The Nation's Biggest Supporter
GET FUNDING |
GET RESOURCES |
NEWS & MEDIA |
ABOUT SPORT ENGLAND
General Complaints
Step 1 Initial complaint
If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of the service received, you should initially speak with the member of staff concerned. We hope that most complaints can be settled quickly and as close to the source of the problem as possible.
Step 2 If you are not satisfied with the initial response
If you are dissatisfied with the initial response, you should request details of the head of unit responsible for the member of staff concerned. You should either write to or telephone the head of unit in which your complaint originated. You will receive an acknowledgment within 3 working days and a full response within 10 working days. The head of unit will investigate your complaint personally.
You may not be sure what information you should include or how best to set out your complaint. You should set out the facts as clearly as possible, in a logical order. Remember to include important details and dates where possible. We can give you information about how we will process your complaint. Our contact details are given in the ‘Getting in touch’ section [at the end of this document/below]. If you need any help, you can contact your local citizens advice bureau (their contact details are in The Phone Book or at www.citizensadvice.org.uk).
We will keep all complaints confidential. If you make a complaint, we will treat you with respect, and we expect you to treat our staff in the same way.
Step 3 Formal complaint
If you believe your complaint requires further attention, you should write to the Chief Executive (Jennie Price) at:
Sport England
3rd Floor Victoria House
Bloomsbury Square
London
WC1B 4SE.
You will receive an acknowledgment within 3 working days and a full response within 10 working days.
Step 4 If you are not satisfied with the formal written response
If still not satisfied with our response, you can write to your MP with a request that the matter be referred to the government ombudsman.
Lottery/Funding Complaints
Introduction
If you want to make a complaint, we have a procedure for you to use. This leaflet explains the procedure. All the UK-wide and England lottery distributors use this procedure. Making a complaint will not affect in any way the level of service you receive from us, for example if your complaint is with regard to a funding application your chances of getting a grant from us in the future will not be compromised.
What can I complain about?
You can complain if you think that:
If you complaint is concerning a funding application, we can only look at your application for funding again if:
What you cannot complain about
You may be disappointed if we turn down your application for funding, but you cannot use the complaints procedure to appeal against our decision on giving a grant if we have followed our decision-making process correctly.
You cannot complain about our published policies or any government policy. If you have any comments about our policies, or wish to report a fraud, please send these to our Legal Services Department.
How do I make an appeal against a funding decision?
Stage one
If you are not happy with the service you have received, contact the office you first dealt with. They will try to put things right. We hope that we can settle complaints as quickly as possible in this way.
Stage two
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can take this further by making an appeal against a funding decision. To do this you must advise the person you first dealt with. They will send you an appeal form for you to set out your reasons for requesting the appeal. You have grounds for an appeal if:
It is unlikely that we will consider your appeal on any other grounds. Your appeal will be reviewed by Sport England's appeals adjudicator who will assess all of the available information in the light of your reasons for making the appeal. If your appeal is upheld then your funding application will be re-assessed by a new funding assessor and a new decision will be made by Sport England on the outcome of your application. You must accept that if your appeal is upheld and your application is re-assessed, this does not mean that an award will be offered automatically. If your appeal is denied then the appeals adjudicator will explain why.
You must make your appeal within 21 days of receiving your decision letter. If you cannot make your complaint in writing, please contact us by ringing 020 7273 1551
When will I hear from you?
Within three working days of receiving your complaint we will write to or phone you to say that we have received it. We will also tell you how you can contact the person who is dealing with your complaint and when you can expect a reply.
You will receive a reply to your complaint within 10 working days. If we cannot give a full reply in this time, we will tell you why and when you are likely to receive it. We may ask you to come to a meeting with us to discuss your complaint in more detail. This meeting would normally be held within 10 working days of us receiving your complaint. We would send you a written record of the meeting and a formal reply to your complaint from our Legal Services Department.
If your complaint is about the way we have used our powers to make, refuse or manage funding, you can then move on to Stage 3. If your complaint is about the way we conduct any other aspect of our business we will let you know of possible alternatives that may be open to you. We will tell you in our response to Stage 2 whether Stage 3 is open to you.
Stage three
If you are not satisfied with the reply, you can refer your complaint to the independent complaints reviewer (ICR). The ICR is unbiased and hears both sides of the complaint. The ICR is not part of our organisation and their investigations and recommendations are independent. You can ask the ICR to look at your complaint, or our Legal Services Department can ask them to do this. There is no charge for using the ICR. The Office of the Independent Complaints Reviewer will contact you within 5 working days of receipt of your complaint.
The ICR has the power to decide whether or not to investigate a complaint, and he or she will explain their reasons if they decide not to investigate it.
If the ICR investigates your complaint and finds that it is justified, he or she will recommend ways for us to put things right, and how to prevent a similar situation in future. The ICR will report within three months, and usually more quickly. We will normally make any changes the ICR recommends to our current procedures as quickly as possible.
The ICR cannot consider complaints that have not gone through the procedure set out in this document. If you want the ICR to consider your complaint, you must write to them, or send them an audio tape or CD, within four weeks of receiving our reply.
The ICR cannot reverse funding decisions or make comments or changes to our legal responsibilities and policies on awarding grants. To contact the ICR see ‘Getting in touch’ [at the end below].
Other ways to make a complaint
The Parliamentary Ombudsman
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (known as the Parliamentary Ombudsman) investigates complaints by members of the public who have suffered injustice because of maladministration by public organisations. The Parliamentary Ombudsman also looks at complaints about being refused access to official information. By law, the Ombudsman is independent of the Government and the civil service, and has wide powers to investigate.
The Ombudsman does not normally investigate complaints if they have not been through our complaints procedures first. The Ombudsman’s services are free. You can get an explanatory leaflet about the Ombudsman – see ‘Getting in touch’ [at the end of this leaflet/below].
Judicial review
A judicial review is where a judge examines your complaint to see whether we have behaved illegally. The judge cannot rule that we must change a funding decision, but he or she can ask us to reconsider our decision.
Freedom of information
Our publication scheme gives details of what information we make available to the public as a matter of course. We will extend the range of this list in the future, whenever it is possible for us to do so. If you want information that we do not include in our publication scheme, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 gives you the right to ask us for it. Under the Act, we must provide you with the information you ask for unless it is not covered by the Act (that is, it is ‘exempt’). If the information you want is exempt, we have to tell you why.
If you do not agree with us, you should follow stages one and two of the procedures set out in this document. If you are still not satisfied, you may ask the Information Commissioner to review our decision.
You can get copies of our freedom of information policy and our publication scheme by visiting http://www.sportengland.org/index/freedom_of_information.htm or phoning 020 7273 1551.
To contact the Information Commissioner, see ‘Getting in touch’ at the end of this document.
Your personal information
If you use our complaints procedure, you are agreeing that we can use any personal information you send us for purposes connected with your complaint. We may also give your personal information to other people and organisations if we have to do so by law or if you have given us permission.
Equal opportunities
We are committed to equal opportunities and take complaints about discrimination seriously. We may use complaints about discrimination to review our policies and procedures. This is to make sure we treat everyone fairly. We may record [the ethnic background OR information about the ethnic background, sex and disability OR (for Northern Ireland distributors only) information about the ethnic background, sex, disability and community background] of everyone who makes a complaint so that we promote and maintain our equal opportunities commitment. We will keep all information confidential.
Comments and suggestions
We welcome comments and suggestions as these can help us improve our services. Please send any comments or suggestions to the Legal Services Team. The contact details are given in ‘Getting in touch’ at the end of this document.
Getting in touch
Sport England
3rd Floor Victoria House
Bloomsbury Square
London
WC1B 4SE
info@sportengland.org
020 7273 1551
If you want to comment on any government policy on sport, contact:
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
2–4 Cockspur Street
London
SW1Y 5DH.
Website: www.culture.gov.uk
Phone: 020 7211 6000 (general enquiries)
E-mail: enquiries@culture.gsi.gov.uk
Other contacts
Independent Complaints Reviewer
c/o Lottery Forum
7 Holbein Place
London
SW1W 8NR
Phone: 020 7591 6190
Textphone: 020 7591 6255
You can get an explanatory leaflet about the Ombudsman from:
Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP
Helpline: 0845 015 4033
Phone: 020 7217 4163
Fax: 020 7217 4000
Textphone: 020 7217 4066
E-mail: opca.enquiries@ombudsman.gsi.gov.uk
The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Phone: 01625 545 700
Fax: 01625 524 510
E-mail: mail@ico.gsi.gov.uk
back to top
East | East Midlands | London | North East | North West | South East | South West | West Midlands | Yorkshire
Graphic Version | How to use this site | Site map | A-Z Index | Contact Us