COMPLAINTS

AT The Bus aims to provide a high standard of service to our partner organisations, our students, and their families. We do our utmost to achieve this. However, if we get something wrong, we want to hear from you so that we make things better as soon as possible and do better next time.

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This policy explains how you can make a complaint to AT The Bus. It applies to any student and their family, to our partner organisations including schools, to our supporters, and to any visitors to our studios or offices.

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If you are employed by AT The Bus and would like to make a complaint, please use our Grievance Policy or Whistleblowing Policy rather than this Complaints Policy.

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We aim to respond in full to complaints within ten working days. If you have a complaint, we ask you to follow this procedure.

 

1. Who Can Complain and Why?

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1.1 You can make a complaint using this policy if you are a student of AT the Bus, a family member of a student, if you work at of one of AT The Bus’s partner organisations (such as a host school), if you are a supporter of AT The Bus, or if you are a visitor to AT The Bus.

1.2 We tell our students and the staff of our host schools about this Complaints Policy when we begin working with them, and it is available on our website here.

1.3 If you would like to make a complaint, but do not want to do it yourself, you can ask someone else, like a parent, friend, or teacher, to complain to us for you, if you give them your permission in writing, and we are shown your written permission by that person.

1.4 You can complain if you are not satisfied with any aspect of your experience with AT The Bus. The Charity Commission defines a complaint as ‘serious’ if it involves ‘serious risk of harm to the charity or to the people it was set up to help’. In such cases our response may involve other authorities such as the legal system.

1.5 If your complaint involves danger to a child or young person’s wellbeing, including your own, it will be handled according to our Safeguarding Policy, which is available here.

 

2. Making a Complaint

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2.1 If you are not happy with somebody’s behaviour it is often best to tell that person in the moment and ask them to behave differently. If you feel that this is too difficult, or not appropriate, you can also raise a concern verbally to another member of AT The Bus staff, or to another person who you trust, and ask them to pass your concern on to the person you are complaining about.

2.2 If you do not think that expressing an informal, verbal concern is sufficient, you can complain in writing in an email to info@atthebus.org.uk or via a letter to the Charity’s registered address on our website, with support from someone else if necessary.

2.3 We will acknowledge that we have received your written complaint within 5 working days. We aim to respond in full to all complaints within 10 working days.

2.4 If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you can write to the Chair of Trustees (details on our website), who will consider how to take the matter further.

2.5 All complaints will be monitored and stored in a central record. Our board of Trustees will have oversight of this record and consider how any complaints that we receive can be used to support the development and improvement of our practice.

 

3. Key Principles

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3.1 We will treat anybody raising a concern or making a complaint with dignity and respect. 

3.2 AT The Bus encourages anybody who feels that our service has not been good enough to tell us as soon as possible. We will take all concerns seriously and will endeavour to resolve matters at an early stage.

3.3 We aim to make our complaints process as clear and easy to use as possible and ensure that anybody making a complaint is promptly informed of any actions taken.

3.4 We will respect confidentiality throughout the complaints process. Only those who are looking into the complaint will know about it.

3.5 If you decide to withdraw your complaint, you can do so at any time.

3.6 We aim to have all complaints resolved as quickly as possible, and to let you know of the reasons for any delays.