Making a complaint

We welcome feedback as it helps us to develop as a charity, giving us the chance to monitor and improve our services. We set ourselves a high standard of customer care and if this is not met we want to hear about it.

We are sorry if you feel that you need to make a complaint but the following information will help you understand our complaints procedure.

The procedure is for complaints from members of the public about our services or about  members of RSPCA Chesterfield and North Derbyshire Branch staff or volunteers.

The complaints procedure is not set up to handle animal welfare concerns about a particular animal or other general animal welfare matters such as farm animal transport or slaughter.

Find out how to report cruelty or an animal in distress. Comments and questions about general animal welfare matters can be sent to the national RSPCA online via My RSPCA or by letter to RSPCA, Wilberforce Way, Southwater, Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 9RS.

The national RSPCA and each branch are separately registered charities. In the case of complaints relating to the national RSPCA, you can send your complaint either:

  • in a letter to National Complaints Coordinator, RSPCA, Wilberforce Way, Southwater, Horsham, West Sussex RH13 9RS, or

  • via My RSPCA on the RSPCA website www.rspca.org.uk.

In the case of complaints about another RSPCA branch, you should get in touch with the relevant branch. Contact information for RSPCA branches can be found on the RSPCA website www.rspca.org.uk.

Complaints can be made in the following ways:

In person or by telephone:

If your complaint is about our animal centre, then you can talk with the centre manager either in person or by telephone on 01246 273358. If your complaint is about our charity shop, you can talk with the shop manager either in person or by telephone on 01246 270293. Our managers will do all they can to discuss your concerns and resolve the matter. If this is not possible, they may refer you to a more senior manager or ask you to write to us so that your complaint can be investigated fully under the complaints procedure.

In writing:

  • You can send a letter to the branch at RSPCA Chesterfield & North Derbyshire Branch, 137 Spital Lane, Chesterfield, S41 0HL.

You can email us using supportercare@rspca.org.uk. If would be helpful if you could put ‘Service Complaint’ in the email subject title.

To ensure that your complaint can be dealt with quickly and efficiently you should provide the following Information:

  • Full name  

  • Postal address  

  • Email address  

  • Telephone number  

  • Any contact details that are different from the above  

  • Full details of the complaint including relevant dates  

  • Whether you have a relationship with us, e.g. as a volunteer, supporter, adopter etc.

  • If you have any evidence available to support your complaint, e.g. photos, letters, emails, names of witnesses, vet’s bill or other paperwork.

Complaints will only be considered if they are received within three months of the time when you were first aware of the situation. We do not handle complaints that date back further than this.

If you remain dissatisfied following a reply to your complaint and you wish to escalate your complaint to the next level, this should be done within 15 working days of the date of our reply. We will not consider complaints outside this timescale.

Complaints will be acknowledged within five working days and then replied to in full within a further 25 working days. Although we reply to the majority of complaints within 25 working days, if the matter is complex and requires greater investigation or if a member of staff critical to the investigation is on leave, it may take longer. If this is the case, we will contact you again to let you know and advise how much longer it will take and why.

There are three stages in the complaints procedure; all complaints will be handled in this way:

Level 1:

New complaints will be formally recorded and acknowledged (within five working days). They will be passed to the relevant line manager of the individual or the department concerned, who will look into your complaint and reply to you, within 25 working days of the date we acknowledged your complaint. If this is not going to be possible they will let you know why, and how much longer it will take.

Level 2:

If you remain dissatisfied with the reply you receive at Level 1 and you let us know within 15 working days of the date of our reply, your complaint will be passed to a senior member of staff or trustee, to review it and how it was handled. To ensure we save our resources for vital work on animal welfare, we will not acknowledge receipt of your letter/email but will aim to reply to you in full within 10 working days. If the person dealing with your complaint is not able to do this, they will let you know the date by which they hope to reply.

Level 3:

If you remain dissatisfied with the reply at Level 2 and you let us know within 15 working days of the date of our reply, your complaint will be referred to the Branch Chair to review it and reply. To ensure we save our resources for vital work on animal welfare, they will not acknowledge receipt of your letter/email but will aim to reply to you in full within 10 working days. If the Branch Chair is not able to do this, they will let you know the date by which they hope to reply.

If you’re dissatisfied with a Level 3 reply you will have reached the end of our complaints procedure and we will be unable to take the matter further. You may, if you wish, contact the national RSPCA with details of your complaint and the outcome of our complaints procedure.

Complaints about financial irregularities will be dealt with under the Complaints Procedure.

If you remain unhappy, you may wish to contact the Charity Commission, the regulator and registrar for charities in England and Wales. Its website page www.gov.uk/complain-about-charity explains how to complain about a specific charity.

Complaints about how we have used your personal data will be dealt with under the Complaints Procedure. If you remain unhappy, you may wish to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Complaints about our fundraising activities will be dealt with under the Complaints Procedure. If you remain unhappy, you may wish to contact the Fundraising Regulator.

We expect our staff and volunteers to be professional and courteous at all times so we take complaints about poor conduct very seriously. Any complaints or concerns regarding a member of staff or volunteer are passed on to their managers for investigation.

Please be aware that if the matter falls under our employee/employer or volunteer policy confidentiality agreements or would breach Data Protection regulations, we may not be able to inform you of the outcome but will still send you a reply when the investigation has been completed.

We appreciate honest feedback as it helps us to learn and develop as a charity. So we investigate all complaints thoroughly to see what we can learn from them and where we can improve our relationship with the public. Our investigation and response to complaints will be fair and without bias. A full explanation and an apology (when appropriate) will be included in our reply.

We have comprehensive data protection policies. Any personal information you provide when complaining to us will not be given to any other organisation without your permission unless we have a legal or contractual obligation to do so. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure your data is kept secure and to respect your information privacy. Please refer to our Privacy notice for more information.

We expect our staff to handle complaints politely at all times. If the person making the complaint uses abusive language or an aggressive tone, we will not engage with this. So if the complaint is made in person, the member of staff may walk away or seek assistance from another staff member. In these circumstances it is unlikely that your complaint will be taken seriously.

If the complaint is made in writing by letter or via our website and uses abusive language or threats, we will reply but will advise you in our response that this is unacceptable.

We may terminate correspondence about a specific complaint if it is clear that despite our best efforts we are unlikely to satisfy you. If you write to us again about a different issue, it will be treated as a new complaint and replied to.

The decision to terminate correspondence will only be made by a senior manager after making sure that the matter has been investigated thoroughly and in line with our procedures. We will always tell you when we are terminating a complaint and the reason we are doing this.

Complaints will also only be considered if they are received within three months of the time when you were first aware of the situation. We do not handle complaints that date back further than this.

We internally review information on complaints as this helps us see where our services need to improve but our branch does not publish information about complaints it receives.