1. Our Commitment

Submariners United in Business CIC is committed to providing high quality services to our community. We take all complaints seriously and aim to resolve them promptly, fairly and effectively. This policy sets out how we handle complaints and how you can make one.

2. What Is a Complaint?

A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction, whether justified or not, about any aspect of SUBS's activities, services, behaviour of members, or events. This includes complaints from members, event attendees, partner organisations, and members of the public.

3. How to Make a Complaint

3.1 Informal Resolution

Many concerns can be resolved informally by raising them directly with a member of the SUBS team. We encourage this as a first step where appropriate.

3.2 Formal Complaint

If your concern is not resolved informally, or if you prefer to make a formal complaint, please submit your complaint in writing via our website contact form at www.subs.org.uk/contact. Please include:

Your full name and contact details
The nature of your complaint and relevant background
Any relevant dates and individuals involved
The outcome you are seeking

4. Timescales

Stage

Timescale

Acknowledgement of formal complaint

Within 5 working days

Full investigation and response

Within 20 working days

Escalation response (if requested)

Within 20 working days of escalation

If an investigation requires longer than 20 working days, we will contact you to explain the reason for the delay and give you an expected resolution date.

5. Our Process

We acknowledge your complaint and confirm who will be investigating it.
We investigate your complaint fairly and objectively, gathering relevant information.
We provide a written response setting out our findings and any action taken.
Where your complaint is upheld, we will explain what remedial action we will take.
Where your complaint is not upheld, we will explain our reasons clearly.

6. Escalation

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may request escalation to a Director of SUBS within 10 working days of receiving our response. We will conduct a further review and provide a final written decision.

7. External Escalation

If you remain dissatisfied after following our internal process, you may escalate your complaint to the Regulator of Community Interest Companies (CIC Regulator) in matters relating to our CIC status:

For data protection complaints, please contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

8. Learning from Complaints

We use complaints as an opportunity to improve. All formal complaints are reviewed periodically by the SUBS Directors to identify patterns and areas for improvement.

9. Confidentiality and Anonymity

All complaints will be handled with appropriate confidentiality. However, in order to investigate a complaint fully, it may be necessary to share information with those involved. We do not normally investigate anonymous complaints, though we may use such information to improve our services.

10. Contact

To submit a complaint or for queries about this policy, please visit: www.subs.org.uk/contact