Feedback and complaints

How to make a complaint

Our complaints procedure allows you to tell us if you believe that we have got something wrong, or if you are unhappy with the service you have received.

We manage complaints about:

• College of Policing employees and workers or College of Policing services – this includes all categories of College employees or workers when acting on behalf of the College (including agency staff, associates, contractors and seconded police officers or staff)
• College non-executive directors
• the chief executive officer
• the College chair

We cannot deal with the following.

• Complaints about a force in England and Wales, officers or staff acting on behalf of a force, or individual incidents involving a force, its officers or its staff. You should contact the force directly, as the College has no power to investigate such complaints.
• The College has no statutory role within the system for police complaints. We do not receive referrals from forces or from the IOPC. We do not investigate general complaints about wider policing.

For complaints by associates, we ask that a preliminary discussion takes place with your engaging manager or associates advocate prior to a complaint being submitted.

We take all complaints about our people or the standard of our service seriously. They provide us with valuable feedback to enable us to improve. 

We aim to deal with your complaint in a way which:

• is prompt, simple, accessible and treats you with respect and sensitivity
• has regard to individual needs and requirements
• provides you with clear and complete information on the complaints process, how to escalate your complaint, and keeps you informed at every stage
• uses everyday language and gives honest explanations, reasons for decisions and offers apologies when necessary
• uses complaints to understand what we can do better and as a means to improve our work
• treats all our customers fairly and without discrimination
• complies with our data protection obligations

Following the complaints process will help ensure the right outcome for all and that our staff can put things right where we have made a mistake. If a complaint is upheld, we will provide:

• an apology and a full explanation of what went wrong
• an offer of how to put things right
• information about how we are learning lessons to improve our service and prevent a recurrence

We will usually acknowledge your complaint within two working days and aim to provide you with a full response within 20 or 30 working days, depending on the stage of your complaint. We will let you know if it will take longer than this.

You can send your complaint by email to complaint@college.police.uk or write to us:

Complaints Manager
College of Policing
Leamington Road
Ryton-on-Dunsmore
Coventry
Warwickshire
CV8 3EN

Where to direct your complaint

Recruitment and exams

If you have a query about a College of Policing recruitment process or examination then please direct this to the force to which you have applied.

If you wish to lodge an appeal or raise concerns about an assessment centre or examination, then please refer to the specific appeals policy which can be found in your joining instructions. Appeals must be made in line with the relevant appeals policy in order to be considered.

Privacy and transparency

Complaints about privacy and transparency compliance are handled by our data protection and freedom of information officer, who deals with topics related to:

• Article 8 and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights
• Directive 95/46/ EC (EU Data Protection Directive)
• Data Protection Act 2018
• General Data Protection Regulation UK (GDPR)
• Environmental Information Regulations 2004
• Freedom of Information Act 2000
• Government Transparency and Open Data Charter

If you have concerns about the College of Policing's compliance, email data.protection@college.police.uk or write to us:

Data Protection Manager 
College of Policing 
Leamington Road,
Ryton-on-Dunsmore,
Coventry,
Warwickshire,
CV8 3EN

Time limits for making a complaint

It is important that complaints are made as soon as possible after the event occurs.

We will normally only investigate complaints made up to 12 months from the date on which the matter complained about occurred or, if later, when it came to the complainant's notice.

Appeals against stage one or stage two complaints must be received within 10 working days of the response to your earlier complaint.

Your responsibility

The College has a duty of care to its staff to ensure that they have a safe working environment and are not subject to unreasonable or unacceptable behaviour by others.

If we consider your behaviour to be unacceptable, we will inform you and ask you to stop the behaviour, or if the behaviour continues we may decide to take action to manage or restrict your contact with the College.

Our complaints process

Concerns raised with a business unit – informal

If you have been working with a particular employee or unit and have a concern, please raise your concern directly with them. If your concern cannot be resolved, the unit will inform the complaints team, or you can make a complaint directly to complaint@college.police.uk.

Stage one complaint – local investigation

At stage one, the manager of the person or service complained of will investigate the complaint, look into what happened and consider whether any more can be done to resolve the matter.

We will aim to respond within 20 working days.

Stage two complaint – appeal of stage one complaint, or complaint too serious or otherwise unlikely to be resolved by local investigation

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint at stage one, you have a right of appeal. 

The complaints manager can also decide to take your complaint straight to stage two if it is too serious or otherwise unlikely to be resolved by local investigation.

Where possible, provide the following information:

• the names of the people you have been dealing with
• any reference number(s) we have given you
• what you think has gone wrong
• why you are dissatisfied with the handling of your complaint
• what you think we should do to put things right

Your complaint will then be acknowledged. We will appoint an investigator from outside of the business unit and independent of the person or unit complained of.

The investigator’s report will be referred to the senior manager of the team complained of. The senior manager will make a decision on the outcome of the complaint and provide a response. We’ll aim to respond within 30 working days but will let you know if we cannot.

Stage three complaint – appeal to the chief executive officer

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint at stage two, you have a right of appeal in certain circumstances.

Appeals can only be made where you believe there have been procedural irregularities in the stage two investigation or where new evidence is available. Your appeal must clearly set out the grounds for the appeal, stating the basis on which you believe the outcome was wrong or unfair.

If there are grounds for an appeal, an investigator from the chief executive officer’s team will be appointed to investigate the complaint.

We will aim to respond within 30 working days of the request, but we’ll let you know if we cannot.

The outcome of a stage three complaint is final.

Where a complainant continues to make contact after the exhaustion of the complaints’ procedure, further correspondence will not be considered unless it raises significant new issues. In such circumstances, we will write to explain that our decision is final and file the letter but will not respond further after this.

Other comments, compliments and suggestions

We always welcome feedback and if you would like to send us any other comments, compliments and suggestions please contact the complaints manager: complaint@college.police.uk