How to make a complaint

Below is a short version of our complaints process. You can see the full policy by downloading the Skylights Complaints Procedure.  

We would rather you told us about something that you don’t feel is right or not working properly, than kept it to yourself. We value your views and opinions and want to provide services that are as good as possible.  

We treat everyone who complains with courtesy and respect. In return, we expect people who complain to treat staff in the same way and to voice their concerns fairly, using appropriate language.  

Please let a member of staff know as soon as something goes wrong, or you are not happy about any aspect of our service, so we have the chance to put things right as quickly as possible.  

The Members' Complaints procedure 

There are three stages the complaints procedure:  

1 Informal stage

You can make a complaint 

• by talking to someone – in person or by phone   
• by text   
• in writing – in an email, a letter or note, or on the Crisis Complaints Form below   

Please feel free to ask a Crisis member of staff, a volunteer or member representative for help to make your complaint.  

If you go to classes or access our services in a different organisation's building then you may want to ask a helper from that organisation to help you make your complaint.   

We will make a note of the complaint (including all correspondence) and any actions taken so that we keep a record.   

We will try to resolve your complaint within three working days. If we can, we will put things right before this, but sometimes the member of staff will need to talk to other people in order to identify a solution.  

If your complaint is not resolved then you can go to stage 2, the formal stage.  

2 Formal stage  

If you wish to make a formal complaint it would be very helpful to put it in writing.  

You can use the form below or put it in writing. 

Let us know  

• What went wrong/ what didn’t happen  
• How were you affected  
• What you would like us to do to put things right 

Please feel free to ask a Crisis member of staff, a volunteer or member representative for help to make your complaint. 

Send the complaint in the post to your local Skylight's address and put the name of the Skylight Director. You can ask your local Skylight for the Director’s name and the address or you can find it on this website on your Skylight page. Find your Skylight

Your complaint will be logged and the Skylight Director will ensure it is investigated.  

The investigation will:  

• Establish the facts – this may involve talking to you and other people involved   
• Understand why things went wrong  
• Set out what should happen to put things right and ensure the same problem does not happen in the future  

We will try to keep you informed at all stages of your complaint.   

Timescales for formal complaint 

We will confirm we have received your complaint within three working days. 

The manager responsible for investigating your complaint will report back to you within two weeks from the date we receive your complaint. 

If there is any unavoidable delay to this timescale we will let you know and tell you when we will be able to complete investigations and let you have our decision. 

The investigating manager will meet with any people s/he feels are relevant to the complaint including you, and gather any evidence/information to help inform her/his viewpoint. 

When the investigating manager writes to you, they will explain: 

• Whether your complaint has been upheld (agreed with) in full or in part (if there are several parts to your complaint) 
• Why they have reached these decisions 
• What action (if any) we will take to resolve the situation and prevent it happening again 

If you are unhappy with the decisions made, and wish to appeal, you should write to the Chief Executive’s office to explain why you are not satisfied with the decision made about your complaint. The address is: Chief Executive’s Office, Crisis, 66 Commercial Street, London E1 6LT 

Or you can e-mail info@crisis.org.uk Please write “Complaint - FAO Chief Executive” in the subject line. 

3 Appeal 

The appeal against the decision will be handled by the Chief Executive’s Office and either the CEO or a member of the Senior Management Team will consider it - reviewing the stated grounds for the appeal, the notes recorded by the original investigator and the reasons for original decision.