Feedback Policy: Complaints, compliments and comments

Purpose

Reprieve strives to provide the best possible experience we can to anyone who reaches out to us or anyone who we work with. We welcome any feedback; whether it positive, negative or somewhere in-between, so we can improve and get a chance to put things right for the person or organisation that has given the feedback, in order to build and maintain effective relationships with our clients, supporters and stakeholders. This policy outlines what will happen when you reach out to Reprieve.  

Scope

This policy applies to anyone reaching out to Reprieve with feedback or to make a complaint.

We aim to:

  • Have a feedback procedure which is clear and easy to use for anyone wishing to contact Reprieve.
  • Ensure feedback is investigated, referred to relevant parties and replied to, if appropriate, in a timely manner.
  • Train Reprieve staff on procedures and next steps around the different types of feedback.
  • Make sure that complaints are, where possible, resolved in a timely manner and that relationships are repaired.
  • Create a log of feedback and complaints to enable us to improve our processes.

If you have a general question about Reprieve’s work or wish to give us general feedback we would love to hear from you and you can use the contact details below. Should you wish to unsubscribe from Reprieve’s emails, you can get in touch or use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our informational emails.

Should you be getting in touch with a complaint, we strive to complaints very seriously. Everyone who makes a complaint will be treated with respect. In return, we expect people who make a complaint to communicate their concerns fairly and we reserve the right to modify our complaints process where complainants harass staff, use discriminatory language or behave abusively.

How to get in touch with Reprieve

You can get in touch with Reprieve at any time. If you have a complaint however, this should be made as soon as possible after the incident as this will enable Reprieve to investigate and resolve the issue in a timely manner.

There are a number of ways to contact Reprieve:

  • You can email us on [email protected];
  • You can call us on 020 7553 8140 (excluding weekends and UK bank holidays, when you will only be able to leave a message);
  • You can write to us at: Reprieve, PO Box 78292, London, E1W 9SS.

Please be prepared to provide us with the following information:

  • Your name and contact details;
  • The reason why you are getting in touch; feedback, compliments, complaints;
  • If it is a complaint, the nature of your complaint, the date when the issue arose and any names you have of people involved;
  • How you would like us to respond to you.

Please note that you may submit a complaint to Reprieve anonymously but we will not then be able to provide you with direct feedback on any action taken and it may be much more difficult for us to investigate.

What happens next?

We strive to reply to all feedback and complaints in the timely manner but we are a small team so this may take us some time. If you are writing with an enquiry or to give feedback, we will contact you within seven working days to send an acknowledgement or to provide you with the further information requested. If you are getting in touch regarding a complex issue that requires Reprieve to investigate further, we may need more time to respond. If this is the case, we will be in touch within the seven working days to inform you when you should expect a response

If you are contacting us with a complaint, we will:

  • Acknowledge the complaint within 7 working days, so you know we’ve received it;
  • Record the complaint;
  • Correct what went wrong, if possible and appropriate;
  • Tell you about what we have done and why;
  • Learn from the issue raised to avoid the same thing going wrong again in the future;
  • Address your complaint as soon as possible.

We hope that, in the majority of cases, the complaint will be able to be dealt with swiftly and to the standard expected by all parties involved.   We will endeavour to provide feedback on your complaint within one month of receiving it and will update you within this timeframe if we are not able to do this.

If you are not happy with how we have handled your complaint

If you are not happy with how we have dealt with your complaint you can escalate this to our Joint Executive Director by writing to:

  • Anna Yearley, Reprieve, PO Box 78292, London, E1W 9SS, or;
  • [email protected] marked for the attention of Anna Yearley.

If you are still dissatisfied

We will do our utmost to resolve any complaints made to Reprieve but if you remain dissatisfied with the response you have received, we will advise you to take up your complaint with one of the following external regulatory bodies:

What feedback data do you store?

In order to monitor complaints and ensure we can improve our processes, we log, track and audit our complaints. Our senior management team will report the number of complaints to our Board of Trustees annually and these numbers will be included in our annual report. We may also analyse themes of complaints to identify areas for further review or improvement.

Last updated: August 2, 2021