Brixton Advice Centre is committed to providing a quality service and working in an open and accountable way that builds trust and respect. One of the ways in we can continue to improve our service is by listening and responding to the views of our clients and stakeholders, and in particular by responding positively to complaints and by putting any mistakes right

We want to ensure that:

• providing feedback or making a complaint is as easy as possible
• we welcome compliments, feedback and suggestions how we can improve
• we deal any complaint about our service promptly, politely and, when appropriate, confidentially
• we respond in the right way – for example, with an explanation, or an apology where we have got things wrong, or information on any action taken etc.
• we learn from feedback, and use it to improve our service. We review all feedback and complaints, along with our policies and procedures, annually

Definitions

• We define a compliment as an expression of satisfaction about the standard of service we provide
• We define a complaint as an expression of dissatisfaction about the standard of service we provide

How you can send us some feedback

Click here to send us feedback on our General Advice and Service

Click here to send us feedback about our Online Legal Clinic

Click here to send us feedback on our Welfare Benefits service

How you can complain about something

Click here to send a complaint using our Contact Form

Or, write to: Chief Executive, Brixton Advice Centre, 167 Railton Road SE24 0LU. Please mark your envelope ‘confidential’

Or, telephone us on 0207 733 7554, between 10am – 3pm, Monday to Thursday

A summary of our Complaints Process

If a complaints form is requested this will be sent out by the member of staff who received the request within three working days. Please note, we cannot guarantee items of mail through the post or that there will not be postal delays. We would encourage you to either speak to a member of staff or write to us using the details above if you have a complaint

If the complaint is made verbally in person, a member of the staff team or you, the complainant, will write down the details in full. If someone else wrote your complaint down for you, you will be asked to sign it in order to confirm it is accurate where this is possible

Once a complaint has been received, the Chief Executive will provide you with a written response within 14 working days, either dealing substantively with the complaint or advising of its status and the reason(s) for further delay in providing a substantive response e.g. to allow further investigation. In this instance the Chief Executive will let you know how long it will take before you receive a full response

If you are unsatisfied with the Chief Executive’s response you have the right to elevate the complaint to Brixton Advice Centre’s Council of Management. The Chief Executive will tell you how to go about this in his or her substantive response

The Council of Management will consider any elevated complaint and will reply to you within 14 working days of receiving the elevated complaint. The reply will include any recommendations for further action if necessary

If you are still not satisfied with the our internal complaints procedure there are other avenues including local councillors and your local MP that you may choose to contact, though these channels do not carry any authority over Brixton Advice Centre

If we have provided you with casework services in either Housing or Debt, you may also have further avenues of complaint to the Legal Ombudsman or the Financial Services Ombudsman. You would have been advised of these as part of your case and would be given further information how to access them as part of the Chief Executive’s substantive response if appropriate