I Choose Freedom will treat seriously any complaints made by service users and will strive to resolve them to the complainant's full satisfaction, within a period of 10 working days.
The complaints policy allows service users to make a complaint about the service offered, any member of staff or the Management Committee or any aspect of I Choose Freedom and to have their complaint considered.
Records of all complaints and course of action taken will be kept for the purpose of identifying and prioritizing changes and improvements to the service.
The results of the complaints record should also be presented at least annually to The Management Committee.
Procedures:
Once a service user wishing to complain has approached a Support Worker or the Service Manager, they must first establish if the complaint can be rectified simply and without conflict. In such cases, there may be no need to seek a written version of the complaint. This should be discussed and agreed by both the service user and their Support Worker.
If the complaint is a more serious issue the service user may be offered assistance in putting their complaint in writing. The service user must sign that what has been recorded is accurate. If required, an Interpretation service may be offered.
The complaint should be sent to the Head of Services, who will acknowledge this letter and send a copy to the CEO. The CEO will initiate an investigation. The complaint will be recorded.
If the complainant is not satisfied with the outcome of the complaint, then the complaint will be shared with the Chair of the Management Committee to investigate further.
If the complainant is still not satisfied, the complaint will be put before the next scheduled meeting of the Management Committee and a final response will be decided upon after this meeting.
If the complaint is about the CEO, the Chair of the Management Committee must lead on investigating and resolving the complaint.
In this case the complaint should be in a sealed envelope marked 'Private and Confidential' for the attention of the Chair of the Committee. This can be posted to:
The Chair of I Choose Freedom, PO Box 54, Reigate, Surrey, RH2 0AZ
Once the Management Committee has considered the service user's complaint, they must explain to them in writing their decision and what the next steps are if they remain dissatisfied.
If the service user is still not satisfied with the response, they may take their complaint to the Housing Association Ombudsman.
To download a full copy of our Complaints Policy including our Complaints Procedure click here.
