Complaints Policy

The Glasgow South IAM RoadSmart group is committed to ensuring complaints from customers using our products and services are acknowledged, responded to and dealt with. It is also important that the organisation learns from such complaints.

Aims

The aim of this policy is to ensure we have a complaints process that is flexible and responsive to the needs of individual complainants. In addition, it emphasises the need to communicate effectively with complainants.

The policy seeks to ensure:

  • Complainants are listened to and treated with courtesy, empathy and fairness;
  • Complainants are kept informed of the progress and outcome of investigations into their complaint; 
  • Apologies are given where appropriate; 
  • Action to rectify the cause of the complaint is identified, implemented and evaluated; 
  • The Glasgow South IAM RoadSmart group learns from complaints in order to continually improve services; and
  • Complaints handling complies with confidentiality and data protection policies.

All group volunteers should be familiar with the complaints handling processes. This includes details of how and to whom customers can make complaints.

Responsibilities

The committee is ultimately responsible for the service provided to customers of the group.

The member of staff delegated to handle the complaint is responsible for:

  • managing the specific complaint;
  • ensuring action is taken to address issues raised in complaints and, where appropriate, identifying improvements to processes and procedures; 
  • ensuring volunteers are aware of, and understand, this Complaints Policy; 
  • keeping the complainant informed as to progress and resolution of their complaint; and
  • ensuring that, where appropriate, our parent charity IAM RoadSmart is notified of complaints;
  • identifying improvements to processes and procedures.

Making a complaint

You can make a complaint by sending an e-mail to:

feedback@iam-gs.org.uk

You can also make a complaint by phone through our group contact (see our contact details) or in person by speaking to any member of our committee.  In these cases, your details will be forwarded to our secretary who will contact you to begin the process of handling your complaint.

We will try to acknowledge your complaint within 48 hours, although as a voluntary organisation there are times when this may not be possible.  It may be decided that your complaint would be better handled by our parent charity, IAM RoadSmart.  If this is the case, you will be advised to forward your complaint according to the IAM RoadSmart complaints policy.

The person allocated to investigate the complaint will contact the complainant within 3 working days after the acknowledgement receipt, as further details may be required to investigate the complaint.

After the first contact, the complainant can expect a response in writing within 10 working days. If the complaint cannot be resolved within this time frame, the complainant will be given regular updates on the progress of the investigation.

Confidentiality

All complaints received will be dealt with confidentially and in accordance with the requirements of current data protection legislation.

No confidential information relating to complaints will be disclosed to any third party without the prior consent of the complainant.

Our responsibilities

All group volunteers are responsible for working to resolve issues raised by a customer. They must: 

  • take time to listen and ensure they fully understand the concerns of the complainant, which may mean asking for clarification where elements are unclear;
  • assure the complainant that the Glasgow South IAM RoadSmart group welcomes complaints as a means of enabling our service to improve; 
  • notify the committee if an issue is serious or cannot be readily resolved in a reasonable timescale;
  • document all complaints;

The secretary or volunteer responsible for investigating the complaint must:

  • ensure the complainant is responded to within the timescales set out above; 
  • maintain an accurate record (with dates) of all communications with the complainant;
  • document the original complaint and other relevant information;
  • document the issues considered;
  • document decisions or actions taken; and 
  • keep copies of responses and other information collected during the investigation.

Responding to a complaint

Any written response to a complaint must include a summary of the investigation findings and actions taken to resolve the problems. 

A response to a complaint will be sent as soon as practicable, and normally within 10 working days.

If a response is not provided or resolution of the complaint is not achieved within the deadline or agreed timeline, the complainant must be notified and a new date for resolution indicated.

Escalation process

Should the complainant remain dissatisfied with the outcome of their complaint, they should be advised that their first point of escalation is our parent charity, IAM RoadSmart.  Such escalation can be initiated by following the IAM RoadSmart complaints policy.

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