complaints policy

Complaints Policy – Apprentices & Employers

Uniserve’s training division aim to give everyone an excellent experience when dealing with us, so we welcome your comments, suggestions and feedback about the service you have experienced when contacting us or when using any of our products or services.

 This policy document outlines the procedures put in place if an apprentice or an apprentice employer wishes to raise a complaint.

 Apprentices or Apprentice employers should raise any complaint as an informal or formal complaint within 10 working days of the date of the circumstances giving rise to the complaint. Unfortunately delays in submitting the details may result in Uniserve being unable to effectively investigate the complaint.

 Many matters can be resolved informally so do contact the Uniserve directly on 01708 259 405 or email us at email as we may be able to resolve your issue immediately. If, however, you feel that the problem needs to be addressed in a more formal, official manner please follow the process below.

Where your complaint is of a highly sensitive nature including bullying or harassment, or is about a specific member of staff, please contact the Apprenticeship Director (AD).   Contact details for the AD can be found at the end of this policy.

 Except in exceptional circumstances, we will try to ensure that your complaint remains confidential, but in some cases the circumstances giving rise to the complaint may make it impossible to maintain confidentiality. In these situations, we will discuss this with you. 

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction from you about us, or the complaints-handling process itself where it’s clear that you expect us to identify the cause of the problem and to take some kind of remedial action.

We aim to ensure that: 

  •  Making a complaint is as easy as possible
  •  We treat a complaint as a clear expression of dissatisfaction with our service which calls for an immediate response
  •  We deal with it promptly, politely and, when appropriate, confidentially
  •  We respond in the right way, for example by giving you an explanation or an apology where we have got things wrong, and letting you know what action we’ve taken
  •  We learn from complaints and feedback and we use them to improve our service

Investigation and Outcome

The formal complaints procedure is intended to ensure that all complaints are handled fairly, consistently and wherever possible resolved to the complainant’s satisfaction.

Uniserve’ aim is to resolve all matters as quickly as possible. Inevitably some issues, however, will be more complex and therefore may require longer to be fully investigated.

We’ll acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days and let you know who will be dealing with it. We will appoint an appropriate person to investigate the matter on your behalf. We aim to resolve complaints within 8 working days but if it’s going to take longer than that we’ll keep you fully informed.

Once we have completed our investigation, we will explain what went wrong and why, apologise when it is appropriate and take action to remedy the situation as soon as possible.

The stages to our complaints process are –

 1. Stage one

  • If you have a complaint in relation to the service you have received from Uniserve raise your concern by emailing email explaining the problem as clearly and fully as possible, including any action taken so far. You can also contact Uniserve in person, by phoning 01708 259 405.
  • You must try and resolve your complaint directly with Uniserve rather than the trainer or lecturer. 

2. Stage two

  • If you are not satisfied with the response you receive to your complaint, you can take the matter further by contacting the Apprentice Director (AD) by emailing email setting out why you are dissatisfied. The AD will undertake a full review of the original complaint, the evidence collected by the person who investigated the matter on your behalf and their initial response. Consultation with all parties will take place to provide you with Uniserve Consortium’s response and any further actions that may need to be taken.

 3. Final (appeal) stage

  • If you are still not satisfied with the response you receive from the Director of Customer Service and Operations, you can take the matter further by writing to the Uniserve Managing Director, Uniserve Ltd, Upminster Court, 133 Hall Lane, Upminster, Essex, RM14 1AL.

Following our appeal stage, if you wish to escalate your complaint you may contact the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). Employers may make a complaint either on their own behalf or on behalf of their apprentice where permission has been given. Apprentices and their employers can contact the apprenticeship helpline regarding apprenticeship concerns, complaints and enquiries by calling 08000 150400 or by emailing nationalhelpdesk@apprenticeships.gov.uk in the first instance.

There is also additional guidance on complaints published by the ESFA on the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/ government/publications/complaints-about-post-16-education-and-training-provision-funded-by-esfa

You can also email your complaint to complaints.esfa@education.gov.uk.

Apprenticeship Director
The Apprenticeship Director is Alex Mortimer. You can contact Alex by emailing am@supplychainacademy.org.uk,  or calling 01708 259439.