Making a Complaint: Finance and Resources or Facilities

Guidance on how to raise a concern or make a complaint about the Finance and Resources/Facilities Team provided by Kirkwood Hospice.

1. Introduction

At The Kirkwood we always aim to provide high standards of care and services across the whole organisation.  The views of our service users and visitors are important to us and help us to ensure that we provide a quality services which also align with our values. If you are unhappy with any of our support services, it is important that you let us know. 

Finance and Resources include:

• Housekeeping
• Maintenance
• Catering
• Facilities/Premises
• Finance
• Information Technology (including Data Protection and Information handling)
• Human Resources
• Volunteering

If a complaint alerts us to possible abuse or neglect we will take action in accordance with The Kirkwood Hospice Safeguarding policy.

 

2. Purpose

The purpose of this document is to provide a clear process for advising anyone who wishes to raise a concern or make a complaint about our support services and to set out the action that will be taken to ensure that your concerns or complaints are investigated and dealt with in an open, sensitive, transparent, timely and confidential manner.

 

3. Making a suggestion

Often people feel more comfortable about suggesting improvements rather than complaining formally. We welcome suggestions from anyone receiving our services which include their friends and family.

In the first instance you should speak to the Manager or Deputy of the department you are (or had) been using who will be very receptive to your suggestions. They in turn will inform the relevant Finance and Resources Manager of the suggestions received.

Alternatively, The Kirkwood has a range of methods for collecting feedback, or suggestions from service users and visitors for example there are suggestion cards in all clinical areas. We also collect feedback using I PAD’s on the In-patient unit, Support and Therapy Unit and Reception areas.  If your suggestion is something that affects the whole organisation then either write to us by letter/ e-mail or telephone, our contact details are below.

Chief Executive
The Kirkwood 
21 Albany Road
Dalton
Huddersfield
HD5 9UY

Email: info@thekirkwood.org.uk
Telephone: 01484 557 900

 

4. Raising a concern

A ‘concern’ is defined as any issue which whilst supporting or being asked to support The Kirkwood has caused concern and when raised with The Kirkwood representative the issue is resolved satisfactorily at or around the time it has taken place or when remedial action has been agreed. 

You can raise a concern:

• In person
• By telephone
• Email
• In writing

You can raise a concern with any The Kirkwood employee or volunteer at any time, they will listen carefully and record your concern, they will always deal with you sensitively and in confidence and will ensure that your concern is passed to the appropriate person within the Finance & Resources Department, who will then take the necessary action including contacting you about your concern and the action they have taken or intend to take.

If your concern is not resolved satisfactorily it will be then treated as a complaint. 

 

5. Making a complaint

We aim to handle complaints quickly, effectively and in a fair and honest way. We take all complaints seriously and use valuable information from investigating them to help us improve the services we provide. 

All complaints are treated in confidence, The Kirkwood seeks to assure service users and their families that it will not withdraw or reduce services because someone makes a complaint in good faith.

All complaints are treated sensitively and taken seriously and can be made:

• In person
• By telephone
• By email
• In writing
• Through social media

With complaints made via our social media platforms Facebook and Twitter which are regularly and frequently monitored. An acknowledgement will be posted on the relevant platform by the Media and Marketing Team. This acknowledgement will include a request to contact The Kirkwood offline to agree your preferred form of future communication. This information will then be forwarded onto the relevant Manager. If out of normal office hours this will happen on the next working day.

Where someone complains orally we will make a written record and provide a copy of it within 5 working days by letter or by email

Following an acknowledgement, we will contact you no later than 20 working days to respond to your complaint.  If there are likely to be any delays with our investigation, we will contact you as soon as possible to explain why.

 

6. Anonymous complaints

We deal with anonymous complaints under the same procedure; however, it is better if you can provide contact details as we may need additional information from you and we can also tell you about the outcome of our investigations.

 

7. Responsibility

The Chief Executive for The Kirkwood has overall responsibility for dealing with all complaints made about any of our services.

We will provide as far as is reasonably practical any help you need to understand the complaints procedure; or advice on where you may get that help.

The Director of Finance & Resources is responsible for dealing with Finance and

Resources service complaints but may ask another member of the Finance and Resources Team to investigate the complaint. That person will have enough seniority and experience to deal with the issues outlined in your complaint and will act as your Complaints Investigator.

The Complaints Investigator will:

• Acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days.
• Give you their name and contact details and ask you how you wish to be contacted and may offer to meet with you to discuss your complaint.
• Treat you with courtesy and respect.
• Keep you informed about the progress of the investigation. 
• Aim to have the complaint finalised within 20 working days or if this isn’t possible agrees a different time scale with you.
• Inform you when the investigation is completed and may arrange to meet with you to discuss the outcome and write to you with details of the findings.
• Tell you about any action that has been or is planned to be taken and set out proposals to resolve your complaint.
• ​Will keep your information confidential. 
   

8. Time limits

You should make a complaint as soon as you can after the date on which the event occurred or came to your notice. If you complain more than twelve months later, we may not be able to investigate properly. But we shall also consider whether you had good reason for not making the complaint sooner and whether, despite the delay, it is still possible to investigate the complaint effectively and fairly.

 

9. Further steps

At any stage during the process, if you are not happy with the way The Kirkwood is dealing with your complaint you can contact the Chief Executive at our address in section 3.

 

10. Appeals Process

Once we have dealt with your complaint, if you are not happy with the result you can write to the Chair of Trustees at the above address within 14 working days of receipt of the letter informing you of the outcome of the investigation.

If after due consideration the Chair of Trustees decides that a secondary investigation is warranted, you will be informed in writing within a further 14 working days.

A different Complaints Investigator will be allocated to your case and a second investigation commenced. 

If after due consideration the Chair of Trustees decides that no further action is to be taken the complaint is closed and the outcome recorded.  

If you have reached the final stage of The Kirkwood’s complaints procedure and still believe we have not resolved your complaint satisfactorily, you can contact one of our regulators.

After going through the appeals process if you remain dissatisfied with the response to your complaint, you have the option to request an independent review of your complaint and how it was dealt with by The Kirkwood from the appropriate regulator as follows:

Charity Commission
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ
Telephone: 0300 066 9197
Website: www.gov.uk/complain-about-charity

Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 7HS
Telephone: 0300 003 1647
http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/concerns.htm

Information Commissioners Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint