Customer Complaints Policy
Background
The West of Scotland Loan Fund Ltd (WSLF) is a unique consortium of twelve local authorities working together to provide loan finance to new and existing small and medium sized businesses within the west of Scotland. Businesses apply for loan finance in the first instance to their respective local authority in the area in which they are based.
WSLF and the member local authorities want to provide a good quality service and if things go wrong we do want to know about them so we can put them right and learn from them. This will help us to improve our service.
What is a Complaint?
Complaints are not routine enquiries or requests about a service. A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, which suggests failure by the West of Scotland Loan Fund or its Member Authorities to perform a function or provide a service in line with stated practices and policies.
A complaint gives us the opportunity to:
- put something right which has gone wrong
- to restore the service to the required standard
- to ensure that faults are acknowledged and to
- provide a remedy
If a complaint is made against one of the Member Authorities acting as agent of the West of Scotland Loan Fund and not against the Loan Fund itself the respective Member Authority’s customer complaints procedure should be followed in the first instance. Each Member Authority has procedures for responding to complaints. Details of the procedure are available from the respective Member Authority.
If the complaint is against the West of Scotland Loan Fund then the following Customer Complaints Procedure should be followed.
Principles of the Complaints Procedure
The complaints procedure is built upon the following principles:
- Fairness
- Openness
- Partnership
- Transparency
- Based on Legal Rights, Including Right of Appeal
- Confidentiality - to protect all concerned
Taken together these principles create a system which is committed to service improvement, and which protects the interests of everyone concerned. It is based on your legal rights and the highest standards of public service. All complaints and concerns will be investigated and action taken as a result, wherever appropriate.
Making your Complaint
It is important to provide feedback, in particular, when members of the public have concerns about the delivery of the service. When this happens the user should have easy access to an effective procedure to allow a quick resolution of their complaint. The complaints procedure has 4 stages.
Stage 1 (informal)
The Fund Manager of WSLF will deal with the complaint at this stage and attempt to resolve the problem. The Fund Manager should be the first person to be advised of your concern. They should be given an opportunity to address the issues which are raised. All experience proves that the vast majority of complaints are best resolved informally, and at the point nearest delivery of the service.
Stage 2 (Fund Manager)
If you remain dissatisfied, the complaint should be formalised by completing a complaints form or writing a letter. This will be acknowledged within 5 working days of receipt and will be dealt with by the Fund Manager of WSLF. You will be informed of the outcome in writing. In general a response will be provided within 7 working days of receiving full details of the issues you raise.
Stage 3 (Corporate Working Group)
If the Fund Manager is unable to resolve your complaint you can ask for the members of the Corporate Working Group (a Committee of the Board of WSLF) to review your complaint. A response from the CWG will be issued within 14 working days of receiving your request for a review.
Stage 4 (Chair, WSLF)
If the Corporate Working Group is unable to resolve your complaint you can ask for the Chair of the West of Scotland Loan Fund to review your complaint. A response from the Chair will be issued within 21 working days of receiving your request for a review.
Stage 5 (Ombudsman)
If you are dissatisfied with the Chair’s response or WSLF fail’s to respond in 8 weeks from receiving your complaint you have the right to complain to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. This is an independent organisation which will investigate your concerns.
Points of Contact
West of Scotland Loan Fund
Fund Manager
West of Scotland Loan Fund Ltd
London Road Centre
London Road
Kilmarnock
KA3 7BU
Tel: 01563 554851
Fax: 01563 554874
Email: fundmanager@wslf.co.uk
Web: www.wslf.co.uk
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
If, having completed WSLF’s complaints procedure you remain dissatisfied you have the right to complain to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. The Ombudsman will look into complaints about services provided by organisations like councils and public sector owned companies.
You can write to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman at;
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
4 Melville Street
Edinburgh
EH3 7NS
Tel: 0800 377 7330
Fax: 0800 377 7331
Email: ask@spso.org.uk
Web: www.spso.org.uk
Or
FREEPOST EH641
Edinburgh
EH3 0BR
Financial Ombudsman Service
If it has been over eight weeks since you contacted us, you can ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to look into the matter for you. This is the free independent and impartial service for resolving disputes between Lenders and their customers.
The Financial Ombudsman Service will only be able to help once we have had the chance to explore all options, so please ensure that we have been given enough of an opportunity to resolve the matter first.
You can write to the Financial Ombudsman at;
Financial Ombudsman Service
South Quay Plaza
183 Marsh Wallj
London
E14 9SR
Tel: 0845 0801800
Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Web: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Click here to download the Complaints Form