COSRT is the Professional Body for Psychosexual and Relationship Therapists. Our aim is to provide a high quality of service in all our activity. We take complaints seriously and welcome your feedback on the service that we provide. So that we deal with complaints effectively, we have adopted this procedure.
Usually a phone call to the person you have been dealing with will allow COSRT to put things right. If you are still dissatisfied, you may wish to speak to senior management. Any member of COSRT staff will be happy to provide you with contact details for the correct person, or to take details from you and arrange for them to call you at a convenient time.
If you’re still dissatisfied then you may want to complain.
Who can complain
Any person who we provide a service to, any external organisation we work with or anyone who is impacted by services we deliver can make a complaint.
How long do I have to make a complaint?
Normally, we’d expect you to contact us within a month of you finding out you have reason to complain.
We may be able to accept your complaint after this deadline in exceptional circumstances.
What we can’t look into
There are some things we can’t deal with through our service complaints process. Examples are:
- Decisions made under our Conduct Procedure (for complaints against COSRT Members).
- Requests for information.
- Any attempt to have a previous complaint reconsidered.
If your concerns can’t be dealt with under our service complaint process, we’ll contact you and explain the reason why.
How to make a complaint
If you would like to make a complaint, there are some steps to take. You can email your complaint to complaints@cosrt.org.uk.
Complaints should be made within one month of you realising you have cause for complaint. If there are exceptional circumstances that require a delay they should be explained in your complaint. COSRT will consider reasons for delays and will respond to explain whether they are accepted or not.
Please provide as much information as possible in your complaint, including:
- Who you dealt with.
- Which service you were receiving.
- What went wrong.
- When it happened.
- Whether you have already attempted to resolve the problem with the person concerned or another COSRT staff member.
What will happen
At all stages we will keep you informed as to what is happening with your complaint. We will acknowledge receipt of the complaint within 3 days and aim to fully respond within 28 days. If it is not possible to deal with your complaint within 28 days, then we will inform you and provide a reason.
We will:
- Look thoroughly into your complaint.
- Deal with your complaint confidentially.
- Try to resolve your complaint and give you a full response within 28 days (although a longer period may be necessary depending on the nature and complexity of the complaint).
- Treat you fairly and with respect.
No one who was involved in the activities complained about will administer investigations or undertake investigations. If a complaint is about the CEO, then the board of trustees will oversee the investigation.
Putting things right
If we find that things have gone wrong we will:
- Explain what went wrong.
- Apologise and tell you what we are doing to put things right.
- Consider whether we need to change an existing process or provide additional staff training, in order to ensure that the same problem does not happen in the future.
- Tell you what you can do if you are not satisfied with the outcome of a complaint against COSRT.
Monitoring
The Chief Executive Officer is responsible for monitoring compliance with this policy annually.