Complaints Policy and Procedure

Mediation Plus is committed to providing high-quality services and aims to meet the needs of everyone who accesses our support; however we acknowledge that there may be occasions when people feel unsatisfied with the service received and we encourage honest feedback.

Mediation Plus takes all complaints seriously and will support people to communicate their concerns through their preferred method of communication. We will always listen carefully and seek to understand what has happened, how it has affected you and what you hope will happen next.

We will work with staff and volunteers to fully investigate complaints.

We will agree with you how and when to communicate with you about our findings and suggestions. Where appropriate we will work with you to agree any actions to be taken.

We will ensure you have all the information you need to take your complaint further if we are unable to resolve it with you.

This policy, aimed at service users, funders, and partner organisations, ensures that Mediation Plus provide a standardised respond to complaints and feedback.

Informal feedback

If you are unhappy with the service you have received / are receiving, would like to offer feedback or have suggestions of ways we can improve the service, please contact the relevant project Co-ordinator supporting your case, or the Service Lead for an informal discussion.

How to make a formal complaint (Stage 1)

If they are unable to informally address the issues to your satisfaction, you may wish to make a formal complaint, following the procedure outlined below. Where possible we ask that formal complaints are made no later than 6 months after the case closes.

Please put your complaint in writing or by email to Alice Matthews, Chief Executive, alice@mediation-plus.org.uk. If you are unable to contact us in writing for any reason, please let us know through your preferred method of communication and we can discuss how best to support you. 

Where possible, include the following information.

• Your /the complainants name and contact details.
• Names of people to whom you have already spoken to about the complaint (e.g. the Co-ordinator involved)
• Details about what you feel has gone wrong or has been handled improperly.
• An explanation of how they would like the Service to resolve the complaint.

Your written complaint will be acknowledged by letter or email within 5 working days of receipt. We aim to investigate and resolve the issues within a further 20 working days, at which point we will inform you, in writing, of the outcome of the investigation and any actions we intend to take.

Escalating complaints to the Board of Trustees (Stage 2)

If you are unhappy with the outcome of the investigation or feel unable to make a complaint directly to the Chief Executive, you may wish to escalate the complaint to the Board of Trustees. To do this you can:

1. instruct the Chief Executive to share full details of the complaint with the Board of Trustees, informing them that the complaint remains unresolved or
2. write directly to the Chair of the Board, using the registered charity address, marking the correspondence ‘For the attention of the Chair of Trustees’.

Your written complaint will be acknowledged by letter or email within 5 working days of receipt and the Board of Trustees will conduct a further investigation into the complaint, at which point they may request a meeting with you. The Board of Trustees will then make a decision and you will be notified of the outcome within 20 working days of stage 2 commencing.

The decision made by the Board of Trustees is final and completes the complaints procedure.

Contract Variations (Stage 3)

For some project areas, namely Family Mediation, there may be a third stage of the procedure available to you, through a regulatory body. If this is the case, you will be informed of this when Stage 2 closes.