England Football Learning - Complaints Policy

Purpose

England Football Learning (EFL) is committed to providing a high-quality service to learners and maintaining a relationship of trust, respect and transparency with our community of stakeholders. 

Whilst we do everything that we can to make sure learners and stakeholders receive the best service possible, sometimes we may not get things right. When this happens, we want to:

• Make it easy for you to tell us what has not gone well
• Respond to and resolve your complaint fairly, courteously and appropriately, within a reasonable time period. (Appropriate responses will include, but are not limited to, explanations, apologies for mistakes or updates on actions taken.)
  
  

Policy statement

Definition - England Football Learning defines a complaint as dissatisfaction with the outcome provided to you on the back of a query and requires a formal response.

Purpose - The formal complaints procedure is intended to ensure that all complaints are handled fairly, consistently and wherever possible are resolved to the complainant’s satisfaction. England Football Learning (EFL) is committed to providing an excellent service and experience for all and does not tolerate any sort of misconduct (misconduct including and not limiting to, inappropriate language, behaviour or derogatory comments). In the event of an incident, we encourage it to be brought to our urgent attention through this complaints policy 

England Football Learning’s responsibility:

• Acknowledge the formal complaint.
• Respond within a stated period of time (21 working days).
• Deal reasonably and sensitively with the complaint.
• Take action where appropriate.
• England Football Learning will investigate any alleged wrongdoing promptly and with discretion. If there is evidence of misconduct, appropriate disciplinary action will be taken. England Football Learning will listen to concerns, take them seriously and will protect those who raise issues so that they are not subject to reprisals, victimisation or detrimental treatment.

Complainant’s responsibility:

• Bring their complaint, in writing through email, to EFL attention normally within 4 weeks of the issue rising.
• Raise concerns promptly and directly via email faecomplaints@thefa.com
• Explain the problem as clearly and as fully as possible, including any action taken to date.
• Allow EFL a reasonable time (21 working days) to deal with the matter.
• Follow the process outlined to receive an adequate outcome.
  
  

Confidentiality - We'll keep all complaints confidential and only involve as many personnel or external parties as necessary. If you make a complaint, we'll treat you with respect and we expect you to treat our staff the same way. Making a complaint will not affect the level of service you receive from us.

Appeal - If you would like to appeal the outcome of your complaint, you will have 5 working days from receipt of that outcome to submit your appeal to faecomplaints@thefa.com.

Formal complaints procedure

Stage 1: Making a Complaint –

• Email your complaint directly to faecomplaints@thefa.com. Include as much detail as possible and what you feel is the best resolution; this will ensure a speedier response.
• Once a complaint has been submitted, we will acknowledge receipt of your complaint and we will begin an investigation which will take up to 21 working days.  
• After a thorough investigation you will receive an outcome of your complaint.
• Whilst we aim to resolve your complaint within 21 working days, in the event that this is not the case a member of the team will provide updates of when your complaint is expected to be resolved.

Stage 2 (Appeal):

• If you are not happy with the outcome you have received to your complaint, you have the right to appeal. 
• Appeals must be made within 5 working days of receiving the initial complaint outcome. Appeals outside of this time frame will not be considered.
• Should you wish to  appeal, reply to your outcome email directly or alternatively you can email faecomplaints@thefa.com 
• Once your appeal has been submitted, the Customer Services & Excellence Manager will review the appeal to review whether a fair outcome has been reached. 
• You will receive an outcome of this review via email within 14 working days of your appeal email.
  
  

Final stage:

• If you remain unsatisfied, you may escalate the complaint further to the Director of FA Education, within 5 working days of receiving your appeal outcome.
• A comprehensive review of the entire complaint process and appeals outcome will be conducted.
• You will receive an email outcome from the Director of EFL within 7 working days of when your final appeal was raised.

Important Information: This represents the final stage in the FA Education escalation process. Correspondence regarding a closed complaint by the Director of Education will not be further discussed.

Next review

We will ensure this policy is reviewed consistently with our next review date in November 2024.

Feedback – England Football Learning is committed to improving our processes and policies. We encourage feedback and you can provide such feedback via the following email education@thefa.com