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Complaints

Commitment to service

The M25 Consortium is committed to providing excellent service for our members and users of our services. We invite feedback to ensure the continuous improvement of our services and activities. We want to know when we do things well and what aspects of our service our members appreciate but we also want to know when things go wrong or when members feel that our service can be improved.

Whilst we make every effort to meet expectations, circumstances may arise where a member or customer has a concern and brings this to our attention. In these cases, we will take all reasonable steps to resolve the situation, in everyone’s best interests.

Informal complaints

Problems can often be resolved by contacting us at the time. Anyone who has a concern or complaint should initially raise this with a member of the M25 staff team, as this enables us to respond to and deal with the issue quickly.

You can send your complaint by email to: m25libadmin@london.ac.uk You can also contact a specific member of the staff support team by telephone and email. The contacts details are here: www.m25lib.org.uk/contact-us/

If your complaint is about one of the staff team, you can contact the Chair of the trustees. Their contact details are here: www.m25lib.org.uk/about-the-consortium/governance/

To help resolve the complaint as quickly and effectively as possible, ensure you contact as soon as possible after the event and include, along with the details, your name, organisation (if relevant), address, telephone number and email.

If you do not wish to be contacted in a particular way, please let us know and we will respect this.

We will seek to resolve the issue and meet any reasonable expectations you have, ideally to your satisfaction.

Where we are unable to resolve the issue, we will escalate it by making a note of:

  • The complainant’s name and contact details, unless they are unwilling to provide these.
  • The nature of their concern and anything that they wish to be done about it.
  • The circumstances surrounding the issue and the details of steps already taken to try to resolve it

We will advise you that the issue will be passed to the Operations Manager in the first instance, unless the complaint is about the Operations Manager, in which case the complaint will be passed to the Chair of the trustees. We will aim to resolve all escalated issues within 21 working days (or sooner if practicable) and will inform you of progress.

Formal Complaints

If you wish to make a formal complaint, you can send an email or letter to the Chair of the trustees c/o the Operations Manager’s email: m25libadmin@london.ac.uk or to our registered address. Correspondence should be marked private and confidential. You will be provided with a copy of this policy by post or email.

To help resolve the complaint as quickly and effectively as possible, at the formal stage please provide, along with your name, organisation, address, telephone number and email, details of the complaint:

  • As much information as possible, such as what happened, where, when (date/time), who was present and any action taken, and by whom.
  • What it is you felt to be unsatisfactory.
  • What you believe should be done to address your concern.

If you do not wish to be contacted in a particular way, please let us know and we will respect this.

Receipt will be acknowledged, if possible, within seven working days. The complaint will then be investigated.  If necessary, specialist advice will be sought. Where clarification or further information is felt to be necessary, the Chair of the trustees (or the nominated trustee investigating the complaint) will contact the person complaining to request this.

A response will be sent within 21 working days. If this is not possible, a holding reply will be sent after 14 days advising when we estimate the investigation will be completed. The complaint response will explain our findings and what action we will be taking/have taken, subject to the constraints of the Data Protection Act, which will almost certainly not allow us to disclose sensitive personal information.

If the complainant is not satisfied with the response, they may appeal the decision, by writing to trustees, the contact details of whom will included in our response. Appeals must be submitted within 28 days of our response to the complaint.

The appeal should be specific about why the complainant feels the decision made was wrong and provide the facts and information necessary to demonstrate this.

A decision will be notified within 28 days and will be final.

Complaints to the Charity Commission

The Charity Commission regulates registered charities in England and Wales. They make sure that charities are accountable, well-run and meet their legal obligations.

They provide regulatory advice and guidance and intervene in matters where there is serious risk of significant harm to, or abuse of, charities, their beneficiaries or assets.

A complainant can contact the Charity Commission if they consider that they have a serious complaint that has not been addressed by raising the complaint to the charity.

There is more information on the government website about how to make a complaint: www.gov.uk/complain-about-charity and the application is via an online form on the Charity Commission’s website: https://forms.charitycommission.gov.uk/raising-concerns/

Wider action

Irrespective of the outcome of any complaint, we will consider if there is any requirement in respect of wider action and/or statutory reporting to the Charity Commission, H&SW Executive, other regulator, or the Police.

Consideration will also to be given to whether any changes should be made to policies, procedures, training etc to see if anything might reasonably be done to prevent a similar issue arising in future.

Anonymous complaints

Anonymous complaints will be recorded and any facts available looked in to.  However, in doing so we will be mindful that anonymous complaints can sometimes be malicious. Everyone involved in our work, even incidentally, has a right to complain and we will hold anyone accountable but, equally, individuals have a right to be protected from unsubstantiated and, potentially, malicious allegations.

Consequently, anyone wishing to complain is strongly encouraged to provide the information requested above and their contact details. This will also allow us to advise them of the outcome.

Potential compensation claims

If a complaint may potentially result in a claim for compensation, such as damage or loss to property, or personal issue, our insurers will be notified.

Confidentiality

The complaint will be treated as confidential and any communication on this issue, including responding to the complainant, will be subject to compliance with the Data Protection Act.

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank SCONUL for permission to use the wording of their Complaints Policy in our Complaints Policy.

This Policy was published in April 2024 and will be reviewed by April 2029.