Complaints policy

If something has gone wrong we want to hear about it, put it right, and learn from it. Here is exactly how that works.

1. Purpose of this complaints policy

We welcome and encourage feedback of all kinds from our clients and candidates. If you have a complaint about our services, not only do we want to resolve it to your satisfaction, we also want to learn from it in order to improve our business and customer experience in future.

It is our policy to resolve complaints quickly and fairly, where possible without recourse to formal investigations or external bodies. The aims of this policy are:

  • to provide a clear and fair procedure for any customers who wish to make a complaint about our services;
  • to ensure that everyone working for or with us knows how to handle complaints made by our customers;
  • to ensure that all complaints are handled equally, fairly and in a timely fashion;
  • to ensure that important information is gathered from complaints and used in future to avoid such a situation arising again.

2. What this policy covers

This complaints policy applies to our provision of services, our employees, our candidates and our customer service. For the purposes of this policy, any reference to Premier Education also includes our employees and candidates.

Complaints may relate to any of our activities and may include, but are not limited to:

  • the quality of customer service you have received from us;
  • the behaviour or professional competence of our employees or candidates;
  • delays, defects or other problems associated with the provision of services.

The following are not considered to be complaints and should be directed to the appropriate person or addressed accordingly: general questions about our services; matters where there is no further complaint; matters concerning contractual or other legal disputes; and formal requests for the disclosure of information, for example under applicable legislation.

3. Making a complaint

All complaints, whether they concern our services or our customer service, should be made in one of the following ways:

When making a complaint, you will be asked to provide the following information in as much detail as is reasonably possible:

  • your name, address, telephone number and email address. We will contact you using your preferred contact method as your complaint is handled;
  • if you are making a complaint on behalf of someone else, that person's name and contact details as well as your own;
  • if your complaint is about a particular transaction, the invoice number;
  • if your complaint is about a particular employee or candidate, the name and, where appropriate, position of that person;
  • further details of your complaint including, as appropriate, all times, dates, events and people involved;
  • details of any documents or other evidence you wish to rely on;
  • details of what you would like us to do to resolve your complaint and put things right. Please note that while we will make every reasonable effort to accommodate such requests, we are not bound to take any action beyond that which we may be contractually or otherwise legally obliged to take.

4. How we handle your complaint

Our aim is always to resolve complaints to your satisfaction without further recourse to external resolution. If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your complaint, you may refer it to external resolution as detailed below.

Upon receipt of your complaint we log it in our complaints log and acknowledge receipt in writing within 2 days, giving you a complaint reference. When we acknowledge receipt we will also tell you who is handling your complaint. This may be the person to whom your original complaint was directed, or it may be delegated to an appropriate member of our team.

If your complaint relates to a specific employee or candidate, that person will be informed of the complaint and given a fair and reasonable opportunity to respond. Any communication between you and the employee or candidate in question should take place only through the person handling your complaint, and we respectfully ask that you do not contact them directly concerning the complaint while we are working to resolve it.

If we require any further information or evidence from you, we will contact you as quickly as is reasonably possible to ask for it. We ask that you use reasonable efforts to supply it quickly to avoid delaying the process. If you are for any reason unable to provide it, we will use all reasonable efforts to proceed without it. We will not ask for further information unless we consider it important to the successful resolution of your complaint.

We aim to resolve complaints within 7 days. In some cases, particularly if your complaint is complex, this may not be possible. If so, you will be informed of the delay, its likely length and the reasons for it.

At the conclusion of the complaints procedure, regardless of the outcome, we will provide you with full details of our investigation, our conclusions from it, and any action taken as a result. Our decision at this stage is final, subject to your right to seek external resolution of your complaint.

5. Confidentiality and data protection

All complaints and information relating to them are treated with the utmost confidence. Such information will only be shared with those employees and candidates who need to know in order to handle your complaint.

We may ask for your permission to use details of your complaint, with your personal details removed, for internal training and quality improvement purposes. If you have given such permission, you may revoke it at any time by contacting us.

All personal information that we collect will be collected, used and held in accordance with the provisions of UK data protection law, including the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, and your rights thereunder, as set out in our privacy policy.

6. Questions and further information

If you have any questions or require further information about any aspect of this complaints policy or our complaints procedure, please contact Clare Bent or Alistair McCrone by post or telephone on 01625 538 568.

7. Policy responsibility and review

Overall responsibility for this complaints policy and its implementation lies with the Directors. This policy is regularly reviewed and updated as required.

This complaints policy was adopted on 1 December 2021 and last reviewed on 1 December 2021.