Small print
This section contains important information for users of the
Department for Children, Schools and Families ('the
Department') website.
Privacy
The Prime Minister's Global Fellowshipwebsite, with the
exception of the registration systems and the Discussions facility,
does not store or capture personal information, but merely logs the
user's IP address (Internet Protocol: standard allowing data to be
transmitted between two devices) which is automatically recognised
by the webserver.
The Department's site does not collect any information about
you except that required for system administration of the website.
In order to continuously improve the Department's website, we use
tracking technology which monitors user sessions via a Java applet
which activates a session cookie. No information is stored on your
computer and no personal data is obtained from this software.
if you respond online to a consultation exercise your data
will only be used to facilitate the analysis of responses. This
privacy statement only covers this Department's website at
http://www.global-fellowship.org
and subsequent subsites of that domain. Other websites linked to
from the Department's domain are not covered by this privacy
statement.
Complaints procedure
Making a complaint - Help us to put things right
The following procedure covers complaints which are about the
services that the Department provides directly to the public (not
complaints about related organisations, issues and decisions).
These services generally involve providing relevant information and
answering queries, but also include a number of specialist
services. If you have a complaint about a particular Government
policy, you would normally contact the Minister for that area of
policy, or your local MP.
The Department is committed to providing a quality service and
achieving the highest standards of conduct (and has adopted these
commitments as Departmental values). One of the ways in which we
can continue to improve our service is by listening and responding
to the views of our customers. Therefore we aim to ensure
that:
- Making a complaint is as easy as possible;
- We treat as a complaint any clear expression of
dissatisfaction with our service which calls for a response;
- We treat it seriously whether it is made in
person, by telephone, by letter, by fax, or by e-mail;
- We deal with it promptly, politely and, where
appropriate, informally (for example, by telephone);
- 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 complaints, use them to improve
our service, and publish information on complaints - for example,
in our Departmental Report.
How do you make a complaint?
- You can make a complaint in writing, by fax, by
e-mail, by telephone or in person (by appointment please). If you
are writing, faxing or e-mailing your complaint, please provide
your telephone number if a response by telephone would be
convenient. If you are e-mailing, please state if a reply by e-mail
is required and, if not, please provide a full postal address.
- If you know the part of the Department which is
relevant to your complaint, or the name or title of an appropriate
member of staff, please make your complaint direct to them
(referring to this complaints procedure would be helpful).
- If you do not have this information, please get
in touch with the Department's Public Enquiry Unit, which will give
you the contact details for the most appropriate person.
The Unit can be reached at:
Public Enquiry Unit, PO Box 12,
Runcorn, Cheshire, WA7 2GJ
Tel. 0870 000 2288
Textphone/Minicom 01928 79 4274
Fax. 01928 79 4248
What happens next?
- We will reply within 15 working days from when
we receive your complaint. If it is not possible to give you a full
reply within this time - for instance, because a detailed
investigation is required - we will give you an interim response,
telling you what is being done to deal with your complaint, when
you can expect the full reply and from whom.
- That full reply will include details of who to
contact next if you believe that your complaint has not been dealt
with properly. This will normally be the appropriate senior
Departmental official (a Divisional Manager).
- If, following that second response, you are
still not satisfied, you can ask for your complaint to be referred
to David Normington, the Department's Permanent Secretary.
- You can, of course, ask your MP to request the
independent Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (the
Ombudsman) to review your complaint and how it has been handled.
(If the Ombudsman is satisfied that your complaint has been dealt
with fairly, he will close your case and, normally, we will not
respond to further approaches about the matter.)
Complaints about related organisations and issues
Some Departmental programmes and services are delivered to the
public through a range of other organisations. There are separate
arrangements for complaints about individual schools, colleges,
universities, Jobcentres, Learning & Skills Council's etc.
Brief details and relevant contacts are given below. There are many
other organisations connected in some way with the Department - for
example, non-departmental public bodies (contact details for these
bodies are available from the Public Enquiry Unit), and their
arrangements for dealing with complaints can vary.
Schools Advice is given in the parent's factsheet 'What to do
when things go wrong' (PPY103). This is available on this website,
from the Public Enquiry Unit, and from:
Department for Children, Schools and
Families Publications
PO Box 5050 Sherwood Park Annesley
Nottingham NG15 ODJ
Tel: 0845 60 222 60
Fax: 0845 60 333 60
Government Offices
Government Offices for the 10 English regions manage
programmes for the Department for Education and Skills, as well as
for the Departments of the Environment Food and Rural Areas, and
for Trade andIndustry. Each Government Office has a complaints
procedure which is available on request. Your local telephone
directory or Directory Enquiries will have contact details for your
region's Office.
Please note: A copy of this standard website
procedure is available in large print format, in Braille and on
audio cassette. It is also available in the following languages:
Arabic, Bengali, Greek, Gujerati, Hindi, Chinese, Punjabi, Turkish,
Urdu, and Welsh.