Complaints Policy
Smart Steps complaints policy explains how children, parents and service users can raise concerns about our school-age childcare services and how we will respond.
Policy Statement
Smart Steps is committed to providing a high-quality, safe and respectful school-age childcare service across all of our settings.
We welcome feedback from children, parents/guardians and service users as an important part of maintaining and improving our services.
Smart Steps maintains a central complaints register to ensure that all complaints are recorded, monitored and addressed appropriately.
From time to time concerns or complaints may arise. Smart Steps is committed to addressing all complaints in a fair, timely and transparent manner. Feedback is treated as an opportunity to review our practices and continuously improve the quality of our service.
All complaints will be accepted and investigated irrespective of the nature of the complaint or who the person making the complaint is.
Smart Steps encourages concerns to be raised at the earliest opportunity so that they can be addressed promptly and effectively.
Regulatory Framework
This policy is underpinned by the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) (Registration of School Aged Childcare) Regulations 2018 and relevant guidance from Tusla – The Child and Family Agency.
1. Our Ethos
Smart Steps aims to provide a safe, welcoming and engaging environment for school-age children outside of school hours.
Our services support children’s holistic development through age-appropriate play, positive relationships and meaningful engagement with parents, schools and the wider community.
2. Communication
Smart Steps recognises regular communication as key to ensuring a positive experience for all service users. If a child or parent has any comments or complaints about our service, we would like to hear them.
We are committed to listening to all feedback and complaints and to treating them seriously in order to continuously improve our service.
We respect children’s voice and their right to raise comments or complaints about our service. We have a child friendly complaints policy available to all children in our service. We accept complaints directly from children and via their parents / guardians.
The child friendly policy can be found at the end of this complaints policy.
In the first instance, we hope that complaints would be handled informally. In the event that a complaint cannot be handled informally within the service, we advise individuals to follow the procedure set out in this policy. All complaints made are treated confidentially and making a complaint will not adversely affect any ongoing interaction with the service.
Smart Steps endeavours to fulfil the following values in all aspects of our work:
Respectful partnership with service users and school staff
Focusing on the needs and well-being of the children attending our service
Positive engagement with parents
Openness and sharing of important information on a regular basis
Professional and efficient communications
This policy, including the Child friendly version of this policy, is readily available and will be communicated to all parents / guardians and children using our service.
3. Complaints Procedure
We aim to ensure making a complaint is as easy as possible and to deal with it promptly, politely and when appropriate; confidentially.
We endeavour to learn from complaints, use them to improve our service, and review annually our complaints policy and procedures.
If for any reason a child or parent feels they have cause for complaint, then the following procedures should be followed.
Informal Complaints
In the first instance, we invite all children or parents / guardians to make a complaint informally. This should ideally be done in person and can be a conversation with a Team Leader, Service Manager or a member of the Smart Steps management team.
We aim to informally resolve a complaint as soon as possible but within a maximum of 5 working days.
Types of complaints that may be made informally include:
a) General complaints regarding fees, opening hours etc.
Complaints of this nature should be made by contacting the relevant Service Manager directly. This can be done via phone, email or in person. The Manager will make every effort to respond to the complaint as soon as possible to ensure a resolution is reached in a timely manner.
b) Concerns or complaints surrounding any of the activities provided within the service.
These complaints can be discussed with the Team Leaders on-site or by contacting the Manager.
The Manager and Team Leaders will discuss the concern or complaint and take appropriate action where necessary, giving due regard to the service’s health and safety policy.
The parents / guardians and / or child will be notified of the outcome. This notification will be provided in writing if requested.
A record of the concern / complaint made will be kept on file for a period of 2 years and will be used to guide and improve future activities.
If your complaint cannot be dealt with informally, we will direct you to our formal complaints’ procedure.
Formal Complaints
There are certain times when a complaint cannot be handled informally. In these circumstances we direct parents / guardians / children and other individuals to make a formal complaint in writing.
If you wish to make a formal complaint, we request that you follow the below steps:
Formal complaints should be submitted to the Smart Steps Complaints Manager.
Email: complaints@smartsteps.ie
Post: Addressed to:
Smart Steps Ltd.
(Complaints Manager)
2a Leck Road Business Park,
Letterkenny
Co. Donegal
F92 P28F
Complaints may also be submitted through the Smart Steps online complaints form:
Anonymous complaints will be considered and investigated where sufficient information is provided.
If you have a difficulty with submitting a complaint in writing, please contact us by phone or in person and we can support you with making the complaint.
Please include the following information when making a formal complaint:
Name, address, a daytime telephone number and an email address if applicable
Full details of the complaint including relevant dates and times
Names of those involved (including staff)
Please be clear about what you are hoping to achieve (apology, explanation etc.)
Copies of any relevant documentation
State your preferred method of communication
Dealing with Formal Complaints
We will formally acknowledge the complaint within 5 working days.
The Complaints Manager will assess the complaint and the level of risk posed. If a matter concerns an immediate risk to safety or security the response will be immediate and will be escalated appropriately.
The Complaints Manager will confirm that the issue raised in the complaint is within the control of the service. If there is more than one issue raised in the complaint, the Complaints Manager will determine whether each issue needs to be separately addressed.
The Complaints Manager will look at addressing the complaint. We will inform the person making the complaint if this includes an investigation. If the complaint is straightforward, generally someone from the service will investigate. We will let the person making the complaint know who will be investigating the complaint.
If necessary, an investigation panel is formed to investigate the complaint. The persons investigating the complaint are in no way involved in the complaint, are not related to the complainant or any staff members involved in the complaint. Following investigating of the complaint, a separate HR procedure may need to be invoked.
A full response to the complaint will issue within 30 working days.
If there is a delay to the timeline of issuing a response, we will notify the person making the complaint as soon as possible.
The person making the complaint will be kept informed of the progress of the complaint.
Investigation
Depending on the nature of the complaint received, the manager will determine the type of investigation that will take place.
All complaints are thoroughly and objectively investigated.
The investigation is handled appropriately and sensitively.
The person investigating the complaint will aim first to establish the facts related to the case.
In complex cases, an investigation plan will be drawn up outlining how the complaint will be investigated.
When investigating a complaint, all relevant evidence will be looked at.
In the process of the investigation we may need to meet with the complainant to discuss the complaint further. Complainants can bring a person with them to any such meeting.
All staff must participate in the investigation of a complaint as required. Any staff member involved in the complaint will be supported throughout the process.
Outcome and Response
Following the formal investigation of your complaint, we will let you know what we have found via your preferred form of communication. If necessary, we will produce a longer report. We will explain how and why we came to our conclusions and outline any changes to policies/procedures, practice and risk management arising from the investigation.
Where no grounds for the complaint are found, the person making the complaint will be notified and information detailing the next stage will be provided. We will share any recommendations from our investigation with the complainant and with all relevant staff. We will outline the appeals process as part of the complaint response.
Appeal
If the complainant is dissatisfied with the response to the complaint, then there is the opportunity to appeal it. The appeal must be submitted within 5 working days. The appeal is then handled by someone who was not involved in the original complaint process.
4. Record of Complaints and Confidentiality
An accurate and detailed record of each complaint is kept for a period of 2 years from the date the complaint has been dealt with. Complaint records are stored securely by Smart Steps management as part of the organisation’s central complaints register. Access to complaint records is restricted to authorised personnel involved in the complaints process.
Complaint not within the scope of the service
Any complaints not within the scope of the service to investigate will be referred appropriately. For example:
If there are child safeguarding concerns relating to a complaint, the designated liaison person is informed, and the child protection policy of the service is followed.
If a complaint involves a potential criminal offence, An Garda Siochana is notified.
What we Expect from Complainants
We believe that all complainants have the right to be heard, understood and respected. However, we also consider that our staff have the same rights. We, therefore, expect you to be polite and courteous in your dealings with us. We will not tolerate aggressive or abusive behaviour, unreasonable demands or unreasonable persistence. .
Smart Steps is committed to resolving complaints fairly and learning from feedback in order to continuously improve the quality of our services
Complaints Policy – for Kids!
You are welcome to come and talk to us any time.
Do you have a problem or is there anything you are unhappy about?
If you have a comment or complaint about Smart Steps, please tell us as soon as possible. You can speak to any adult at Smart Steps directly, or you can speak to Rebecca or David - the owners. We are always here to listen to you.
If you would prefer to write your problem down, you can give a letter to any adult, send us an email to complaints@smartsteps.ie or send a text to Rebecca on 0877769476
You can also ask your mum or dad, granny or grandad, aunt or uncle to make a complaint to Smart Steps. If you need help with making a complaint, please ask any adult in Smart Steps and we will be happy to help you.
We will let you know that we have gotten your complaint as soon as we can and no more than 5 days after you have made the complaint.
When we receive a complaint from you, we will investigate that complaint in the same way that we would investigate a complaint that comes in from an adult.
We take all complaints seriously and we promise to listen to all children who make a complaint about Smart Steps.
We will try to make Smart Steps better from your complaint and always try to sort out any problems or concerns you have.
Smart Steps tries to deal with all complaints within 1 month and you will always be told about what is happening with your complaint.
We will talk to you some more about your complaint if we have questions or need to find out more information about what happened.
After our investigation into the complaint, we will let you know what we find out and any changes we might be going to make in Smart Steps because of your complaint.
If you are unhappy with the result of your complaint, please let us know and you will have an opportunity to ask us to investigate your complaint again. This is called an appeal.
The appeal of the complaint will be looked after by different people in Smart Steps than the people who looked after the complaint the first time around.
If you have any questions about the complaints policy, you can ask any adult in Smart Steps to help explain it to you more clearly and we will be happy to help. 😊