Everyone using this complaints procedure should expect that:

• We'll take all complaints seriously and act with integrity. 
• We'll view complaints as opportunities to learn and improve from feedback. 
• We'll deal with complaints promptly and sensitively. 

The email address for all matters related to complaints is su.admin@durham.ac.uk. Durham SU will accept complaints within 30 working days of the matter you’re not happy about. The Chief Executive has discretion to accept late complaints if they agree that there are exceptional circumstances which have justified the delay. We’ll won’t usually accept any complaint made on someone else’s behalf, or about someone else’s experience. We won’t accept your complaint if it is anonymous, malicious, frivolous, or vexatious.

We’d really welcome you getting in touch as you start to think about making a complaint if there’s an accessibility barrier we can help you with, such as alternative formatting or language. Your complaint email should include, at least:

• Your name and contact details. 
• An outline of your complaint in your own words.
• The impact that the issue you're complaining about has had on you.
• What you think we could do to resolve your complaint. 
• Anything you've done already to try and resolve your complaint. 

We’d welcome any opportunity to resolve your complaint as early and informally as possible because we think this approach can reduce stress and time. The Chief Executive will usually suggest that you have a conversation with someone at Durham SU in the first instance. They’ll often be able to use your feedback to develop their service, and resolve your complaint promptly.

If informal resolution isn’t successful or appropriate, we’ll email you within 10 days of your complaint being received by us with the name of a person who will be your ‘Complaint Manager’. We’ll make sure they’ve had no previous involvement in the thing you’re complaining about.

Sometimes we get more than one complaint about the same thing, so if your complaint is similar to another complaint, we may try to investigate and resolve them together if that makes for a more straightforward investigation and resolution.

The Complaint Manager may want to speak to you but may not need to if they have the information they need in your written complaint. They’ll decide whether the complaint should be upheld and will write a short summary of their investigation and why they decided to uphold your complaint, or not, which they’ll usually send to you within 30 days.

The Complaint Manager will report their findings in the first instance to the Chief Executive. If the Complaint Manager upholds your complaint, they will also recommend an effective resolution to the Chief Executive, which will usually be something that could reduce the likelihood or impact of the thing being complained about happening another time. You should use your complaint to give us your view on what might be an effective resolution.

You’ll be told whether your complaint is upheld or not and, as much as possible, what resolution has been implemented and why. Sometimes, however, the resolution might involve other people or processes and we might not be able to share everything with you.

Durham University has a role in overseeing this complaints procedure for complaints from Durham SU members. If you have exhausted the options set out for you in this procedure and are unhappy with the way in which the complaint has been investigated, you can contact the University Secretary at university.secretary@durham.ac.uk.

The University Secretary is not able to re-open or re-investigate the complaint, but will check that the procedure outlined has been properly followed. They’ll write a short summary of their investigation and decision, which they’ll usually send to you within 30 days.

If you want to complain about any of Durham SU’s democratic decisions or political policy then, usually, we’ll refer you to routes you can use to change the policy by participation in the democratic process. We can’t use this procedure to circumvent or undermine a democratic or policy-making process.

This procedure isn’t used to complain about any Durham SU person, either volunteer, Officer, or staff. The Chief Executive can make you aware of the best way to complain about a person.

The public aren’t entitled to a review by Durham University, and the complaints procedure for people who aren’t members of Durham SU ends at Stage 2.