COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE 

Last updated November 2024

1851 Trust Commitment 

The 1851 Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

What to do if you have a complaint

We view legitimate complaints positively as they are one of the ways that help us to ensure the continual improvement of our customer service standards and the quality of everything that we do. 

In particular, as an education charity, we take safeguarding extremely seriously. If you have any concerns about the behaviour of 1851 Trust’s staff, volunteers, guests or third-party providers in any situation, it is vital that you inform us about it as soon as possible. This will allow us to begin to resolve the issue and take appropriate actions to ensure that it does not happen again.

All formal complaints are directed to our CEO, Jo Grindley to ensure that they receive a high priority. 

How to contact us:

You can email us at: enquiries@1851Trust.org.uk

You can also write to us at: 1851 Trust, Unit 4, Number One, The Parade, Cowes PO31 7QJ

What we will do on receiving your complaint

• Upon receipt of a complaint, we shall listen, record your complaint and shall advise you on how it will be handled.
• We shall investigate the complaint when necessary. If the complaint involves a member of staff or volunteer, we will not divulge the name of the complainant during the investigation unless we are specifically given permission to do so
• We shall take action to resolve the problem and will tell you what the action is
• We shall take steps to avoid a repeat occurrence

At all times we will treat you with understanding and respect. We ask that you do the same for our staff.

Confidential information in relation to your complaint will be handled sensitively.

We are not able to respond to anonymous complaints however we shall endeavour to follow the complaints process as far as possible. We do not deal with matters for which the Trust is not directly responsible unless it involves a safeguarding issue.

The Trust runs a range of exciting activities to inspire young people and works alongside several third-party providers to offer these activities. The 1851 Trust will take necessary actions to liaise with third parties to ensure that any complaints relating to them are dealt with efficiently and effectively. The 1851 Trust will follow up complaints with our third-party providers to ensure that safety is upheld at all times. 

Complaint response times

We would appreciate your understanding that, with limited resources, we cannot always respond to your complaint immediately, although we will whenever we can.

You will receive an initial acknowledgement and/or response within ten working days of receipt of your complaint and we expect to resolve most problems in that time.

Where a more in-depth investigation is required we aim to provide a full response within 20 working days. If there are exceptional circumstances, where that is not possible, we will advise you.

What constitutes a legitimate complaint

We regard a legitimate complaint as any expression of dissatisfaction with any aspect of the 1851 Trust, which is under the control of the Trust, its staff or volunteers.

What if our response does not satisfy you

If our response does not satisfy you, you have recourse to the online complaint form at the Charity Commission: www.charitycommission.gov.uk.