Comments, compliments and complaints

Please tell us what you think

Your feedback is very important to us. We want to know what you think about us and the delivery of schools capital programmes. Your feedback can highlight areas of good practice and acknowledge the hard work of our staff. We welcome your comments and complaints as they help us to improve so that we can better perform our role and responsibilities.

If you wish to provide feedback please email .

How to make a complaint about PfS

This section explains what you should do if you are not satisfied with the way PfS has performed its roles and responsibilities.

How to make a complaint about PfS

Please note that PfS does not consider complaints made against a Government Office, Department, local authority, or Private Sector Contractor involved in the BSF and Academies programmes. These organisations have their own complaint procedures, and if you wish to make a complaint concerning their services you must contact them directly.

If your complaint is related to a FOI request, we have separate procedures detailed in our FOI guidance.

Types of complaint handled

Handling your complaints quickly, fairly, and helpfully is a key part of our approach to the delivery of Schools Capital programmes.

We cannot treat your objections to the Government's policies as complaints under these procedures, or the administrative actions of bodies other than PfS (so we cannot, for example, deal with complaints you might have about a local authority). We will note any objections to Government policies that we receive, and make sure that they reach the relevant policy makers and Ministers. Complaints against other bodies must be made directly to the body concerned.

The aim of these procedures

If PfS fails to perform its roles and responsibilities to the high level you expect, we will:

treat the matter seriously from the outset, whether you contact us by telephone, letter, fax or email;
deal with it promptly, politely and, if possible, informally;
include in our response an apology where we accept we have got things wrong, an explanation of how things went wrong and how we will improve our performance in future.

About the procedures

The PfS complaints procedure is in three stages that are designed to ensure that, if you are not happy with the initial response we give you (in Stage One), you can ask more senior staff at PfS to consider the issue again (Stage Two). If you are still not satisfied, the Chief Executive of PfS, Tim Byles, will review the case (stage three) and produce a final response to your complaint. The Chairman of PfS will also be made aware of your complaint at this time.

Ultimately, if you are still not satisfied with PfS's final response, you may ask your local MP to take your complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

Stage One - Express your dissatisfaction informally

If you feel dissatisfied with the way a PfS employee has behaved, or the way that PfS has performed its roles and responsibilities, you should first explain your complaint directly and informally to the person you have been in contact with (if you are a local authority in the BSF programme for example, this will be your PfS Project Director). If you have not already been in contact with someone or do not know who to contact about your complaint, you should contact us at the following address:

Partnerships for Schools
33 Greycoat Steet
London
SW1P 2QF

Switchboard:
Email:

We describe this as an informal stage because it is carried out with minimal record keeping, and that means it can be carried out quickly.

You can express your dissatisfaction by letter, fax, email or telephone but we ask for a short period - ten working days at most - to consider the issue.

When you make contact under these procedures, please let us know how you would prefer to receive a response and provide the relevant contact details.

When we have considered your issue, we will get in touch to give you an informal response. We will explain how and why we have reached certain conclusions. If we do not accept the complaint, we will explain why not, and advise you what to do next if you are still not satisfied. We will give you the name and contact details of the person with whom you should pursue your complaint formally with under Stage Two.

Stage Two - Making a formal complaint

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive under Stage One of these procedures, you should write to the person who's details are provided to you in Stage One setting out your complaint clearly and in detail. You should make it clear that you are unstasfied with the outcome of Stage One and now want this treated as a formal complaint.

You should also make clear whether you are complaining:

on behalf of yourself as an individual;
on behalf of an organisation; or
on behalf of multiple organisations.

All complaints on behalf of one or more organisations should include the signature(s) of the most senior person(s) from the organisation(s) to be supportive of the complaint being made (for example, the local authority Project Sponsor).
You may write via e-mail or fax, or you may phone the person concerned. However, because we are obliged to keep formal records of all formal complaints, we will need to agree a detailed, written statement of your complaint with you before embarking on a formal investigation.

The person who receives your complaint under stage two will:

make sure that the complaint is clear;
check that the stage one procedure has been completed;
review, with the person who dealt with your initial approach, the reasons for their response;
consider the issues afresh for themselves;
consult our lawyers if there any doubts about our statutory powers relevant to the issues;
decide upon their own findings in the light of these considerations; and
write to you setting out their findings.

Our target for replying to formal complaints at this stage of the procedure is 20 working days from the date of receipt. If it is not possible to give you a full reply within this time, we will give you an interim response, telling you what is being done to deal with your complaint, and when you can expect the full reply.

Stage Three - Chief Executive Review

If you are not satisfied with the response under stage two, you should write to:

Mr Tim Byles, Chief Executive Officer
33 Greycoat Steet
London
SW1P 2QF

The Chief Executive will give consideration to the matter, and list the complaint as an agenda item at the next Senior Management Team meeting. The Chief Executive will also make sure that where appropriate, the complaint will be considered by our lawyers. The Chairman of PfS will also be made aware of the complaint.

PfS aim to respond fully to Stage Three complaints within 30 working days. If this is not possible, wewill write to let you know what is being done to deal with your complaint, and when you can expect the full reply. This will be PfS's final response to you under these procedures.

Stage Four - Review by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

If you remain unhappy with PfS's final response, you can ask your MP to request that the independent Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman PHSO (the Ombudsman) conducts an independent review of your complaint and how it has been handled.

If the Ombudsman is satisfied that your complaint has been dealt with fairly, she will close your case and, normally, we will not then respond to further approaches about the matter. If the Ombudsman finds that your complaint is justified, she can recommend that PfS should provide a remedy.

Further information about the independent review arrangements can be obtained from the Ombudsman's office at the following address:

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP

Complaints Helpline Tel:
Email:

Website: www.ombudsman.org.uk (external link)