Complaints

COMPLAINTS POLICY

The Countryside Restoration Trust aims to maintain high standards in all of its work but we recognise that we can sometimes get things wrong, despite our best intentions. We are committed to establishing and maintaining good relations with all Friends, supporters, donors, partners, volunteers and members of the public and we aim to always treat people with respect.

The Countryside Restoration Trust is a member of the Fundraising Regulator and as such complies with the six key pledges in our Fundraising Promise.

YOUR FEEDBACK MATTERS TO US

At the CRT, we openly welcome feedback, comments, suggestions and complaints. We actively encourage you to contact us with your feedback, whether good or bad. Complaints are especially important to us as they may help us to see where our procedures or activities might be improved.

Without your feedback on these occasions we would not be able to improve the service we offer to you in the future, and therefore we value and take seriously any feedback you provide. We promise to take all complaints seriously and to deal with them in a timely manner.

HOW TO COMPLAIN

You can use the contact us form, call us, write to us or email us about your complaint and we will be pleased to help.

The information below outlines our complaints procedure.

FIRST STEP: CONTACT US

If you have a complaint you can contact us by phone, email, letter or complete our contact us form.

To help us investigate and address all complaints, we ask you to provide us with as much information as possible.

The reason for your complaint
Where and when what you’re complaining about happened
The name(s) of anyone involved (if known)
What outcome you are hoping for
Your contact details (name, address, daytime telephone number and/or email)

You can call us anytime on 01223 262999 or email us.

If you would prefer to write, please send your complaint to:

The Countryside Restoration Trust
Bird’s Farm
Haslingfield Road
Barton
Cambridge
CB23 7AG

We will try to resolve the problem as quickly as possible but if we cannot do this, for example if we need to investigate further, we will acknowledge your complaint within the following timescale:

Either immediately or on the same day if you telephone us
Within 24 hours if you contact us by email
Within five working days if you send us a letter

You will be given the name of the staff member dealing with your complaint and when they will next contact you either with a proposed resolution or update.

SECOND STEP: TAKING YOUR COMPLAINT FURTHER

If, for any reason, you are not happy with the resolution of your complaint, you can bring this to the attention of our Senior Management Team. Please set out clearly in writing (or in an email) the details of the complaint, explaining why you were not satisfied with our response and what you would like us to do to resolve the issue.

You will be sent an acknowledgement within three working days. We strive to respond in full to complaints within ten working days.

If the matter requires further investigation beyond ten days, we will contact you to advise when you can expect our response. In most instances, this will be within 21 working days.

Please send this letter to:

The Countryside Restoration Trust
Bird’s Farm
Haslingfield Road
Barton
Cambridge
CB23 7AG

THIRD STEP: THE NEXT STAGE

If you are still not satisfied with our response and wish to take your complaint further, please contact us within 28 days of receiving our reply.

Your case will then be passed to our Trustees and will be further investigated. You will then be contacted with conclusions and any actions to be taken.

You can expect this to take a further 10 working days from the date on which we receive your letter or email.

FOURTH STEP: TAKING YOUR COMPLAINT OUTSIDE THE CRT

If your complaint is about our fundraising work or activities and you are not satisfied with our response, you are entitled to take it to the Fundraising Regulator. This is the self-regulatory scheme that works to ensure that organisations raising money from the public do so honestly and properly.

As a member of the Fundraising Regulator, The CRT is committed to abiding by any decision they reach on complaints that are escalated to them.

Their contact details are:

Fundraising Regulator
2nd Floor CAN Mezzanine Building
49-51 East Road
London
N1 6AH
Tel: 0300 999 3407
Email: [email protected]
Website: fundraisingregulator.org.uk

If you have a complaint about our charitable work, you may wish to contact the Charity Commission. Their details are:

Charity Commission Direct
PO Box 1227
Liverpool
L69 3UG
Tel: 0845 300 0218

Information regarding the kind of complaints in which the Commission will become involved can be found on their website.

FOLLOW UP

In order for us to improve the service we provide, we may wish to contact you within a month of your complaint being dealt with in order to check that you were satisfied with our resolution.
Any information you give will only be used to ensure that we provide the best possible service we can.

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