Complaints procedure
Help us to get things right
The following procedure covers complaints about the services that NCSL and its partners provide to its customers.
NCSL is committed to providing a quality service and achieving the highest standards of customer experience. One of the ways in which we can continue to improve our service is by listening and responding to the views of our customers. We want to ensure that:
- making a complaint is as easy as possible
- we treat as a complaint any clear expression of dissatisfaction with our service which calls for a response
- we treat it seriously whether it is made in person, by telephone, by letter, by fax, or by email
- we deal with it promptly, politely and, where appropriate, informally (for example, by telephone)
- we respond in the right way, for example, with an explanation, or an apology where we have got things wrong, or information on any action taken
- we learn from complaints and use them to improve our service
How do I make a complaint?
Who should I complain to?
There are two routes for making a complaint, depending on whether your complaint is about one of our commissioned programmes, or whether it relates to other programmes and services provided by NCSL.
Our commissioned programmes
From September 2006, if you have a complaint about the following programmes, it should be made directly to your local service provider:
- Advanced Leadership
- Bursar Development Programme
- Early Headship Provision
- Leadership Pathways
- Leadership Programme for Serving Heads
- Leading from the Middle
You can make a complaint in writing, by email or by telephone to your local service provider's complaints officer. If you are writing, faxing or emailing your complaint, please provide your telephone number if a response by telephone would be convenient. If you are emailing, please state if a reply by email is required and, if not, please provide a full postal address.
Our other programmes and services
You can make a complaint in writing, by email or by telephone to our NCSL complaints officer. If you are writing, faxing or emailing your complaint, please provide your telephone number if a response by telephone would be convenient. If you are emailing, please state if a reply by email is required and, if not, please provide a full postal address.
You should address your complaint in the first instance to:
Lynn Morley
NCSL Complaints Officer
National College for School Leadership
Triumph Road
Nottingham
NG8 1DH
E: complaints@ncsl.org.uk
T: 0845 609 0009
What happens next?
- Where the complaint is made verbally, it may be possible to give an immediate response or apology.
- All written complaints which warrant a simple response or apology will be replied to within 15 working days from receipt of the complaint.
- All complaints which warrant more than a simple explanation or apology will be acknowledged and complainants informed that they will receive a response within a stipulated number of working days from receipt of the complaint.
- Should the complaint require a more in-depth investigation and where a response cannot be provided within 15 working days, an interim reply will be sent with an undertaking to provide a full response by a date specified in the letter. That full response will include details of whom to contact next if you believe or feel that the complaint has not been dealt with properly.
- If you remain dissatisfied, you can ask for your complaint to be referred to the chief executive of NCSL, or his nominee, who will arrange for a further review to be carried out in the light of the information available, consider that review and inform you of the outcome in writing, normally within 10 working days.
- If you still remain dissatisfied, you can ask an external reviewer to review your complaint and how it has been handled. Details of how to refer your complaint to the external reviewer may be obtained from the NCSL Complaints Officer Lynn Morley.
