南ロンドン日本語キリスト教会

South London Japanese Church seeks to love, serve, and care for everyone without discrimination, in a way that honours the Lord Jesus Christ. However, we are fallible and sometimes we will make mistakes which may cause pain to those concerned. All complaints are opportunities for us to learn from our mistakes and improve, furthermore, to enable a chance of healing and reconciliation for the person or organisation that has made the complaint.

This policy exists to:

• Provide a fair complaints procedure with how to contact us should you wish to make a complaint.
• Make sure everyone at SLJC knows what to do.
• Make sure all complaints are investigated fairly and in a timely way
• Strive to make resolution as much as possible and for reconciliation to take place.
• Make sure we can improve in the future.

A complaint is where there is any dissatisfaction in the actions of the leadership team of SLJC or Sutton Community Project, process, or service, resulting in failure to meet the expectations of the person concerned. If you have any safeguarding concerns towards SLJC staff, please follow our Safeguarding policy and contact our Safeguarding Coordinator as soon as possible.

Confidentiality:
All complaints will be handled sensitively and only shared with those who need to know. All data protection regulation will be followed as applicable.

Raising a concern:
In the first instance, we would encourage you to speak to the member of staff concerned directly to provide them an opportunity to resolve the matter informally.

However, if it cannot be resolved in this way, please email sljc.confidential@gmail.com which will be received by one of the trustees.

We will contact you within 7 days of the complaint made. Please provide us with contact details so that we can keep you informed or ask more questions should we need to. We will seek to resolve the matter as quickly as possible, and follow the below procedure:

• Record the full details of the complaint in the complaints register
• Take all necessary steps to investigate the matter
• Contact you within 15 working days with our findings or provide an update
• Keep you informed of our process until the matter has been resolved to your satisfaction or all actions have been taken by SLJC to resolve the matter

Depending on the complexity and severity of the matter, the complaint will be taken to the SLJC trustees.

Resolving complaints:
All complaints and feedback are important to us, and we are committed to take them seriously and address them in a sensitive, fair, transparent, unbiased, and professional manner. Anyone is entitled to expressing his or her views towards our leadership team, church, and our services. However, we will not tolerate any abuse or discriminatory language or behaviour.

Step 1:
All complaints will be logged and acknowledged by the person handling the complaint. If a resolution has not been sought directly with the person in question, we would encourage you to speak directly with the person responsible. Alternatively, they will be informed and given an opportunity to respond.

The pastor or a trustee will investigate the matter and take appropriate action, and an outcome will be sent to you within 15 working days. The complainant will be informed of the actions taken to investigate the case, conclusions from the complaint and any action taken to resolve the issue.

Step 2:
If the complainant feels the complaint has not been resolved to their satisfaction, they may request a review of the decision with the SLJC trustees. Please contact the chair of trustees by emailing sljc.confidential@gmail.com and we will review and investigate the matter.

We will acknowledge the request for review within five working days. The trustees may investigate the matter themselves, or delegate a suitable person, and keep the complainant updated. We will seek to give a definitive reply within 30 working days or provide a progress report.

The trustees will reply with the results of our investigations and any action taken. Unless the trustees decide to seek external assistance, the decision made at step 2 is final.

Step 3:
The trustees may elevate the matter for external assistance if necessary. In addition, SLJC is a registered charity, and therefore the complainant may make a complaint to the Charity Commission at any stage. Please visit https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-charity

Review:

All complaints made will be shared with the SLJC trustees, this is so that we can improve, and ensure the lessons are learnt and implemented.

This policy will be reviewed by the SLJC trustees every 3 years.


Adopted by the trustees 28 February 2022
Reviewed and approved 11 October 2022
Next Review: on or before 11 October 2025