We expect your time with us to be a positive experience, but we accept that sometimes you may have concerns. The complaints and appeals processes are reflected here, should you require them.

The purpose of this policy is to outline Agincare’s company policy and procedures in relation to dealing with complaints and concerns.

The aim of this policy is to ensure that its procedures are properly and effectively implemented and that stakeholders and apprentice feel confident that their complaints, communications and concerns are listened to and acted upon promptly and fairly.

We will also ensure positive feedback is communicated. Compliments received and reported appropriately can provide a valuable means of demonstrating that the service is achieving its aims. To this end, Agincare will communicate praise and compliments to individual staff through their support and supervision processes.

The company may choose to use those compliments wholly, or in part, in training or publicity campaigns whilst assuring anonymity of individuals and ensuring that the content is not changed or taken out of context in any form.
If the complaint is pertaining to qualifications, assessments or examination marks you should refer to the appeals process for resolution.

Download our Complaints and Compliments Policy

1. Who is this policy for?

We hope that all our apprentices and learners are happy with the services provided through Training Now. However, we understand that if you are not happy about the service you have received, you might want to complain. We take all complains seriously and we are committed to dealing with them fairly, transparently and efficiently. We do this through our complaints procedure which is explained below.

2. Our promise to you

We are committed to ensuring our apprentices and learners have the best possible learning experience. On the rare occasion that something goes wrong, then we want to know about it and we promise to resolve any issues openly and as quickly as we can.

We promise to:

Deal with any complaints honestly, politely and in confidence
Try to settle most complaints quickly and informally by putting matters right or by giving you an explanation
Keep you updated on what we are doing to put things right
Try to provide a full response within 10 working days
Use any complaints to help us to improve our services
Keep all information about the complaint or person making the complaint confidential and only involve those staff directly involved with resolving the complaint.

If the complaint results in a disciplinary proceeding for a member of staff, this should not normally delay our response to the person making the complaint.

This policy is not designed to apportion blame, to consider the possibility of negligence or to provide compensation and it is not part of the organisation’s disciplinary policy.

Promoting a culture of openness and truthfulness is a very important factor improving the safety and effectiveness of our learning centres.

3. Your responsibilities

To make sure that we can handle all our complaints fairly and consistently and that we can resolve them so we are all satisfied, you as the complainant need to:

Bring your complaint to us as soon as possible
Raise your concerns directly with a member of staff
Explain the problem as clearly and with as much detail as possible and include any actions that have already taken place
Give us a reasonable time to deal with the problem
Understand that in some cases, what has happened may be beyond my control.

4. Our complaints procedure

We expect your time with us to be a positive experience, but we accept that sometimes you will have concerns. Most problems can be sorted out by talking to one of our Managers, for example the Quality and Learning Manager, Learning and Development Manager, Head of Quality and Learning or your own manager who can bring it to our attention. You may want to try this before making any formal complaint.

However, if you do this and are not satisfied with how your complaint has been dealt with informally, you should use this complaints procedure.

You may be unhappy with:

The standard of the service you are receiving
Our response to a request
The behaviour of a member of staff
The way you have been treated (for example if you experience bullying, harassment or unfair treatment)
Allegations of fraud or financial mismanagement.

You can use any of the following methods to get in touch with us and speak to us about a problem or a concern:

By email
By letter
By speaking with a member of staff
By telephone
By contacting us via our website.

The 3-stage complaint procedure

We have a 3-stage complaint procedure that tries to sort out problems quickly and efficiently.

Stage 1

The first step is to write down your complaint and send it to Training Now. You can do this via email to info@training-now.co.uk or via the post to Training Now, Agincare Hose, Admiralty Buildings, Castletown, Portland, DT5 1BB. You need to send your complaint in within 2 weeks of the incident that has caused the complaint. Make sure that you have included all the information we need to carry out a proper investigation, for example any witnesses and the dates and times.

When you do this, we will pass it on to the person who is best placed to deal with it directly. Upon receiving your complaint, we will formally notify you that we are in receipt of your complaint and who the investigating officer is.

We will give you a full response within 10 working days of receiving the complaint unless there is a good reason why this cannot happen.

We hope that we can resolve most complaints at this stage.

At this stage the responsibility is with the Head of Quality and Learning.

Stage 2

If you are not happy with the response or action after Stage 1, you can contact us again to take the complaint further.

During Stage 2, the Operations Director will investigate the complaint. Operations Director will respond to you within 10 working days of the complaint being sent to them unless there is a good reason why this cannot happen. If you don’t receive a response within 10 days, we will let you know why and give you a new date for their response.

Stage 3

If you are still unhappy with the outcome, the Managing Director will review how your complaint was investigated and what the outcome was. The Managing Director will respond to you within 10 working days of the complaint being sent to them unless there is a good reason why this cannot happen. If you don’t receive a response within 10 days, we will let you know why and give you a new date for their response.

What happens if you are still not satisfied?

If you have gone through all of the stages above and you feel that your complaint is still not solved, then you report the problem to the Chief Operating Officer for Agincare Group. You will be able to contact them via our Head Office at:

Agincare House

Admiralty Buildings

Castletown

Portland, Dorset DT5 1BB

In addition, you can complain Training Now by contacting the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) if your course is funded by the ESFA, for example if you are complaining about your apprenticeships. You can find out about this at:

Complain about a further education college or apprenticeship – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) or via their complaints team at:
complaints.ESFA@education.gov.uk

Complaints team
Education and Skills Funding Agency
Cheylesmore House
Quinton Road
Coventry
CV1 2WT

We will do all we can to make sure that we deal with all complaints in a fair, sensitive and professional manner and carry out a full investigation. We may need to ask you for additional information, and we will do this in writing.

We will give you full feedback on the results of the investigation. This may be in a meeting where we can discuss how we can come to a solution that we are all happy with, or it may be a letter. This will depend on the complaint.

We reserve the right to include or get advice from third parties or legal organisations throughout the investigation process.

We keep records of complaints so it can help us to improve our service.

4. Definition

Training Now defines a complaint or a concern as ‘any expression of dissatisfaction with our service’.

5. Difference between a concern and a complaint

By taking informal concerns seriously at the earliest stage, we hope that this will resolve any issues and stop them turning into formal complaints. For all our formal complaints, we will follow the 3-stage procedure that we have outlined above.

6. Confidentiality

Except in exceptional circumstances, we will make every attempt to make sure that confidentiality is maintained. However, in some circumstances, it may not be possible to maintain confidentiality. Should this be the case, we will make sure that you are fully aware of this.

7. Roles and responsibilities

The Managing Director has overall and final responsibility for all complaints in the company.

The Operations Director will monitor all complaints and provide analysis to the Senior Management Team. The Head of Learning and Quality will deal with all complaints and is the first port of call.

The Head of Quality and Learning will:

Be responsible for the first stage of the 3-stage process and try to resolve all complaints at this stage
Refer to the Operations Director if a complaint goes to stage 2
Manage staff training

The Operations Director will:

Develop effective processes
Be responsible for this Policy.

8. Compliments and feedback

We are very keen to hear about the good things you have experienced while you have trained with us. We will make sure that any positive feedback is communicated to our team. When we receive a compliment, it gives us a good way of showing that we are doing what we are supposed to. We really would like you to give us feedback about your experience, and you can do this in writing or by telling us. We also ask you to fill in surveys to we can see how we are doing. We use this information to help us to do better and improve our services.

When we received good feedback, we reserve the right to use these compliments or comments wholly, or in part, in training or publicity campaigns. If we are using these, we will make sure that they are anonymous or we get permission from you to use your name. We will make sure that we do not change the content or use it out of context.

We may invite you to attend learner forums and we will ask for your feedback via surveys.

9. Escalating externally

If you feel unhappy with the response you have from your complaint, you have the right to involve our external funding agencies. However, before you can do this, you have to make sure that you have gone through all the other options that are included in this policy and be absolutely sure that all other avenues have been exhausted. This is a final and last resort route only.

The only exception to this rule is a complaint about fraudulent practice which should go directly to our funding agency. They will deal with any complaints via their own policy and procedure.

To contact the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), you can use the Apprenticeship Helpline via nationalhelpdesk@apprenticeships.gov.uk or call 0800 015 0400.

10. Equality & diversity

You have the right to complain about the services you receive from Training Now who are the training arm of Agincare Group Ltd. You can expect to be treated fairly and without discrimination.

We have an Equality and Diversity Policy that will make sure you are not discriminated against, either directly or indirectly.

Download our Complaints and compliments policy