1. INTRODUCTION

The Society of St James (SSJ) seeks to provide high quality services at all times, but we recognise that there may be occasions when something goes wrong or does meet the required standard. When this happens we respect your right to make a complaint.

Our staff are here to assist you in any way they can and you may contact staff at any of our services to lodge your complaint or you can contact us directly at our head office:

125 Albert Road South, Southampton, SO14 3FR

T: 023 8063 4596

The office is open Monday – Thursday from 9am-5pm and on Friday from 9am- 4.30pm. If you telephone outside of these hours you can leave a message on our answering machine and a member of our staff will contact you as soon as possible on the next working day.

2. WHEN TO USE THIS PROCEDURE

You should use this procedure if you are a service user of any SSJ service, live in a property neighbouring one of ours or work for another organisation and have been unable to resolve the problem you are experiencing through normal channels.

3. TIME FRAMES

We aim to complete each stage of this procedure within two weeks, but it is important that you understand that this may not always be possible, particularly if your complaint is more complex. We will keep you informed throughout the process but if at any time, you fell that your complaint is not being responded to quickly enough you should contact our Admin Team at head office who will put you in contact with the Investigator.

If you are not happy with the response you receive to your complaint you have two weeks to request that it proceeds to the next stage, however we may accept requests after the two-week period if there are extenuating circumstances.

STAGE ONE

1. If you have a usual contact at SSJ, such as a Support Worker or a Housing Management Worker, you should contact them in the first instance to lodge your complaint. If you don’t have a usual contact, then telephone the Admin Team at our Head Office. Tell them you want to make a formal complaint and that you expect to have a written reply. Make sure you get a complaint number.

2. The member of staff you speak to will ask for the following information:

• Your name and a contact telephone number and address
• The best way to contact you again
• The details of your complaint
• Whether you have any special needs we must consider, such as a language difficulty or a sensory impairment

• What outcome you are seeking

The information you provide will be written down and your complaint will be passed to the most appropriate person for investigation.

You can make your complaint anonymously and it will still be investigated but it will be more difficult to provide you with any feedback.

3. Within five working days you will receive a letter acknowledging receipt of your

complaint. The letter will:

• Provide you with a Complaint Record number of future reference
• Confirm the date on which your complaint was received
• Provide the name of the person who will be investigating your complaint (usually a Manager)

• Provide the date when you can expect to hear from the Investigator

If your complaint is one that can easily be resolved, this letter may also contain details of the investigation and the resolution reached.

4. Within two weeks of making your complaint you can expect to receive further written correspondence from the Investigator, either providing you with the result of the investigation or informing you that they need more time to investigate your complaint. You will be given reasons for the need to extend the time frame for the investigation.

5. If, after you have received this correspondence, we do not hear anything else from you within two weeks, we will assume that you are satisfied with the outcome and your complaint will be closed. You will then receive a Complaints Feedback form to complete and return to us.

STAGE TWO

If you have received a response to your complaint but are still not satisfied with the outcome then you should contact the Admin Team at our Head Office and request that your complaint proceeds to Stage Two. The Admin Team will then provide you with the name of a more senior manager to whom the details of your complaint will be passed for further investigation.

The manager will review how your complaint was investigated at Stage One and respond to you with the outcome of their investigation into this. It may be that they uphold the original outcome or they may offer you a different resolution. We will respond to your complaint within four weeks.

STAGE THREE

In the event that you are still not satisfied that your complaint has been resolved you should write to the Chair of the Board at our Head Office, providing as much information about your original complaint and why you are still unhappy that it has not been resolved to your satisfaction. The Chair will investigate your complaint and try to find a resolution that you are satisfied with. We will respond to your complaint within four weeks.