Bolton Hospice is committed to providing the highest possible standards of care and service. If you feel that these standards have not been met and wish to make a complaint about any aspect of the service, please follow the procedure below:

• Inform the senior member of staff for the shift, who will attempt to resolve your complaint. 

The Clinical Nurse Director and Chief Executive will be informed that a complaint has been made, even if it has been resolved.

If a written complaint is received it will be acknowledged within three working days of receipt and will be investigated and responded to within seven working days.

If after seven days the investigation is incomplete, due to the absence of staff, or other factors, a progress report will be sent to the complainant.

A full response will be made within 20 working days of receipt of the complaint or, where the investigation is still in progress, a letter explaining the reason for the delay is sent to the complainant and a full response made within 5 working days of a conclusion being reached.

If you do not feel that your complaint has been resolved:

• Please inform the Chief Executive, personally or in writing, who will deal with the complaint appropriately and inform the Chair of the Bolton Hospice Board of Trustees.

If you are still dissatisfied:

Inform the Chair of the Bolton Hospice Board of Trustees by letter, which can be left with the Hospice Secretary. If the complaint concerns a clinical matter, the Chairman may decide to seek an independent clinical opinion.

You can contact the Care Quality Commission with your concerns at any time, including if you feel that your complaint is unresolved, by writing to the Registration and Inspection Team at:

CQC North West
Citygate
Gallowgate
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE1 4PA

Tel: 03000 616161
Email: north@cqc.org.uk 

Fundraising Complaints

Bolton Hospice is committed to fundraising best practice based on the core principles of honesty, transparency and accountability. If you believe that these standards have not been met and wish to make a complaint about our fundraising please contact Adrian Vickers, Head of Income Generation, on 01204 663 055 or adrian.vickers@boltonhospice.org or by post at:

Bolton Hospice
Queens Park Street Off Chorley New Road
Bolton
BL1 4QT

We will investigate any complaint about fundraising received within a reasonable timescale and will advise you of the outcome of the investigation in writing within 20 working days of acknowledgement of receipt of the complaint. If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of our investigation you can ask the Fundraising Regulator, the independent regulator of charitable fundraising in the UK, to consider it by submitting your complaint through the Fundraising Regulator’s website www.fundraisingregulator.org.uk or calling 0300 999 3404, within two months of our response.

Bolton Hospice is registered with the Fundraising Regulator and required to abide by its decisions. Please note that the Fundraising Regulator can only consider complaints received within 12 weeks of the original incident. In exceptional circumstances, complaints about older incidents may be considered by the Fundraising Regulator, although this is entirely at their discretion.

The Fundraising Regulator will acknowledge your complaint in writing within 5 days of receipt and advise you within 21 days whether the case:

• lies outside of their remit
• doesn’t breach the Fundraising Code of Practice
• if there are regulatory matters that they intend to take forward with Bolton Hospice or
• if they propose informal resolution

The Fundraising Regulator aims to conclude 75% of cases within 90 days of receipt and 90%-100% of cases within 180 days of receipt. We are required to keep a record of complaints, including details of the complaint, the date it was received, details of any investigation we have undertaken, and a copy of all communications regarding the issue. We will retain the records relating to a complaint for at least 24 months from the date on which the complaint was made, except where data protection law requires that the information be put beyond use earlier than this (for example, where the complainant within this timeframe requests that their information be destroyed). Our record of complaints is available for inspection by the Fundraising Regulator on request after reasonable notice.

Lottery Complaints

Bolton Hospice Lottery is committed to providing the highest standards in relation to all of our gambling related activities based on the core principles of honesty, transparency and accountability. If you believe that these standards have not been met and wish to make a complaint about any aspect of the Bolton Hospice Lottery, please follow the procedure below:

1. Inform a member of the lottery team by calling 01204 663 077 or emailing lotteryadmin@boltonhospice.org, who will attempt to resolve your complaint.

If you do not feel that your complaint has been resolved:

2. Please inform either of the responsible people (Alice Sarah Atkinson or Masud Kala) in writing at alice.atkinson@boltonhospice.org / masud.kala@boltonhospice.org or at Bolton Hospice, Queens Park Street, Off Chorley New Road, Bolton BL1 4QT, who will deal with the complaint appropriately.

We will acknowledge and provide an initial response to your complaint within 10 working days of receiving it. Whilst we expect to be able to resolve most complaints within that timeframe, if we need to conduct a more in-depth investigation, we will aim to provide you with a full response within 20 working days.

If we are unable to meet that deadline due to exceptional circumstances, we will of course let you know.

If you are still dissatisfied:

3. If your complaint can not be resolved then it will be referred to arbitration.

As Bolton Hospice Lottery is a member of the Hospice Lotteries Association this will be The Independent Betting Adjudication Service (IBAS), who will perform the duty of alternative dispute resolution.