Dignity policy & complaints procedure

FareShare Complaints Procedure

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At FareShare we really value our community of charities and the work they do in their local communities. Whilst we do everything we can to make your experience with us a positive one, we may sometimes get things wrong. If you do come across an issue, we encourage you to let us know, so we can do everything possible to find the right solution for you and your service users.

Principles of FareShare UK’s Complaints Procedure

• FareShare recognises that complaints are an important part of user feedback, and will be dealt with seriously
• All complaints will be investigated fully and fairly in accordance with the policies and agreements set out in your contract
• Complaints will be recorded on our accounts system, but will only ever be discussed or viewed in line with our GDPR policies

FareShare is committed to ensuring that its services are of the highest quality. This procedure enables FareShare to respond to complaints in a fair and proper way and to know when and why people are not satisfied with its services, so they can be improved.

What are the stages of making a complaint?

Step 1: If the issue occurs during an in-person visit or on a phone call, speak to the individual concerned and try to resolve the complaint informally straight away. Any member of FareShare staff will aim to fix the problem for you immediately, before the need arises to make a complaint. However, if you are not satisfied with the response you have received, or the issue did not originate with a FareShare member of staff, please feel free to follow the steps below to raise a complaint. If the issue is with a specific member of FareShare staff, they are required to tell you their name and who their line manager is if you ask them.

Step 2: To make a complaint about a negative experience you might have had with FareShare or our partners, please initially reach out to your usual account manager or to the Customer Support Team (01316080967 / support@fareshare.org.uk) and provide them with as many details as you can. The more we know about your experience, the more help we can be with finding a solution.

Step 3: FareShare works with 17 partner organisations, who deliver the FareShare service across the UK, as well as having 3 regional centres and FareShare Go that are run by FareShare UK. Where appropriate, the first thing that we will try to do is resolve your complaint with the local teams. Once we have made a record of your complaint on our internal system (including any details you provide about the incident), we will begin to investigate, and you should hear back from us within 10 working days. In circumstances where time limits cannot be met due to unforeseen circumstances, you will be notified via email.

Step 4: The person dealing with your complaint might contact you to ask for more details, as they fully investigate what happened. They might also contact anyone else related to your complaint or refer to information stored on our internal systems.

Step 5: Once we have investigated your complaint, we will contact you again to give you our best solution, having taken into account everything reported to us about the incident, and all possible avenues for finding a suitable solution. Your complaint handler will be able to explain how we reached the solution being offered, plus any other alternatives which were considered but disregarded as unsuitable.

Step 6: If you have told us about an issue and it could not be resolved locally, or if you are not happy with the solution being offered, you are welcome to request that the complaint be escalated to a more senior member of staff who will review the issue for you and look into any other possible solutions. Your new complaint handler will complete any further investigation needed and will contact you having reviewed what we could recommend as the most suitable solution.

Step 7, option 1: Once you are happy with a solution, we will implement the agreed steps straight away in order to improve your experience with us. We will then close your complaint but will keep a record on your account if needed for future reference.

Step 7, option 2: If we are still unable to reach an agreed solution following escalation of your complaint, our complaint handler at the highest point of escalation will take into consideration any comments or issues you have raised with the proposed solution, before issuing our final decision. Our final decision will always be the solution which is fairest to all parties involved, considering all the details of an incident on a case-by-case basis. The final decision and summary will include the following information:

• When the complaint was received and the FareShare appointed member of staff
• Details of the investigation
• A decision about whether the complaint was upheld or not
• The reason for the decision
• The redress, if appropriate, which will be offered to you e.g. an apology, additional help or directing to other sources of advice or support
• Any other action that may be taken in light of the complaint
• If you raised any concerns around due process being followed, this will also be reviewed and our complaint handler at the highest point of escalation will provide a summary of whether we are satisfied that the complaints procedure was followed appropriately or not. This review will be double-checked and confirmed by the head of department for the relevant FareShare service.
• At this point you will have 1 month to request any clarification on this final decision, before the complaint is considered closed

FareShare’s Dignity Policy

At FareShare, we know that our mission to fight hunger and tackle food waste would not be possible without our team of dedicated and hardworking staff. We value our employees, and are indebted to the passion and expertise they bring to their roles.

FareShare strives to treat all its employees with dignity and respect, and we expect any organisation we work with to treat our employees with dignity and respect too.

As such, FareShare has a zero tolerance policy towards violence and aggression, and will not permit our employees to be subject to violent, threatening, or abusive language or behaviour via any form of communication (including in-person, phone calls, emails, voicemails, or text messages). FareShare employees have the right to work and carry out their duties in an environment free from abuse, and we intend to enforce this whenever necessary.

The UK Government Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines a violent or aggressive incident as: ‘Any incident, in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work. This can include verbal abuse or threats as well as physical attacks.’ Examples of unacceptable behaviour are summarised below:

• Violence can be physical or non-physical, including threats, abusive behaviour and language (verbal and written), escalating agitation, and intimidating body language
• Unreasonable demands – A demand becomes unreasonable when it impacts substantially on our work. Examples of this may include, repeatedly demanding responses within an unreasonable timescale or insisting on seeing or speaking to a particular member of staff when that is not possible or appropriate
• Unreasonable levels of contact – Volume and duration of contact with a FareShare member of staff by an individual that causes problems for the staff member. This can occur over a short period, for example, a number of calls in one day or one hour
• Unreasonable use of processes – For example, the complaints process, where someone uses the complaints procedure to challenge professional judgments of our staff or where they use it repeatedly to raise the same issues that we have already investigated

We have ensured that all of our customer-facing staff members have received training on conflict management, in order to correctly identify when they are experiencing behaviour which is deemed unacceptable by this policy.

In the event that a customer, community group, or member of the public violates this policy in any way, the FareShare member of staff will follow these steps:

1. The FareShare member of staff will warn you that your behaviour is unacceptable, and if necessary will explain why your behaviour is not acceptable
2. The FareShare member of staff will inform you that if you do not cease this behaviour, your interaction with the FareShare member of staff will be cut short (e.g. they will leave the premises, or if on the phone they will end the call)
3. After this warning, if you continue to exhibit unacceptable behaviour, the member of staff will end the interaction as forewarned. A permanent note of this interaction will be logged on your account on FareShare’s internal system
4. You will then be sent an email containing this document, to make you aware of our dignity policy and that it is our process for FareShare members of staff to end an interaction if faced with the behaviour you displayed, despite adequate warning

Depending on the severity and frequency of violating this policy, FareShare reserves the right to remove any organisation and end all services from which they receive food, effective immediately.

If you feel this matter was not handled effectively and you disagree with the steps taken so far, please feel free to log a complaint following the process described above.