Complaints Policy

Our Internal Complaints Procedure:

 

There are three stages of the complaints procedure.  Steps one and two must be completed prior commencing to Step 3.

 

Stage One – Initial response to resolve the informal complaint

We will acknowledge your informal complaint within 5 working days of receiving it, and explain when you will next be contacted. Both the initial complaint and our response may be made by telephone or email, and the mediator will add a note to the case file for future reference. At this stage the mediator concerned in the complaint will be involved directly in responding and seeking to resolve the issue.

 

Stage Two – Internal formal attempt to resolve the complaint

If you wish to take the complaint further we will ask you to put your complaint in writing preferably via email, and we will acknowledge in writing the formal complaint within 5 working days, and inform you of the next steps. This will be dealt with by the mediator concerned in the complaint.  Once the section of this stage has been completed then the mediators PPC will take over the formal complaint from this point forward. 

 

The PPC will send you a full written response to your formal complaint within 20 working days from the date of your Stage Two acknowledgment from the mediator.  If further time is required to investigate your complaint then the PPC will inform you of this, still within the 20 working days and state further time is required to investigate.  During Stage Two, the client’s case file will continue to be updated with the complaint information.

 

Please note: Every family mediator recognised by the Family Mediation Council is required to have a Professional Practice Consultant (PPC), who provides the mediator with professional support and guidance. We must inform our PPCs about the complaint and within 7 days of receiving the complaint in writing, or as soon as reasonably practicable, written copies of all correspondence relating to the complaint will be sent to our PPC.   Written records of any meeting and discussions must be kept on both the case file, and our own professional files. If the PPC is able to help us to resolve the complaint at this stage, the PPC will decide whether the other party to the mediation should be informed about the complaint.  If we are able to resolve the complaint with you at this stage, then written records of the nature of the complaint and its resolution, together with associated correspondence, will be kept on file and reviewed by the PPC so that lessons can be learned.

 

Stage 3 – External formal attempt to resolve the complaint

Possible referral to the Family Mediation Council (FMC), may be considered if the complaint is not resolved by our internal process (Stage one and Two), as set out as above, and the complaint involves a breach of the Family Mediation Council Code of Practice, then you are entitled to complain to the Family Mediation Council, as the regulatory body for family mediators. For further information please see https://www.familymediationcouncil.org.uk/complaints-about-mediators/.

 

The FMC have set out the minimum requirements for Mediators’ Own Complaints Process, please click onto Minimum-Requirements-for-Mediator-Complaints-Processes-Feb-22.pdf for further information.