Care & accountability
Complaints and Reporting Procedures
This policy describes principles for receiving, assessing, and responding to complaints, feedback, misconduct concerns, and other reports, with safe access and fair handling at its centre.
Purpose and access
It should be safe and practical for people to raise concerns about the foundation's conduct, services, staff, partners, communications, privacy, donations, discrimination, fraud, or harm. Reporting options should be accessible, culturally appropriate, and available without retaliation. The public page should distinguish ordinary feedback, formal complaints, whistleblowing or misconduct reports, privacy requests, and urgent safeguarding concerns so each reaches an appropriate process.
What not to submit through a generic form
Generic website forms must not solicit detailed safeguarding reports, beneficiary case histories, identity documents, payment credentials, or other sensitive information unless a separately approved, secure, monitored workflow exists. A person facing immediate danger should contact appropriate local emergency or child protection services. The website must not invent an emergency number or imply that an unconfigured inbox or form is monitored for urgent response.
Receiving and acknowledging
Once an approved channel exists, the foundation should explain what information is useful, offer anonymous or representative reporting where feasible, minimise collection, and state the limits of confidentiality. A trained recipient should record the concern securely, provide an acknowledgement only after real receipt, assess immediate safety and conflicts of interest, and explain next steps without promising a particular outcome or timeline that has not been approved.
Triage, investigation, and referral
Reports should be triaged according to urgency, risk, subject matter, and the need for specialist referral. The person complained about should not control the assessment. Investigations should be impartial, proportionate, documented, and respectful of all involved; staff should preserve relevant information, avoid retaliation, and share details only on a need-to-know basis. Safeguarding, criminal, medical, or regulatory matters should be referred through the approved local pathway rather than handled informally by unqualified staff.
Communication and resolution
The foundation should communicate in an accessible way, keep the reporter informed as safely as possible, record decisions and reasons, and provide an independent review or appeal route where approved. Remedies may include correction, apology, service improvement, referral, or other action appropriate to the issue; the process must not promise compensation, confidentiality, or disclosure of another person's private information without authority.
Learning, records, and accountability
The process should monitor themes, response quality, overdue actions, retaliation risks, and unresolved conflicts without publishing identifying details. Records should be protected, access-controlled, and retained only under approved rules. Findings should inform training, partner oversight, programme design, and website corrections. Serious incidents should be escalated to the authorised governance body and, where required by the approved procedure, to an appropriate external authority.