East Durham College - Complaints Procedure

PROCEDURE TITLE: Complaints Procedure General
DOCUMENT NUMBER: 5.1.12
GROUPING PROCEDURE: Quality
AUTHOR / REVISOR / OWNER: Alistair Cummins-MacLeod
DATE OF CURRENT VERSION: April 2023
REVIEW DATE: April 2025
IMPACT ASSESSED: Yes
APPROVED BY: CQ&S Curriculum Quality & Standards
DATE: 31/03/2023

All college users.

• To allow complaints to be aired.
• To ensure that complaints are resolved as quickly and fairly as possible.
• To foster and maintain good relationships between all parties concerned.

It is our intention to ensure that all complaints are handled promptly, fairly, consistently, and proportionately. This procedure applies to all complaints, both formal and informal, by students, customers.

A complainant who wishes to make a complaint may do so either in writing or verbally.

All complaints made in writing, using email, letter, the webform or the College’s Official Complaint Form (CP1) are immediately classed as formal complaints. All complaints made verbally or via social media/live chat will initially be classed as an informal complaint.

Complaints can be e-mailed to complaints@eastdurham.ac.uk, by letter or by completing the complaints webform via the college website or paper-based form which is available from reception/student services. College staff will be happy to support you to write down your complaint should any of these methods be unsuitable.

Receipt of all formal complaints will be acknowledged in writing within 5 working days if via post or 2 working days if via email.

Following investigation, a response to the complainant will usually be provided within 10 working days of the acknowledgement unless the complaint is particularly complex, in which case the complainant will be informed of reasons for the delay.

Please note: half term and the main holidays are outside of official working days and any complainant will be advised accordingly in the acknowledgement and provided with a revised target deadline.

Complaints against Staff

If a complaint is received specifically about a staff member of East Durham College it should be immediately passed to HR who will decide the most appropriate person to investigate.

Complaints against College Management Team

If a complaint is received specifically about a member of East Durham College’s Management Team it should immediately be passed to the member of the College Leadership Team with line management responsibility for that manager for investigation.

Complaints against the Principal/Senior Staff

If a complaint is received specifically about the Principal or a Senior Post Holder, as defined by the Corporation, it should immediately be passed to the Clerk to the Corporation who will refer it to the Chair of the Corporation. The Chair of the Corporation may appoint a Governor or a panel of Governors to investigate the matter if considered appropriate.

The outcome of any complaint against the Principal or a Senior Post Holder will be reported to the Corporation.

Complaints against Members of Corporation

Where a complaint is received specifically about the Clerk to the Corporation it should immediately be passed to the Principal who will refer the matter to the Chair of the Corporation. The Chair of the Corporation may appoint a Governor or a panel of Governors to investigate the matter if considered appropriate.

If a complaint is made about the Chair of the Corporation, the Clerk to the Corporation will refer the matter to the Vice-Chair of the Corporation.

If a complaint is made specifically about an aspect of the governance of East Durham College, a member of the Corporation (other than the Chair) or the activities of the Corporation, then the Clerk to the Corporation will refer the matter to the Chair of the Corporation, who will investigate action as appropriate, taking advice as necessary from the Clerk to the Corporation.

The Clerk to the Corporation may, if appropriate, refer any complaint regarding the Chair or the activities of the Corporation to the Skills Funding Agency.

If appropriate, East Durham College’s complaint procedure may be used with the Clerk to the Corporation investigating the matter.

If East Durham College’s complaint procedure is not appropriate for a complaint against a member of the Corporation, the Chair, or Vice-Chair, if appropriate, may appoint a Governor or a panel of Governors to investigate the matter. In such circumstances, the Clerk to the Corporation shall be responsible for providing advice and support and for the provision of specialist external advice if required.

Complaints we cannot investigate

The College will not normally record or investigate:

• A decision made where the correct procedures / processes / regulations have been followed (e.g. disciplinary and debt recovery).
• Anonymous communications.
• Something outside the control or responsibility of the College.
• Something that happened some time ago. Investigations will not take place if 12 weeks has elapse from the time of an alleged incident occurring.
• A liability claim, or other litigation matter.
• A complaint regarding an academic judgement on Higher Education work, for example the grade awarded for a piece of assessed work. This would be forwarded to the relevant university for investigation.
• Higher Education Academic Appeals - specific procedures exist for these within Higher Education Academic Appeals procedure and also within the regulations and guidelines partner universities and awarding bodies, relating to the decisions made by exam boards. This would be forwarded to the relevant university for investigation.
• Admissions and progression appeals and complaints - specific procedures exist for these within our Admissions policy.
• The College will not accept a complaint lodged by a third party, other than if a parent, carer or guardian of a 14 to 17-year-old student.
• All complaints will be processed in line with GDPR regulations.

Investigation Response

The complaint response – a reasoned judgement by the investigating officer – will be sent to the complainant within 10 working days of acknowledgement communication. However, complex cases will, unavoidably, take longer to investigate with due care and thoroughness. The complainant will, in any event, be kept informed of the progress of any investigation.

Appeals

Any comments about the way in which the complaint was dealt with, or any appeal against the findings and action, must be made in writing to the Vice Principal or representative, setting out the detailed grounds for appeal, within 10 days of receipt of the outcome. The Vice Principal or representative will review the evidence and respond to the appellant within 15 working days of receiving the appeal.

Equality Monitoring

To comply with the Equality Act 2010 and ensure fair treatment for all, East Durham College will collect data on the ‘protected characteristics’ of complainants, i.e.: 

• Race
• Disability
• Sex
• Age
• Gender reassignment
• Religion / belief
• Pregnancy / maternity
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Sexual Orientation

All information is confidential, seen by a limited number of staff and East Durham College reporting mechanisms guarantee data protection.

Complaints Made to External Organisations

External organisations will not normally investigate complaints until the College’s complaints procedure, including appeal, has been exhausted.
If making a complaint to an awarding body, please follow the relevant guidance online:

• 1ST 4 SPORT
• AAT
• AQA
• ASCENTIS
• BPEC
• CITY & GUILDS
• CQual
• EAL
• ILM
• NCFE
• OCN/NOCN
• OCNWM
• OCR
• PEARSON/EDEXCEL
• PRINCES TRUST
• SEG
• UAL
• VETSKILL
• VTCT
• WJEC
• YMCA

Complaints about Further Education can be made to:

Complaints Team, Education & Skills Funding Agency, Cheylesmore House, Quinton Road, Coventry, CV1 2WT or email complaints at esfa@education.gov.uk

Complaints about Higher Education courses at East Durham College delivered in partnership with the University of Sunderland

If you are not satisfied with the resolution offered, you may wish to take your complaint to the university if you are not satisfied with our response. All students on higher education courses are able to bring a complaint that occurred on or after 1 September 2015 to the Office of Independent Adjudicator. It would be expected that if an HE student were unhappy about their HE course, they would go through college complaints procedure first.

Where the response is still deemed to be unsatisfactory, the student should then follow the University of Sunderland internal complaints procedure first, before complaining to the OIA. 

You can find full details of the University of Sunderland’s Student Complaints Procedure in the University Student Handbook or at www.sunderland.ac.uk

Complaints about Higher Education courses at East Durham College delivered in partnership with the University of Teesside.

Complaints about Higher Education courses at East Durham College delivered in partnership with the University of Teesside.

The University’s Complaint Application Packs, which includes a copy of our Student Complaints, Policy & Procedure can be found here or please email oscar@tees.ac.uk or call 01642 342 322

CP1 Complaint Form Documents and records of all complaints and responses are held in Student Services/Manager/Complaints (For staff Grievance Procedure see HR Policies).

This document is issued and controlled by Quality & Standards and may only be modified by the designated group after proposed modifications have been accepted by the College Management Group.

The latest version of the policy will be maintained on the College Extranet.

Please feedback to Quality & Standards any constructive suggestions on how any aspect of the policy may be clarified or improved.