Warm Welcome Complaints Policy

Our responsibility

The Warm Welcome Campaign works in partnership with community organisations, volunteers, and local authorities to provide warm, welcoming, safe, free community spaces. We aim to provide a good service to our partners but recognise that we sometimes get things wrong or make mistakes. Our complaints procedure aims to deal with complaints and to enable us to see whether we can improve our services as a result.

Although the Warm Welcome Campaign does not directly implement activities and therefore cannot be held directly responsible for the actions of our implementing partners, we are committed to investigating any complaints about spaces associated with the Warm Welcome brand. If your complaint is related to a space or volunteer, we recommend that you contact the space directly.

What can you complain about?

Please get in touch following the process below for complaints related to:

  • Our brand, website or resources
  • An image or story about you or your services
  • If we have failed to treat others politely or honestly
  • If we have failed to respond to your enquiry in a timely manner or not at all
  • If we have discriminated against or treated others unfairly
  • A safeguarding issue related to a Warm Welcome campaign event, space or individual

If your complaint is of a technical nature (about our website or resources), we’d suggest checking our Warm Welcome Spaces Handbook to see if your question can be answered before emailing us.

If your complaint is related to a space or volunteer, as a first step, we recommend that you contact the space. If you are still unable to resolve your complaint, please follow the procedure outlined below.

In dealing with complaints, we will ensure we have adequate information from the complainant and then look into the issues raised. This may involve talking to other parties and looking at other information to find out what led to the complaint, why and what action should be taken to resolve it and, where possible, prevent recurrence of the problem

How to make a complaint

If you would like to make a complaint to the Warm Welcome Campaign team, please email info@warmwelcome.uk with your name, contact details, and as much detail about the issue as possible.

Timeline for the handling of complaints

  • Complaints will be acknowledged within five working days of receipt.
  • We will aim to discuss your complaint within five working days of the complaint being acknowledged
  • We will respond to you in writing within ten working days of the complaint being discussed
  • If after an initial assessment it becomes clear that your complaint needs to be escalated further or other sources need to be consulted, we will notify you of this and include a clear time frame for the investigation of your complaint.

The Warm Welcome Charter sets out the standards for Warm Welcome Spaces associated with our brand. Each space must be free, welcoming, safe, and warm. If you are concerned that any of these standards have been compromised, your concerns will be investigated in accordance with the following timeline:

  • The Space will be temporarily removed from the Warm Welcome online map whilst an investigation is carried out. This is a precautionary measure whilst we investigate the concerns that have been raised, but it does not imply there has been a breach of safety, etc
  • A follow-up call will be arranged by the Warm Welcome Campaign team and the complainant within five working days.
  • The Space will be contacted in writing with all the details of the complaint. They will be required to respond to the complaint within ten working days.
  • Following a review of all the information provided by the complainant and the Space the Warm Welcome Campaign team will decide whether the Space should be reinstated or permanently removed. The complainant and the Space will be notified of this decision within three working days.
Download Complaints Policy PDF