Complaints Procedure
At the Royal Air Force Central Fund (‘the Fund’) we want to surpass your expectations, however we know that there may be times when we do not meet our own high standards. When this does happen we want to hear about it, deal with the situation as quickly as possible and put measures in place to stop it happening again.
We take complaints very seriously and treat them as an opportunity to develop.
We will record and acknowledge complaints which arise via phone or in person, however request that any complainant wishing to formalise a comment or complaint contacts us subsequently in writing via:
- Email at mail@rafcf.org.uk; or
- In writing at:
RAF Central Fund
RAF Central Fund Danesfield
Henley Road
Marlow
Buckinghamshire
SL7 2EY
Please include your name, address and contact telephone number in your email or letter so that we can get back in touch with you easily.
We endeavour to respond fully and conclusively to all complaints within 10 working days. You will always receive an acknowledgement of your complaint within the first 5 days of receipt. Wherever possible we will deal with it more quickly and if we think it will take longer than 10 working days to respond, we will let you know.
You can contact us in whichever way is most convenient to you and we will respond to you via the same method unless instructed otherwise. We will work to fix problems, correct mistakes and address concerns and would appreciate it if, when contacting us about a complaint, you let us know how you think it could be resolved.
We will always treat you with courtesy and respect, listen to what you say, keep you informed about our progress, provide you will a prompt response and tell you who to go to if you want to escalate your complaint further.
From time to time we receive complaints that do not relate directly to something that the Fund has done or that we are not in a position to comment on. We are a charity with limited resources and we must use these in the best way possible which can mean not engaging in lengthy debates on issues that are unrelated to the Fund’s work.
There may be rare occasions when we chose not to respond to a complaint at all. These include:
- When a complaint is about something that the Fund has no direct connection to. We may choose to reply to clear our name but we are not obliged to.
- When someone unreasonably pursues a complaint that we have already responded to. They will be given escalation points but we may choose not to reply again, we will always inform you of our decision to do this.
- When a complainant is being obviously abusive, prejudiced or offensive in their manner.
- When a complainant is harassing a staff member or official of the Fund.
- When a complaint is incoherent or illegible.
- When a complaint has clearly been sent to us and numerous other organisations as part of a bulk mailing or email. In this instance we can chose whether it is necessary for us to reply or not.
- The Fund will not respond to complaints made anonymously. However, we will investigate the complaint and use the information to improve in any way that we can.
We hope that a member of our Management Team will be to resolve your complaint in an honest, open and satisfactory way. However if after contacting the Fund you are still unhappy then you can write, either by letter or email, directly to our Chief Executive Officer or a member of the Board of Trustees. Contact details for the Chief Executive Officer or Board Members can be obtained from khansford@rafcf.org.uk.
Please outline the details of the complaint, why you have not been satisfied with our response up to now and what you would like us to do to put things right.
If you do not feel completely satisfied by our response then you can contact the Charity Commission at any stage of the complaint process at:
The Charity Commission
PO Box 1227
Liverpool
L69 3UG
0845 3000 218
www.charity-commission.gov.uk