COMPLAINTS POLICY

At Connect Church we always aim to act in a way which honours God and is appropriate for our place in the community, providing a high standard of care in all our operations.

Our community’s views are important to us and help to ensure our operations are consistently meeting the high standards of our vision and values. If any situation were to arise where you felt that these standards were not being met, it is important that you let us know. This policy is intended for the use of anyone who wishes to make a complaint against Connect Church. 

If a complaint alerts us to possible abuse, neglect or similar safeguarding issues we will immediately inform our safeguarding team. The safeguarding team will decide how to investigate and monitor outcomes. 

Making a complaint

We aim to handle complaints quickly, effectively and in a fair and honest way. We take all complaints seriously and use valuable information from investigating to help us improve our operations. We treat all complaints in confidence.

Connect Church assures all partners and friends that their place in our community will not be called into question, and that they will not experience any alteration in treatment or ability to engage because they have a complaint in good faith.

Who can complain

Anyone affected by a decrease in the standard of Connect Church’s operations can make a complaint.

A representative may complain for the affected person if they:

  • cannot make a complaint themselves, or
  • have given consent for the representative to act on their behalf

If you are not happy about making a complaint yourself and you do not know someone who can talk or write to us on your behalf, we will be happy to find someone from an independent organisation to act as an advocate for you.

How you can make a complaint

You can complain:

  • In person to a member of Staff, The Leadership Team or the Trustee Board
  • By telephone
  • Through a member of our staff
  • Through an advocate or representative 
  • By Letter
  • By Email

Where someone complains orally we will make a written record and provide a copy of it within 3 working days.

Anonymous complaints

We deal with anonymous complaints under the same procedure; however it is better if you can provide contact details so we can tell you the outcome of our investigation.

Responsibility

The Trustee Board has overall responsibility for dealing with all complaints made about Connect Church. We will provide as far as is reasonably practical:

  • any help you need to understand the complaints procedure; or
  • advice on where you may get that help.
How we handle complaints

The Trustee Board or Connect Church may ask one of the employees to investigate the complaint. That person will have enough seniority and experience to deal with the issues raised by the complaint.

We will acknowledge a complaint within 3 working days and give you the name and contact details of the person investigating it.

We will keep you informed about the progress of the investigation. We aim to have all complaints finished within 28 working days unless we agree to a different time scale with you.

When we have finished investigating, we will arrange to meet with you to discuss the outcome, and write to you with:

  • Details of the findings;
  • Any action we have taken; and
  • Our proposals to resolve your complaint.  
Time limits

You should complain as soon as you are able to after the date on which the event occurred or came to your notice. Complaints made sooner give us a better opportunity to investigate fully. In the event that a complaint is made a long time after an incident occurred we shall also consider whether you had good reason for not making the complaint sooner and whether, despite the delay, it is still possible to investigate the complaint effectively and fairly.

Further steps

At any stage during the process, if you are not happy with the way that Connect Church is dealing with your complaint you can contact our Regional Minister at the East Midlands Baptist Association:

East Midlands Baptist Association
℅ West Bridgford Baptist Church
Melton Road
West Bridgford
Nottingham
NG2 7NF

Once we have dealt with your complaint, if you are not happy with the outcome you can refer your complaint to Baptist Union of Great Britain, and more about their own internal complaints procedure can be found on the BUGB Website at www.baptist.co.uk

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