Regardless of how well your church or charity is run, there will inevitably be times when it receives complaints. Showing that, as an organisation, you take complaints seriously and deal with them in a confidential, timely and appropriate manner will go a long way not only to resolving the complaint, but also to rebuilding trust. This template policy and its associated guidelines provide the basis of a complaints handling policy can be easily adapted by churches and charities to fit their own particular situation.
Topics included:
- What should be a church or Christian charity’s policy towards handling complaints?
- How should a church or charity seek to receive complaints?
- Once received by a church or charity, who should be made aware of complaints?
- Where a church or charity operates a safeguarding policy, how should this link to the organisation’s complaints handling policy?
- How should a church or Christian charity go about resolving complaints?
- Should churches or charities introduce an appeals process when dealing with complaints?
- When should a church or charity escalate complaints to more senior members of the organisation?
Updated July 2022