Crediton Foodbank is committed to working in an open and accountable way that secures the trust and respect of stakeholders, and as such recognises the role of an effective complaints policy in fostering transparency, fairness, and a culture of continuous improvement.

We hope that the majority of complaints can be dealt with informally, but in cases in which the formal procedure is more appropriate, we request that they are submitted in writing to the Foodbank Coordinator at [email protected] . If the Coordinator is the subject of the complaint or the complainant does not think it has been dealt with adequately, it should be submitted to the Chair of the Trustees at [email protected]. The Coordinator will report all complaints to the Chair of the Trustees at the monthly supervision meetings. If the Coordinator is the subject of the complaint, the Chair of Trustees will consult at least one other trustee, and it will be reported at the next trustees meeting.

Other information

If you wish to make a complaint anonymously or do not provide contact details, then we will treat it as a comment and will be unable to advise you of the outcome of the investigation.

If your complaint contains abusive or offensive language, then we reserve the right to not respond. We reserve the right to report any such communication to the Police.

Philosophy

The Crediton Foodbank undertakes to ensure that:

• Complaints in writing are dealt with promptly, courteously, fairly and discreetly.
• The people involved are informed as fully as possible about the nature and detail of the complaint, subject to the degree of confidentiality requested by the complainant.
• Reasonable efforts are made to determine the facts affecting the complaint from both the complainant and the person(s) involved.
• We will respond to the complainant with an explanation of our actions, an apology where this is appropriate, or information on the outcome of the complaint.
• We will learn from complaints and use them to make improvements in the ways we work.

The Foodbank will review this policy annually.

Data Privacy with regards to Complaints

We collate and analyse data about complaints so that we can improve the services we provide. We will collect personal information including your name and contact details, including postal address, telephone number, email address and social media contact information, in order to be able to communicate with you about your complaint. We will also collect sufficient information about the situation that you are contacting us about to be able to understand what has happened. We may need to

request further information depending on the nature of your complaint. We have a legitimate interest in holding this information in order to be able to monitor and improve our services.

Information gathered is accessed by Crediton Foodbank employees and trustees and may be shared with advice agencies or professional services firms only if appropriate, for example if your complaint relates to safeguarding and we seek guidance as to next steps.

We keep this information for 2 years after your complaint has been closed, unless we have a requirement to keep it longer, in which case we will inform you of this. After this time the data will be aggregated and anonymised.