Approved: 2nd April 2022
Version: 1.0
Content owner: Safe practice
 

I want to make a complaint or give feedback

​

As a volunteer, member, parent, third party or member of staff, if you have a complaint or feedback you may find that we can resolve it informally. It’s often the first way to address why someone is unhappy, and the quickest and most efficient route to resolving a complaint. Most Sew Ready complaints can be resolved this way.

​

If your complaint is about a volunteer, we encourage you to try to resolve it informally with local guiding before you escalate it through the complaints policy.

​

You can do this by raising it directly with Sew Ready HQ and will respond to you in a timely manner. We welcome all feedback raised with us and evaluate it regularly to identify improvements.

​

How do I make a formal complaint?

If you can’t resolve a complaint informally, you can make a formal complaint to Sew Ready HQ.

You can make a complaint by emailing hello@sewready.org

​

If you make your complaint verbally, we may ask you to put it in writing. If you don’t want to write this yourself, you should ask someone to do this on your behalf and show you a copy for your approval and for you to sign, before sending it to the HQ Complaints team.

​

If you cannot contact us in writing as above, and want reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010, you can contact us as follows:

​

Telephone: 07584320527

​

Data protection complaints: You can make a data protection complaint to the HQ Complaints team or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

​

Fundraising complaints: You can make a fundraising complaint to the HQ Complaints team or directly to the Fundraising Regulator, which is the independent regulator of charitable fundraising. You need to do this within three months of the original incident taking place. You can find more information on the Fundraising Regulator website.

​

Safeguarding concerns: If there are elements of a safeguarding concern in the complaint, we will refer to the Safeguarding team. They will decide which procedure should apply.

​

What do I include in my complaint?

When making a complaint or raising a comment, you need to include the following information - this will help us resolve it as quickly as possible:

• Your contact details.

• Who or what you are making a complaint about, including names if known.

• Where and when the events of the complaint happened.

• The outcome you are seeking by raising your complaint.

​

It would also be helpful if you include the following:

• A clear and concise summary. Give as many details as you can at each stage of the process. As long as they follow a logical order, bullet points and notes are fine.

• If you are complaining about your daughter’s unit, please provide your daughter’s full name and date of birth in your complaint so that she can be identified on our membership system.

• Any supporting documents and correspondence.

​

If you have evidence to submit you must send this to the appointed Investigator within ten working days (two weeks) of the first contact being established. You may ask for the deadline to be extended and that will be at Sew Ready’s discretion to make a decision. If we don’t receive the evidence within this timeframe, we may decide to discontinue the investigation.

Although you are not expected to prove the truth of what you are saying, you will need to provide us with enough information to understand what your complaint is and that it is something we can investigate.

 

Sew Ready policies and procedures are reviewed and updated from time to time as part of a review cycle.