COMPLAINTS POLICY
Introduction
This policy sets out the process by which any complaint or concern made against The Electronics Group (EGL) will be handled. This procedure will be made available upon request; it is available at the foot of the Home Page of the EGL website and is available to Apprentice learners through their Moodle account.
- Scope
1.1 This procedure will apply when complaints or concerns are received from staff, customers or learners.
- Roles and Responsibilities
2.1 The General Manager of The Electronics Group has the primary responsibility for handling formal complaints and concerns. In the event that the General Manager is unavailable or if the complaint relates to the Managing Director, then the complaint will be handled by the Chair of the Board of Directors.
Thus, either the General Manager or the Chair of the Board of Directors will be nominated as the Complaint Handler.
2.2 The Complaint Handler is responsible for investigating the circumstances of a complaint or concern. The Complaint Handler has responsibility for logging formal complaints and concerns.
Any member of staff who receives a formal complaint or concern is responsible for taking all the relevant details and passing it to the Complaint Handler.
- Definitions
- ‘Staff’ members are those employed by EGL on a full time, part time, or contract basis.
- ‘Customers’ include any person or company that has had services provided by EGL.
- ‘Learners’ include any person that receives training through EGL, such as apprentices, or individuals on technical training courses carried out by EGL.
- Procedure
4.1 A formal complaint or concern could be received in a number of different ways, including:
- by a member of staff – either face to face at a meeting or event
- through a telephone call
- via e-mail
- through the post
- via a formal customer feedback process
- via a formal learner feedback process
- via a partner organisation
4.2 On receiving a complaint or concern, and where an agreement for its immediate resolution cannot be reached, full details of the complaint / concern will be taken and a ‘Customer Complaint / Concern Form’ completed. The complaint / concern will also be entered on the ‘Customer Complaint / Concern Tracker Form’ (both forms attached) by the member of staff receiving the complaint, including:
- complainant’s name
- company name
- address
- contact details
- nature of complaint
- date
4.3 The complaint / concern will be passed to the Complaint Handler. The Complaint Handler is responsible for dealing with the complaint. The Complaint Handler will then arrange for the relevant manager to investigate the circumstances surrounding the complaint and will maintain the Tracker form.
4.4 For all complaints not resolved within 48 hours, the complainant will be informed that the complaint is being investigated.
4.5 The findings of the investigation will be reviewed by the Complaint Handler and the relevant manager, and an agreement on the investigation outcome and any corrective and preventative actions will be reached. Corrective and preventative actions could include refinements in service delivery processes or implementing staff training and development activities.
4.6 A detailed written response will be sent to the complainant including proposals to redress the issue wherever appropriate. In certain circumstances it may be more appropriate to speak to the customer to resolve the issue.
4.7 All correspondence will be retained in the complaints file. Where appropriate, information will be logged on to the client management system.
4.8 Corrective and preventative actions such as service improvements and staff development activities will be implemented.
4.9 All complaints will be reported to the Board by the MD in the Monthly Board report in order to monitor trends and review the effectiveness of corrective and preventative actions.
- Apprenticeships
5.1 Where a service such as an Apprenticeship provided by EG is either wholly or partially funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), using public funds, there is an additional method for resolving complaints.
5.2 When a complaint has been made to EG and they have investigated the complaint according to their process, if the complainant is still not satisfied with the outcome, they can complain directly to the ESFA, using the ESFA process.
5.3 The ESFA process is fully described and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-post-16-education-and-training-provision-funded-by-esfa/complaints-about-post-16-education-and-training-provision-funded-by-esfaGene
