Complaints

When to use this policy

When you express your concerns or complain to us, we will usually respond in the way explained below.

This policy does not apply if the matter relates to a Freedom of Information or Data Protection issue. In this circumstance, you should consult the Freedom of Information section of the website.

If you are approaching us for the first time, (e.g. requesting one of the services we offer) then this policy does not apply. You should first give us a chance to respond to your request. However, if you make a request for a service and are not satisfied with our response, you will be able to make your concern known as set out below.

Informal Resolution

If possible, we believe it is best to deal with things straight away rather than try to sort them out later. If you have a concern, raise it with the person you are dealing with. They will try to resolve it for you there and then. If there are any lessons to learn from addressing your concern then the member of staff will draw them to our attention. If the member of staff cannot help, they will explain why and you can request a formal investigation.

How to express concern or complain formally

You can express your concern in any of the ways below:

• You can speak with the person with whom you are already in contact. Tell them that you want us to deal with your concern formally.

• You can get in touch with our Operations Director on our general telephone number 029 2046 7030 (rydym yn croesawu galwadau’n Gymraeg / we welcome calls in Welsh) if you want to make your complaint over the phone.

• You can e-mail us at hello@lshubwales.com

• You can write to us at the following address: The Operations Director, Life Sciences Hub Wales Limited, 3 Assembly Square, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, CF10 4PL.

Dealing with your concern or complaint

We will deal with your complaint or concern in the following manner:

• We will formally acknowledge your concern within 5 working days and let you know how we intend to deal with it.

• We will ask you to tell us how you would like us to communicate with you and establish whether you have any particular requirements – for example, if you have a disability.

• We will deal with your concern or complaint in an open and honest way.

• We will make sure that your dealings with us in the future do not suffer just because you have expressed a concern or made a complaint.

Normally, we will only be able to look at your concerns if you tell us about them within six months. This is because it is better to look into your concerns while the issues are still fresh in everyone’s mind.

We may exceptionally be able to look at concerns which are brought to our attention later than this. However, you will have to give us strong reasons why you have not been able to bring it to our attention earlier and we will need to have sufficient information about the issue to allow us to consider it properly.

If you’re expressing a concern on behalf of somebody else, we will need their agreement to you acting on their behalf.

What if more than one body is involved?

If your complaint covers more than one body we will usually work with them to decide who should take a lead in dealing with your concerns. You will then be given the name of the person responsible for communicating with you while your complaint is considered.

If the complaint is about an organisation we work with, you may wish to raise the matter informally with them first. However, if you want to express your concern or complaint formally, we will look into this ourselves and respond to you.

Investigation

We will tell you who we have asked to look into your concern or complaint. If your concern is straightforward, we will usually ask somebody from the business area to look into it and get back to you. If it is more serious, we may use someone from elsewhere in the organisation or we may appoint an independent investigator.

We will set out to you our understanding of your concerns and ask you to confirm that we have understood it correctly. We will also ask you to tell us what outcome you are hoping for.

We will aim to resolve concerns as quickly as possible and expect to deal with the vast majority within 20 working days. If your complaint is more complex, we will:

• let you know within this time why we think it may take longer to investigate

• tell you how long we expect it to take.

• let you know where we have reached with the investigation, and

• give you regular updates, including telling you whether any developments might change our original estimate.

The person who is investigating your concerns will aim first to establish the facts. The extent of this investigation will depend on how complex and how serious the issues you have raised are. In complex cases, we will draw up an investigation plan.

We will look at relevant evidence. This could include files, notes, letters, e-mails or whatever may be relevant to your particular concern. If necessary, we will talk to the staff or others involved and consider our policies and any legal guidance.

We will communicate with you during the investigation and provide updates as it progresses.

Outcome

If we formally investigate your complaint, we will let you know what we have found in keeping with your preferred form of communication. If necessary, we will produce a longer report. We will explain how and why we came to our conclusions.

If we find that we got it wrong, we will tell you what and why it happened and how the mistake affected you.

If we find there is a fault in our systems or processes, we will tell you what it is and how we plan to change things to stop it happening again.

If we got it wrong, we will always apologise.

Learning lessons

We take your concerns and complaints seriously and try to learn from any mistakes we have made.

Where there is a need for change, we will develop an action plan setting out what we will do, who will do it and when we plan to do it by. We will share this with you.

What we expect from you

We believe that all complainants have the right to be heard, understood and respected. However, we also consider that our staff have the same rights. We, therefore, expect you to be polite and courteous in your dealings with us. We will not tolerate aggressive or abusive behaviour, unreasonable demands or unreasonable persistence.