Complaints Policy

This policy outlines how we receive, consider and respond to complaints about CONNECTED BY DATA from anyone not in an employment or freelance agreement with the organisation. It will be reviewed at least annually and covers:

• What is a complaint?
• We are open and transparent
• We will listen
• We are collaborative
• We keep you informed
• We will respond
• We want to learn
• If you are still unhappy

What is a complaint?

A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction about any service from, action by, or individual of, CONNECTED BY DATA. This may be at the level of negative feedback or the start of legal action.

This policy also covers complaints about our use of data about you, or our wider data practices, whether or not we hold data about you personally, and from organisations as well as individuals. You can read our Data Protection Policy on our website.

We are open and transparent

CONNECTED BY DATA is keen to receive feedback and to learn from it. To make a complaint please contact our Head of Delivery and Operations however is most convenient and accessible for your needs. This can include email, video, submitted digitally, or phone call/Zoom. If phone or Zoom is your preference, please contact the Head of Delivery and Operations via email to arrange a time convenient to you. If you need support in order to make a complaint please contact us.

We are keen to know what resolution you would like as a result of your complaint. Please include this in your complaint.

If a member of staff becomes aware of a complaint they will bring it to the attention of the Head of Delivery and Operations even when a formal complaint is not submitted.

We will listen

When we receive your complaint we want to fully understand the situation and your experience. If we need further information we will contact you. Please ensure you have let us know how (and when) you prefer to be contacted.

We are collaborative

We hold ourselves to a high standard of data protection and want to demonstrate best practice for small organisations such as ours. If your complaint is related to data protection issues we aim to resolve it rapidly and transparently within a month. If resolution isn’t possible within that time (for example if we cannot come to an agreement with you about the steps we should take), we will work with you to convene an independent panel to decide what we should do, and adhere to the judgement of that panel.

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

We keep you informed

We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days. If the Head of Delivery and Operations is not available you will receive an out of office response with an alternative contact.

In this acknowledgement we will let you know how long it will take to investigate and respond. We will prioritise complaint responses and in most cases aim to respond within ten working days of receipt. This timeline will be based upon the complexity and severity of the complaint. It may also be affected by specific staff members availability, particularly as we are a small organisation.

We will keep you informed of our progress. If there are any delays in being able to respond we will let you know the new timeline and explain the reason for the delay.

We will respond

Our response to your complaint will include an overview of what we have investigated and what we found out. We will include as much detail as we can to help be clear about the outcome.

We will be honest and open. If we have made a mistake or where your experience of CONNECTED BY DATA has been unreasonable we will be clear about what we have learned from your complaint and share what changes we are making.

We want to learn

Our Head of Delivery and Operations will have responsibility for ensuring any changes we have committed to making are made and embedded. All staff members will be informed of the changes and the lessons learned from your complaint.

All complaints will be logged on our internal complaints log to enable us to learn from themes of complaints. Our Board of Directors will receive reports on complaints received and our handling of those.

If you are still unhappy

You have a right to appeal if you feel the outcome does not resolve your complaint or if any part of the process was unfair. The appeal must be raised within two weeks and should be done via email to the Executive Director. Your email must include why you think the outcome was wrong or unfair and what you would like to happen next. The Executive Director will acknowledge receipt of your appeal within five weekdays and respond to your appeal within a further three weeks. We will consider the use of a third party in a mediation role for appeals and you can request this if you feel we are biased in relation to your complaint.

If you are a data subject, and you are unhappy with how we have used data about you, you can also complain to the ICO at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Their helpline number is 0303 123 1113 and the ICO website is https://www.ico.org.uk