Engage Education is committed to providing a high-level service to our customers. We regularly send
satisfaction surveys to clients and candidates to understand how our service is being received. If any
negative feedback is received, our Senior Leadership Team monitors this and raises issues with our
teams and managers to see if we can resolve any issues without taking further action.

A child-friendly version of this policy is available: Complaints — A Guide for Children and Young
People

What is a Complaint?

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about our service, actions or lack of action. This
policy does not cover safeguarding concerns, which should be raised under our Safeguarding Policy,
withdrawal of service appeals, which should be raised under our Withdrawal of Service Policy,
employment grievances from internal staff, which should be raised under our Grievance Policy, or
whistleblowing concerns, which should be raised under our Whistleblowing Policy. If you are unsure
whether your concern is a complaint or should be dealt with under a different policy, please contact
us, and we will advise you.

Our Complaints Process

If you have a complaint, please contact a member of the HR department by phone (0333 800 7800)
in the first instance so that we can try to resolve your complaint informally. If you would prefer to
place your complaint over email, you can do so by emailing customercare@engagepartners.co.uk or
customercare@engage-education.co.uk 

This email address is monitored by our Senior Leadership Team.

Once a complaint is received, Engage Education will follow the process listed below:

1. We will send you a letter/email acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out. We will confirm the name of the person dealing with your complaint.
2. We will record your complaint in our central register within 24 working hours.
3. We will acknowledge your reply to our acknowledgement letter and confirm the next steps.
4. We will then begin our investigation. This will involve examining the member of staff’s reply and the information you have provided to us.
5. A member of the HR/Complaints department may invite you to attend a call or virtual meeting to
discuss your concern and gain further information. If the concern can be resolved at this stage, it will.
If not, we will move to the next step.

6. Within 7 working days of the meeting, a member of the HR department will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions they have agreed with you. If a meeting is not possible or suitable, a member of the HR department will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include any suggestions for resolving the matter

We aim to resolve most complaints within 7 working days of receipt. Where this is not possible, for
example, because the matter is complex, we will write to you to explain the reason for the delay and
give a revised timescale.

*Please note: Where there is a data protection component to the complaint, the process above will
be followed with our data protection officer (DPO) as the investigating contact*

Appeal Process

If you are still not satisfied at this stage, your complaint will be raised to the Board, whereby a
member at the Director level will be tasked with checking the work completed on the initial
complaint, as well as factoring in any additional concerns.

You can appeal the outcome of your initial complaint by contacting David Evans (Director of
Education) at Engage Education, 4th Floor, 45 Clarendon Road, Watford, WD17 1SZ or by
requesting an appeal from your allocated HR member.

Your appeal should clearly state your name, the date of the original complaint, the date of our
response, why you are dissatisfied with our response, what you believe we got wrong, what outcome
you are seeking, and any new evidence or information.

The selected Director will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasoning. You will receive a response within 28 working days.

Vexatious or Malicious Complaints

We are committed to dealing with all complaints fairly and impartially. We will not tolerate vexatious
or malicious complaints. A complaint may be considered vexatious if it is obsessive, persistent,
harassing, prolific or repetitious, insists on pursuing non-meritorious complaints or unrealistic
outcomes, insists on pursuing meritorious complaints in an unreasonable manner, is designed to
cause disruption or annoyance, or lacks coherence or is focused on trivial matters.

A complaint may be considered malicious if it is made with the intention to cause harm, distress or
damage, contains allegations known to be false, or is made in bad faith.

If we consider a complaint to be vexatious or malicious, we may refuse to investigate the complaint,
limit contact to specific methods or individuals, or take legal action if appropriate. We will write to
you to explain our decision and your right to challenge it.

Escalation

If you are still not satisfied, you may contact the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC),
the industry trade association of which we are a member, by writing to:

Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)
20 Queen Elizabeth Street
London
SE1 2LS

Alternatively, you may wish to contact the Fair Work Agency, the government department
responsible for enforcing workers’ rights, on 0345 161 6000.

For data protection complaints, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at Wycliffe
House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, on their helpline 0303 123 1113, or via
www.ico.org.uk. The ICO regulates data protection and can investigate complaints about how we
handle personal data.