Complaints Policy

1. Who should I contact?

The Wildlife Trusts consist of 46 separate Wildlife Trusts, each one a separate charity, supported by a central charity, the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts. If your complaint relates to a particular Wildlife Trust or one of their nature reserves, please contact that Trust directly. You can find their contact details here.

If your complaint relates to the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, please read our policy below.

2. Complaints relating to The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts

The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts wants to exceed your expectation in everything we do. However, we know that there may be times when we do not meet our own high standards. When this happens, we want to hear about it, in order to deal with the situation as quickly as possible and put measures in place to stop it happening again.

We take complaints very seriously and we treat them as an opportunity to develop our approach. This is why we are always very grateful to hear from people who are willing to take the time to help us improve. We aim to respond within 5 working days.

Our policy is:

• To provide a fair complaints procedure that is clear and easy to use for anyone wishing to make a complaint.
• To publicise the existence of our complaints procedure so that people know how to contact us to make a complaint.
• To make sure everyone in our organisation knows what to do if a complaint is received.
• To make sure all complaints are investigated fairly and in a timely way.
• To make sure that complaints are, wherever possible, resolved and that relationships are repaired.
• To learn from complaints and feedback to help us to improve what we do.

Confidentiality

All complaint information will be handled sensitively, in line with relevant data protection requirements.

Responsibility

Overall responsibility for this policy and its implementation lies with Thirzah McSherry, from our team of Directors.

How to make a complaint

Complaints should where possible be in writing and sent to:

The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts
The Kiln
Waterside
Mather Road
Newark
Nottinghamshire
NG24 1WT

Or emailed to supportercare@wildlifetrusts.org

4. Complaints about how we look after your personal data

We are committed to keeping your personal details safe. For information on how and why we use your personal data, in accordance with the General Data Protection Policy (GDPR), please see our Privacy Policy.

If you have made a complaint about how we capture, use or store your personal data, and you do not feel that your concerns have been resolved satisfactorily by The Wildlife Trusts, please contact the Information Commissioner’s Office, whose remit covers the UK.

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Email: casework@ico.org.uk