a. A senior staff member must be assigned to respond to the complaint by the CEO who in turn will have overall responsibility in bringing the complaint to a satisfactory conclusion.

b. If the complaint is received via telephone or in person, the assigned member of staff should complete a Standard Complaint Form with the complainant. That complaint should be saved in the Complaints folder and details entered into the Complaints Log (both on the DA Google Workplace Drive) and attached under the notes section under the complainant’s name on the CRM system.

c. If the complaint is received via letter, email, website form or social media, the assigned member of staff should complete a Standard Complaint Form, attach the complaint, and then follow the procedure in 1. above.

d. The complaint must be acknowledged within 3 working days and responded to within 3 working weeks. If there are actions/tasks to carry out, advise the complainant of when these will be taking place

e. A copy of the response must be attached to the complaint and filed in the Complaints folder on DA Google Workplace Drive and the CRM system.

f. Any complaint that:

i) Causes harm to an individual;

ii) Has financial or potential legal consequences;

iii) Could damage the organisation’s reputation;

iv) Has a safeguarding element to it (and therefore will be taken through the safeguarding policy)

should be reported to the Board of Trustees within 3 days and responded to within 1 week.

g. Any follow-up actions, advice, lessons learned, or mitigating actions to be taken by DA as a result of any changes or improvements that have been identified or made whilst dealing with a complaint should be recorded on the complaint record. This includes any steps to be taken if a complaint is upheld, such as legal advice, compensation, or gestures of goodwill.