Complaints Policy

Live & Local will take complaints seriously, treat complainants with respect and expects equal consideration to be shown to our all staff who deal with complaints. The aim is to resolve every complaint to the satisfaction of all concerned and to improve our services. In furtherance of this aim we will:

Proactively solicit all feedback

• Strive to obtain feedback (artists, funders, promoters, audience, Board and staff) through providing multiple contact methods including phone, mail, E-mail, internet, survey forms, reports and appraisals.

Record all information in a complaint handling system

• Record important details in a manner that can be used to analyse data and implement long term corrective actions;
• The Company Manager (Kirsty Reilly) will be in overall charge of our complaints procedure although investigation, communication and resolution of individual complaints may be delegated to appropriate departments.

Investigate, record and close

• Gather additional information;
• Research similar problems;
• Record all action steps.

Communicate effectively

• Acknowledge appreciation for ALL feedback, positive and negative;
• Identify named staff member to deal with a complaint;
• Communicate any timescales;
• Communicate resolutions and when relevant, inform the complainant of the actions that are being taken to address the root cause.

Provide a transparent, clear and courteous process

We want our responses to be quick, fair, courteous and helpful. If the complainant wants a response, we aim to deal with their concerns in full in an initial response within three days. However, if this isn't possible, we will still contact them within three days to update them on progress and send a second more comprehensive reply as quickly as possible. If the complaint is taken further we have a more formal three stage process.

Formal escalation process

• Investigation (up to 10 working days)
• Review (up to 10 working days) and
• Appeal (up to 20 working days)

If the complaint goes through all three stages and is still not resolved, we will refer the issue to our Board and thereafter to the relevant funding body.

Analyse and improve

• We will analyse data/complaints for trends in problem types every year as part of our annual Company health check;
• Request feedback from complainants on the process;
• Develop corrective and preventive action plans.