Making a complaint : Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust

Introduction

If you would like to make a formal complaint about a grant application that your organisation has made or a grant that we have awarded to your organisation, you should use the following guidance.

Making a complaint will not impact the level of service you receive from us. So, if your complaint is about a funding application, this will not affect your chances of getting a grant from us in the future. There are certain circumstances that our complaints process will not handle and we explain more about this within this guidance.

We anticipate that prior to raising this formal complaint you have already had an opportunity to discuss the matter, in writing or by speaking to our staff, but that it has not been resolved.

If you have any particular communication needs please contact us at info@covenantfund.org.uk

What can I complain about?

You can complain if you believe that:

maladministration has taken place. For example, if we have delayed, made mistakes in, or failed to follow the procedures in our application process
we have failed to give you access to information or have given you incorrect advice or information
we have not treated you politely
we have discriminated against you or not treated you fairly.

If your complaint is concerning a funding application, we can only review the application again if:

we discover that we did not follow the published procedures for assessing your application
you can show that we have misunderstood a significant part of your application
you can show that we did not take notice of relevant information.

What you cannot complain about

A rejected application

You may be disappointed if we turn down your application for funding, but you cannot use the complaints procedure to appeal against our decision on giving a grant, if we have followed our decision making process correctly.

The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust’s policies or strategies; or wider government policy

You cannot complain about our published policies or any government policy through this process. If you have any comments about our policies, please contact us at info@covenantfund.org.uk

Concerns about grants we have made to other organisations

If you have a concern about how another organisation is managing a project funded by the Trust, or how they are using a grant you should raise this with us through our Raising a Concern policy

Fraud

Do not use this complaints procedure to make a complaint about any fraud you believe has taken place. You should report this to the police or through our Raising a Concern policy.

Concerns that fall outside our grant making process

You cannot use this complaints process for any interaction with us that is outside of our grant making processes. If you do have a concern or general query that falls outside our grant making processes, please contact us at info@covenantfund.org.uk

How do I make a complaint?

We hope that you will be able to resolve any queries that you may have directly with your grants officer. If however, following these discussions you would like to make a complaint then this is how you can do so.

Stage one

If you are not happy with the service you have received please contact us. You should email info@covenantfund.org.uk and please put ‘Complaint’ in the subject line

When making your complaint you should set out the facts as clearly as possible, in a logical order. Remember to include important details and dates where possible. We can explain how we will process your complaint.

We will keep all complaints confidential. If you make a complaint, we will treat you with respect, and we expect you to treat our staff in the same way.

If possible we will try to put things right. We hope that we can settle complaints as quickly as possible in this way.

When can I expect to hear back from The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust?

Within three working days of receiving your complaint we will write or phone you to confirm receipt.

We will also tell you how you can contact the person who is dealing with your complaint and when you can expect a reply.

You will receive a written response to your complaint within 10 working days. If we cannot give a full response in this time, we will tell you why and when you are likely to receive it.

Stage two

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive: you can take this further by emailing our Chief Executive via info@covenantfund.org.uk; addressed to the CEO

Please tell us:

• what happened

• when it happened

• who dealt with you

• what you would like us to do to put things right.

You must do this within four weeks of receiving our response to stage one.

If you cannot make your complaint in writing, please email us at info@covenantfund.org.uk and we will arrange to have a conversation with you to discuss options.

Our response will advise you if you are able to progress to stage three or whether another regulatory body, such as the Information Commissioners Office, would be more appropriate in handling your complaint. We will provide you with the appropriate contact details in our response.

Stage three

If you are not satisfied with our Chief Executive’s reply, you may be able to refer your complaint to the Independent Complaints Reviewer (ICR). If you wish to do this; then we will provide you with further details. The ICR is independent of the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust.

You can also consider approaching the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (England, Northern Ireland and Wales)

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s role is to consider complaints that public bodies have not acted properly or have provided a poor service.

By law, the Ombudsman is independent of the government and the Civil Service, and has wide powers to investigate.

The Ombudsman does not normally investigate complaints if they have not been through our complaints procedures first and if it has been more than one year since you became aware of the cause of your complaint.

The Ombudsman can only consider cases that are referred to them by a Member of Parliament (MP). You will therefore need to liaise with an MP for this to occur.

The Ombudsman’s services are free and their contact details are:

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Millbank Tower 30 Millbank London

SW1P 4QP

Complaints helpline phone: 0345 015 4033

Website: ombudsman.org.uk

Further information

Your personal information

If you use our complaints procedure, you are agreeing that we can use any personal information you send us for purposes connected with your complaint. We may also give your personal information to other people and organisations if we have to do so by law or if you have given us permission.

Equal opportunities

We are committed to equal opportunities and take complaints about discrimination seriously. We may use complaints about discrimination to review our policies and procedures. This is to make sure we treat everyone equally.

We will keep all information confidential.

If you need any help, you can contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau. To find your local bureau please contact 0300 023 1231 or visit their website at citizensadvice.org.uk