Complaints Policy

We take all complaints seriously and as an opportunity to improve our work. This complaints policy explains how to make a complaint and how your complaint will be managed.

How to Make a Complaint

Whilst we make every effort to meet expectations, circumstances may arise where there is a concern which needs bringing to our attention. We will take all reasonable steps to resolve the situation.

If you wish to bring a matter to our attention, please contact us at complaints@dorsetvisualarts.org in the first instance. We aim to resolve any concern informally.

If you wish to make a more formal complaint, please follow the process below to submit the relevant details so that we may consider the complaint.

Submitting a Complaint

To help resolve the complaint as quickly and effectively as possible, please include in your complaint:

• Name, address, telephone number and email. Please let us know if you do not wish to be contacted in a particular way
• Up to 500 words - please provide as much relevant information for the complaint as possible, such as what happened, where, when (date/time), who was present
• Up to 150 words - what it is you felt to be unsatisfactory
• Up to 150 words - what you believe should be done to address your concern

Whilst we would ask that you first give us the opportunity to address your concerns, submitting a complaint to us does not preclude you also complaining to a relevant regulator such as our charity regulator, the Charity Commission for England & Wales.

Managing Your Complaint

Receipt will be acknowledged, if possible, within 7 working days. Receipt by letter will take longer as our registered address is not always monitored. The complaint will then be investigated. If necessary, specialist advice may be sought. Where clarification or further information is felt to be necessary, we will contact you to request this. More serious complaints may require Board investigation and naturally this will take longer and is dependent on trustee availability.

Responses to less formal complaints will be sent within 28 working days. If this is not possible, a holding reply will be sent within 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 not allow us to disclose sensitive personal information.

Complaint Appeal Process

If you are not satisfied with the response, you may appeal the decision, by writing to the Chair, the contact details of whom will be included in our response. Appeals must be submitted within 28 days of our response to the complaint. Your appeal should be specific about why you feel 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.

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 or any other relevant regulator.

Serious consideration will always 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 into. 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 but, equally, individuals have a right to be protected from unsubstantiated and, potentially, malicious allegations.

Consequently, anyone wishing to complain is encouraged to provide the information requested above and appropriate contact details so that we can inform them of the outcome.

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.

Accessibility

Please let us know if you have any accessibility or support requirements in order to submit a complaint.

Lengthy or Repetitive Complaints

Please note that we are a small charity with limited capacity. We cannot accept an excessive volume of correspondence, repetitive submissions or overly long, unfocused documents. Please follow the Submission Process guidance so that we can respond in the appropriate time frame.

Artificial Intelligence

We accept the use of AI in drafting a complaint. However, it must still comply with this policy. You should also check it for accuracy, tone and relevance before submitting it, as this will help to ensure we are able to resolve your complaint as quickly as we can. The reason we ask you to do this is that AI makes mistakes.

We believe that individuals are entitled to challenge, appeal or seek redress for a decision made by or with the help of an AI system. We will ensure:

• Human oversight of systems that allows decisions to be reviewed and, if appropriate, overturned
• Transparency about how decisions are made and what data was used