Seventh-day Adventist Schools are committed to providing a harmonious, Christ-like, safe environment for all students, parents and staff. This guideline is intended to ensure that complaints are handled fairly, efficiently and effectively. The complaints management system is intended to:
This document provides the key principles and concepts of the complaints management system for both staff and parents and others who wish to make a complaint.
This Guideline applies to all company staff receiving or managing complaints from parents, other staff members or the wider community made about schools or the company, their services, or how the company handles complaints.
There are separate, specific guidelines that establish processes for handling child protection, overseas students and employment related complaints or grievances.
Complaint
A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction made about a school, the company and/or complaint handling processes, where a response or resolution is explicitly, implicitly or legally required.
Complaints about
are not covered in this Guideline.
Company
Director
Executive Director or Associate Executive Director or Delegate of the Schools Company
This Guideline is intended to ensure that complaints are handled fairly, efficiently and effectively. The complaints management system is intended to:
This document provides the key principles and concepts of the complaints management system for both staff and parents and others who wish to make a complaint.
The company expects staff at all levels to be committed to fair, effective and efficient complaint handling.
3.2.1. Director
The Director is committed to promoting a culture that values complaints and their effective resolution by:
3.2.2. Principal
The Principal is responsible for complaint handling in each school and is committed to establishing and managing the complaints management system by:
3.2.3. Staff
Staff whose duties include complaint handling are expected to be committed to demonstrating exemplary complaint handling practices by:
4.1.1. People focus
The company is committed to seeking and receiving feedback and complaints about practices,procedures and complaint handling at schools and/or the company level.Any concerns raised in feedback or complaints will be dealt with within a reasonable time frame (see 5.3 - acknowledgement of complaints).
People making complaints will be:
4.1.2. No detriment to people making complaints
All reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that people making complaints are not adversely affected because a complaint has been made by them or on their behalf.
4.1.3. Anonymous complaints
Anonymous complaints will be accepted and there will be an investigation of the issues raised where there is enough relevant information provided, including the identity of theschool or office to which the complaint relates.
4.1.4. Visibility and transparency
Information about how and where complaints may be made will be readily available and publicised on school websites.
4.1.5. Accessibility
The company is committed to ensuring that its complaints management process is easily understood and accessible to everyone, particularly people who may require assistance, for example, people for whom English is not their first language.
If a person prefers or needs another person to assist them in the making and/or resolution of their complaint, the school or company will communicate with them through their representative if this is their wish. Anyone may represent a person wishing to make a complaint, with their consent.
4.2.1. Early resolution
Where possible, complaints will be resolved at first contact with the particular school or, in the case of complaints about the company, first contact with the director.
4.2.2. Responsiveness
Complaints will be assessed and prioritised in accordance with the urgency and/or seriousness of the issues raised. If a matter concerns an immediate risk to safety or security the response will be immediate and will be escalated appropriately.
The company is committed to managing people's expectations and will inform them as soon as possible, of the following:
The school or company will advise people as soon as practicable when it is unable to deal with any part of their complaint.
4.2.3. Objectivity and fairness
Each complaint will be addressed with integrity and in an equitable, objective and unbiased manner. Each complaint will be assessed on its merits.
Conflicts of interests, whether actual or perceived, will be managed responsibly. In particular, internal reviews of how a complaint was managed will be conducted by a person other than the original decision maker.
4.2.4. Confidentiality
The identity of people making complaints will be protected where this is practical and appropriate.
Personal information that identifies individuals will only be disclosed or used by the company as permitted under privacy legislation.
4.3.1. Empowerment of staff
All staff managing complaints are empowered to implement the complaints guideline as relevant to their role and responsibilities. Staff are empowered to resolvecomplaints promptly and with as little formality as possible. Staff are encouraged to provide feedback on the effectiveness of this complaints management process.
4.3.2. Managing unreasonable conduct by people making complaints
Schools and the company are committed to being accessible and responsive to all people who approach them with feedback or complaints.
When people behave unreasonably in their dealings with either a school or the company, conduct can significantly affect the progress and efficiency of the school or company's work. As a result, any conduct that negatively and unreasonably affects a school or the company will be proactively and decisively managed by staff.
When responding to complaints, staff should act in accordance with this guideline. There are five key stages in the complaint management system:
Unless the complaint has been resolved at first point of contact, it will be recorded as a complaint together with its supporting information. Initially verbal complaints will be accepted but with serious complaints the person making the complaint may subsequently be asked to set out their complaint in writing.
The record of the complaint will identify:the contact information of the person making the complaint;
The receipt of each complaint will usually be acknowledged within 24 hours and a response, or an update, will be given within 10 working days.
Consideration will be given to the most appropriate medium for communicating with the person making a complaint, taking into account the needs of the school or the company and the expressed views of the person making the complaint.
After acknowledging receipt of the complaint, the staff member handling the complaint will confirm whether the issue/s raised in the complaint is/are within the school’s or company's control. The outcome/s sought by the person making a complaint will be considered and, where there is more than one issue raised, there will be a determination whether each issue needs to be separately addressed.
When determining how a complaint will be managed, the issues raised will be assessed against the following criteria:
5.4.1. Addressing complaints
The methodology for addressing the complaint may include:
The nature and scope of any action taken will depend on a number of factors including:
Following consideration of the complaint and any investigation into the issues raised, the person making the complaint will be contacted in a timely manner and advised of:
At the time of closing the complaint a record will be made of the following:
Where possible, complaints will be resolved by staff at the appropriate school level. Staff will be adequately equipped to respond to complaints, including being given appropriate authority, training and supervision.
Where early resolution of a complaint is not possible, however, due to the complexity of the issues raised, dissatisfaction with the complaint outcome or how the complaint was dealt with, the complaint may be escalated to the director level. This second level of complaint handling will provide for the following internal mechanisms:
Where a person making a complaint is dissatisfied with the outcome of the director's review of their complaint they may seek a further review from the Chair of the Board of Directors. In some instances the Chair of the Board of Directors may engage a third party to review a matter and provide a report.
Complaints are recorded in a systematic way so that information can be easily retrieved for reporting and analysis.
Regular reports will be run on:
Regular analysis of these reports will be undertaken to monitor trends, measure the quality of service and make improvements.
Both reports and their analysis will be provided to the Director for review.
The complaints management system will be monitored to:
The Company is committed to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of its complaints management system. To this end, the company will:
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