should be offered the formal procedure in the first instance. The complainant may choose not to have a formal investigation; the complaint may then be dealt with informally.

4.9 If a complaint is received by a member of staff outside of normal working hours it is likely to relate to a current issue, such as a noise problem in one of our properties. In these cases staff should contact the Operational Security Team (OST) and ask if they can investigate and report back to them their findings. The member of staff who received the complaint is responsible for getting back to the complainant and updating them on how their complaint is being dealt with. If the out of hours complaint is about anything else, the staff member receiving the complaint must inform the complainant that a representative from SSJ will contact them as soon as possible on the next working day.

4.10 Once the complaint investigation is completed, the investigator will write to the complainant clearly stating in clear, plain language:

• the complaint stage
• the complaint definition
• the decision on the complaint
• the reasons for any decisions made
• the details of any remedy offered to put things right
• details of any outstanding actions
• details of how to escalate the matter to stage two if the resident is not satisfied with the answer

4.11 If SSJ cannot uphold the complaint because it does not relate to their service provision, we will, with the complainant’s permission, pass the complaint onto the appropriate person and continue to support the complainant.

5. MONITORING COMPLAINTS

5.1 The timeframe for responding to the complainant at each stage of the procedure is two weeks however there may be occasions when this is not possible. If the Investigator is not able to reply within the timeframe they must keep the complainant informed as to why there is a delay, any progress to date and an expected completion date.

5.2 The Admin Team is responsible for monitoring the process from start to finish and for sending reminders to the Investigator if deadlines have not been met, copying in a member of the SMT when appropriate.

5.3 Once the Investigator has completed the investigation the outcome must be communicated to the complainant in writing, a copy of which must also be sent to the Admin Team. The Investigator must also complete and return the “internal complaint monitoring form” to admin.

5.4 If there is no further contact from the complainant within two weeks of the final letter from the Investigator being sent, the complaint will be deemed as closed. At this point the Admin Team will send out the Complaints Feedback Form.

6. SUPPORT FOR STAFF

Dealing with complaints can be stressful and difficult and it can sometimes be hard to maintain an objective point of view and avoid taking things personally. Staff who are tasked with responding to and investigating complaints need to remain aware of their own support needs and those of any member of staff who may be subject to investigation as a result of a complaint.

6.1 Line Managers are required to ensure that any member of staff who has been delegated with the responsibility to respond to or investigate a complaint is afforded appropriate levels of support.

6.2 Any member of staff who is subject to investigation as a result of a complaint is entitled to request support from a named Manager or from someone within their normal network of support, such as a workplace colleague, if appropriate, or their Union representative (see Staff Representation Policy for further guidance). SSJ also provides a free, confidential Employee Assistance Programme, available to all staff.

7. SUPPORT FOR SERVICE USERS WHO COMPLAIN

Service users may be reluctant to make a complaint for fear of the following:

• That they may experience repercussions from staff or other service users
• That they won’t be taken seriously
• That they will have to complete lots of paperwork
• That they may be starting something that could lead to an outcome that is worse than the current situation. In order to reassure service users SSJ is committed to ensuring that the Complaints Procedure is properly publicised and that all staff are aware that they have a responsibility to support service users to make complaints when they wish to do so.

7.1 Investigators must make sure that the service user understands the Complaints Procedure and has a copy of the leaflet ‘Helping You to Make a Complaint’.

7.2 Investigators must ensure that service users know that they can, at any time during the process, withdraw their complaint or ask for the investigation to proceed in a certain way.

7.3 In some cases it will not be possible to stop an investigation, even if the service user requests this, for example if other people may be placed at significant risk if the investigation stops. Investigators should ensure that service users understand this.

7.4 Staff should provide additional support to service users to help them find an appropriate, independent advocate to act on their behalf. This may be another service user or a professional from another organisation (staff can access information about local advocacy services as part of their role). It may be that the service user requests support from another member of staff, in which case the member of staff must seek advice from their Line Manager or the HR Department before agreeing to act in this capacity, as there may be potential for conflict within a staff team.

8. RESPONDING TO COMPLIMENTS

Everybody likes to receive a compliment and that includes SSJ. We will feed compliments about staff and teams into our internal reward and recognition program and use them as examples of positive service delivery.

8.1 Compliments will be recorded by the admin team and forwarded to the appropriate manager.

8.2 The manager who is in receipt of the compliment will reply to the originator within two weeks.

9. ANNUAL COMPLAINTS AND COMPLIMENTS REVIEW

SSJ will carry out an annual review of all complaints and compliments received. The purpose of the review is to help improve the quality of service delivery by learning from both mistakes and best practice and sharing this across the organisation.

The review will cover:

• The number and nature of complaints received
• The diversity of complainants
• Whether timeframes for responding have been met
• Whether complainants were satisfied with the outcome
• At which stage of the process the complaint was resolved
• How many Complaint Feedback Forms were returned

The results of the review will be formally reviewed by the Operations Committee and the Service User and Residents’ Association.