Management of Complaints

POLICY STATEMENT:

Green Umbrella OSHC will maintain a complaints and grievance management system to ensure that all educators, families and community members know that complaints and grievances will be taken seriously and investigated promptly and fairly. Complaints and grievances will be investigated and documented in a timely manner.  Our complaints and grievance management system will be promoted in the family handbook, staff handbook and on our website. We will identify complaints and grievances as opportunities to improve the quality of our service.

PROCEDURE:

• The service will support an individual’s right to complain and will help them to make their complaints clear and try to resolve them.
• A complaint can be informal or formal.  It can be anything an individual thinks is unfair or which makes them unhappy with the service.
• Families will be provided with clear written guidelines detailing the grievance procedure, in the family handbook.
• All confidential conversations with individuals who have a complaint or grievance will take place in a quiet place away from children, other families or staff that are not involved.
• If an individual has a complaint or comment about the service, they will be encouraged to talk to the Coordinator who will arrange a time to discuss their concern and come to a resolution to address the issue.
• If the complaint is not handled at this level to the satisfaction of the person making the complaint, they should discuss the issue with the Nominated Supervisor (if different from the Coordinator) or Board member, either in writing or verbally.
• A Board member will discuss the issue with the Coordinator and develop a strategy for resolving the problem, this would be discussed further with the individual or if necessary a meeting will be organised with the Coordinator and individual to resolve the problem.
• All complaints will be recorded and dated indicating the issue of concern and how it was resolved.  All information on complaints and grievances will include evidence that complaints are investigated within satisfactory timeframes and have led to amendments to policies and procedures where required.
• The Coordinator or Board member will inform the person making the complaint of what has been decided regarding the issue.  Staff will also be informed of any relevant issues that they need to address or be aware of.  This could be done verbally or if the issue has been dealt with on a more formal basis, then the Board or Coordinator will write personally to the individual making the complaint.
• If any complaint cannot be resolved internally to the person’s satisfaction, external options will be offered such as an unbiased third party. If complaint is not able to be resolved contact NSW Department of Education on 1800 619 113 or email eced@det.nsw.edu.au

CONSIDERATIONS:

ENDORSEMENT BY THE SERVICE: