Complaints about our service

A service complaint is a complaint about the service we have provided to you, such as concerns that we:

• have been rude to you;
• have not contacted you in the way that was agreed;
• caused unnecessary delays; or
• have not kept you updated.

Service complaints do not include concerns about:

• our decision to / not to accept a complaint for investigation;
• whether we have gathered the right evidence in our investigations or whether we have drawn the correct conclusions from the evidence we have seen;
• our choice about how to investigate your dispute; or
• decisions made in resolving your dispute

If you do not agree with a final decision in your case, you should contact the person who has made the decision to discuss your concerns.

Whilst we will consider complaints that we have not followed our own process; we will not consider those complaints in which you think our processes are wrong. For example, we may consider a service complaint that we ignored your request for a representation, but we would not accept a service complaint that our grounds for accepting a representation are too narrow.

We also will not consider a complaint about the structure or funding of our service.

In addition, the service complaints process cannot look at any concerns you may have about our response to a Subject Access Request. Any concerns you have about that should be put to the Information Commissioner. They can be contacted on 0303 123 1113.

When things go wrong, it can be upsetting, frustrating, and distressing. However, we expect that our staff members are always treated with respect and courtesy. If, when making a service complaint, your behaviour is unreasonable, aggressive, or demanding, we may decide to decline to investigate your service complaint. We may also decline to investigate your service complaint if we consider it to be vexatious or an abuse of our process.

Tell the person dealing with your case

If you are unhappy with any aspect of our handling of your case, we would encourage you to speak to the person dealing with your case in the first instance. They will be more than happy to assist and they will likely be able to resolve your concerns straight away.

Stage 1. Manager

If the person dealing with your case has been unable to resolve your concerns, you can ask for it to be considered by a Manager who is independent from the case. Your service complaint must be made within one month of the final decision on your dispute. The Manager will aim to speak to you within ten working days to understand your concerns and decide how to best resolve them. Our aim will be to resolve your concerns informally. However, a formal response will be sent to you within one month of receiving your complaint if your concerns cannot be resolved informally.

Stage 2: Senior Manager

If the Line Manager has not been able to resolve your complaint you can ask for it to be considered by a Senior Manager. You will need to do so within 14 days of receiving the final outcome of Stage 1 of the service complaint process. They will respond to you within one month of receiving your complaint.

Stage 3: Ask the Independent Reviewer to review the service you have received

If you remain unhappy after receiving a response from the Senior Manager you may refer your complaint to the Independent Reviewer. You will need to do so within 14 days of receiving the final outcome of Stage 2 of the service complaint process.

The Independent Reviewer is appointed by TPO’s Board to consider complaints at the final stage of the service complaint process. The Independent Reviewer’s full terms of reference can be found on our website. You will usually receive a response to your complaint within one month of the Independent Reviewer receiving it.

You can write to the Independent Reviewer at: independent.reviewer@tpos.co.uk.

There may be instances where your service complaint may be fast-tracked through our process. This means, for example, your concerns may be escalated to Stage 2 and considered by a Senior Manager in the first instance. This may occur in exceptional circumstances, or if it appears unlikely that your concerns cannot be resolved without the intervention of a Senior Manager and/or the Independent Reviewer. The decision about whether to fast track a service complaint will be at our discretion. If we do decide to fast track your service complaint, we will explain why.

We will usually contact you to clarify your complaint and investigate your concerns. We will review your case file and we may speak to staff members involved. Any formal response to you will include the following:

• a summary of the concerns we have considered;
• the evidence we have reviewed;
• our decision on your complaint, together with reasons; and
• steps we will take to address your concerns (if appropriate).

We will also share the learning from your complaint with the relevant member(s) of staff and more widely across TPO where that is appropriate.

Complaints About Our Service (PDF)