COMPLAINT HANDLING POLICY

INTRODUCTION/ OUR STANDARD

This policy is to ensure that Cater Care handles complaints fairly, efficiently and effectively, whilst maintaining our values of Care, Pride and Community.

Our policy for managing complaints is intended to:

• Enables Cater Care to respond to issues raised by people making complaints in a timely manner;
• Provide information that can be used by Cater Care to deliver quality improvements in our services, for our employees, and throughout our operations; and
• Build trust with our customers.

This policy provides guidance to Cater Care employees and people who wish to make a complaint on the key principles of our complaint management procedure.

It applies to all employees receiving and/or managing complaints from the public, clients, other employees and any other third parties made to or about Cater Care, regarding Cater Care services, employees and/or operations.

Employee grievances, Code of Conduct complaints, Whistleblower disclosures and public interest disclosures (e.g. Modern Slavery concerns) are dealt with through separate mechanisms. Employees receiving complaints relevant to any of the above mentioned mechanisms are encouraged to have access to this policy when receiving the complaints, and then handle them through the relevant separate mechanism/policy.

Employee grievances should be handled using the Grievance Resolution Procedure.

Public interest disclosures made by our staff and/or others, see our Whistleblower Policy.

Code of Conduct complaints, please refer to our Code of Conduct .

OUR COMMITMENT

Cater Care actively seeks feedback about our services, systems, practices, procedures and operations.

Cater Care expects employees (at all levels) to be familiar with this policy and be committed to fair, effective and efficient complaint handling. The following outlines the nature of the commitment expected from Cater Care employees and the way that complaint management should be managed.

Complaints may be verbal or written and include, but are not limited to:

• Expressions of dissatisfaction made to or about Cater Care, Cater Care services, employees and/or Cater Care operations.
• Reports of problems or wrongdoing merely intended to bring a problem to Cater Care’s notice.
• Requests for feedback about the standard of Cater Care’s service provision.

NO DETRIMENT TO PEOPLE MAKING COMPLAINTS

Cater Care will take all reasonable steps to ensure that people making complaints are not adversely affected because a complaint has been made by them and/or on their behalf. However, if a complaint is discovered to be malicious and/or fictitious, then the complainant may be reported to the appropriate Cater Care Senior Manager o, to the appropriate authorities, if it can not be dealt with internally through the various processes that are presently in place.

ANONYMOUS COMPLAINTS 

An identified complainant is preferred, to enable the collection of all relevant material and in order to provide appropriate feedback to the complainant.

Cater Care will accept anonymous complaints and will carry out an investigation of the issues raised where there is enough information provided, to enable an investigation to be done. However, where we have contact details, we will follow up to obtain the additional information [as required under the Whistleblower Policy and Employee Grievance Procedure].

RESPONSIVENESS

Cater Care will:

• Promptly acknowledge receipt of a complaint, where it is possible and the complainant is known.Assess and prioritise complaints in accordance with the urgency and/or seriousness of the issues raised. If a matter concerns an immediate risk to safety and/or security, the response will be immediate and escalated appropriately. Advise complainants as soon as possible when Cater Care are unable to deal with any part of the complaint and provide advice in respect to said issues and/or complaints (if known and/or appropriate). Advise complainants as soon as possible when Cater Care are unable to meet time frames for responding to a complaint and the reason for such delay.

OBJECTIVITY AND FAIRNESS

Cater Care will address each complaint with integrity and in an equitable, objective and unbiased manner.

Cater Care will ensure that the person handling a complaint is independent from any employee whose conduct and/or service is the subject of the complaint.

Conflicts of interests, whether actual or perceived, will be identified and managed appropriately. In particular, internal reviews of how a complaint was managed will be conducted by a person other than the original decision maker.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Cater Care will protect the identity of those making a complaint (where it is practical, appropriate and/or required by law), unless the complainant has knowingly submitted their complaint by a public forum and thereby acknowledge their information will be visible.

Personal information will only be disclosed and/or used as permitted under the relevant privacy laws, secrecy provisions and any relevant confidentiality obligations.

When determining how a complaint will be managed,  Cater Care will assess:

• how serious, complicated or urgent the complaint is;
• whether the complaint raises concerns about a person’s health and safety;
• how the person making the complaint and/ or subject of the complaint is being impacted;
• the risks involved if a resolution of the complaint is delayed; and
• whether a resolution requires the involvement of other organisations.

ADDRESSING COMPLAINTS

Any Cater Care employee receiving a complaint should, (within 24 hours of receiving such a complaint) inform their line manager and discuss the further management/process of the complaint.

Serious complaints are to be escalated to Senior Management without delay.

All complaints should be recorded electronically in the relevant Cater Care system.

All complaints received should be acknowledged within five (5) working days and where possible resolved and/or addressed within thirty (30) days.

After receiving a complaint, it is important that the facts of the complaint are gathered and input from the relevant stakeholders obtained.

Cater Care will address the complaint having regard to the information obtained and seek additional input and/or assistance where necessary for the prompt resolution of the complaint.

Following assessment of the complaint and any investigation into the issues raised, Cater Care will engage with the relevant parties involved in the complaint in an open and transparent manner.

Cater Care’s response may include an explanation, an apology and/or information about system improvements made to prevent the  recurrence of the issue.

As required by law and to the extent Cater Care keeps records of all material utilised to resolve the complaint. Details will be retained of any referral to a third party for resolution and any correspondence with the complainant.

REPORTING OF COMPLAINTS

Cater Care Holdings Board will be kept informed of any serious complaints received from third parties including any of such a nature as to affect the reputation and/or perception of compliance within or by the Cater Care Group.

Date Reviewed: May 2024