Helplines

We are keen to deliver a telephone helplines service of the highest quality to everyone who contacts us.

If for any reason you are unhappy with our service, or feel that we could improve it any way, we would be glad to hear from you. We also need to know what we are doing right, so we would welcome hearing from you about aspects of the service you valued.

You are welcome to make a complaint or other comment about the services by telephone, letter or fax.

We will respond to all complaints and suggestions for improvement in a positive manner and in the strictest confidence, using the following procedures:

1. Complaint procedures

Informal

If you choose to express dissatisfaction with any aspect of our service while on the telephone to any member of the helplines staff, you will receive an understanding and positive response.

Even if you are satisfied with the response you receive and require no further action to be taken, your complaint will be recorded so that we can continue to improve our service.

Formal

If you are unhappy with the response of the member of staff you spoke to or if you prefer to write to us, your complaint will be referred directly to the helplines manager on the day it is received, and the matter will be investigated fully.

It also would be helpful if you would provide your telephone number as many misunderstandings can easily and quickly be resolved over the telephone.

Please write to: The Helplines Manager, Helplines Service, Arthritis Care, 18 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HD, marking your envelope ‘PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL.’

We recommend that you keep a photocopy of your letter for your own reference.

2. Action

The helplines manager will send you a written acknowledgement within five working days. Once the investigation is complete, the manager will write to you with the outcome of the investigation with a proposal as to how the matter can be satisfactorily resolved. Under normal circumstances the manager will do this within 10 working days of receiving your original complaint.

3. Appeal

If for any reason you are not happy with the manager’s response to your complaint, you can take the matter further by writing to the director of Public Affairs at Arthritis Care, giving details of your original complaint and your reasons for still feeling dissatisfied.

Please write to: Director of Public Affairs, Arthritis Care, 18 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HD, making your envelope ‘PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL’.

The director will send you a written acknowledgement within 5 working days. After thoroughly re-investigating your complaint, the director will write to you, informing you of the outcome within 10 working days of receiving your letter.

4. Confidentiality

All complaints, whether formal or informal, will be recorded in a complaints register held in a lockable filing cabinet, access to which must be authorised by the helplines manager. The complaints register will only be used in order to make improvements to our service to ensure that complaints are responded to quickly and appropriately.

5. Disciplinary procedures

If following investigation it was found that a member of the helplines team has acted in a way that constitutes a disciplinary offence, then they will be subject to censure and action under the Arthritis Care disciplinary and grievance policy, full details of which are available on request from the HR department, Arthritis Care, 18 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HD.