Policy Statement
The Skipton Musical Festival Association is committed to delivering and maintaining high standards across all areas of our work. We believe it is important to work in an open and accountable way that builds trust and respect. We value all comments and feedback from our stakeholders, including complaints. We learn important lessons from the feedback we receive as this helps us continually to improve our service.
We have developed this complaints policy and procedure to explain our approach to complaints. Our aim is to make it easy for stakeholders to complain about what we do and to be clear about all stages in the process.
We will
- Provide a fair complaints procedure which is clear and easy to use for anyone wishing to make a complaint
- Publicise the existence of our complaints policy and procedure so that people know how to make a complaint
- Make sure all complaints are investigated fairly and in a timely manner
- Make sure that, wherever possible, complaints are resolved and relationships repaired
- Learn from complaints and use them to improve our services
What is a complaint?
A complaint is defined as any expression of dissatisfaction, however it is expressed. This would include complaints expressed face to face, via a phone call, in writing, via email or any other method. The complaints procedure is intended to ensure that all complaints are handled fairly, consistently and where possible, resolved to the complainant’s satisfaction.
Responsibilities
Our responsibility is to
- Deal with the complaint in a reasonable, sensitive and timely manner
- Take action where appropriate
The complainant’s responsibility is to
- Bring their complaint to our attention within 8 weeks of the issue arising
- Explain the problem as clearly and as fully as possible, including any action they have taken to date
- Allow us reasonable time to deal with the matter
- Recognise that some circumstances may be beyond the control of the Festival
Overall responsibility for this policy and its implementation lies with the Skipton Festival Executive Committee (Chair, Secretary and Treasurer) and the Safeguarding Officer.
Confidentiality
We will handle all complaint information sensitively, telling only those who need to know and following any relevant data protection requirements.
The Skipton Festival Executive Committee will be made aware of all complaints received, with anonymity maintained unless it is deemed necessary under Safeguarding legislation to identify the complainant.
Complaints procedure
You can make a complaint or provide feedback in the following ways
- By phone
call a member of the Festival Executive Committee or the Safeguarding Officer - By email
mail a member of the Festival Executive Committee or the Safeguarding Officer - By post.
write to a member of the Festival Executive Committee or the Safeguarding Officer
All contact details are on the Festival contact page
The Festival registered address is:
Skipton Music Festival,
15 Walker Close,
Glusburn,
Keighley BD20 8PW
Procedure for dealing with Complaints
Verbal Complaint
A verbal complaint will be considered by the Executive Committee, who will seek advice from the Federation if needed. A verbal or email response will be provided within one working week.
Written Complaint
A written complaint will be considered by the Executive Committee. It will be acknowledged within 48 hours and responded to in writing within three working weeks.
Where necessary, the complaint will be referred to the general manager at Festivals House for advice. Where the complaint relates to existing codes of Practice, these will be taken into account when the response to the complaint is provided.
If the investigation of the complaint requires a longer timescale, you will be informed of this and kept updated on progress.
Ensuring we learn from complaints
A log of all verbal and written complaints received will be kept by the Secretary of the Executive Committee and any complaint received will be discussed anonymously at the next Executive Committee meeting to ensure that any learning is shared and policies and documentation are updated as is necessary.
This policy and procedure will be reviewed regularly by the Skipton Music Festival Committee to ensure it is fit for purpose.