Our promise to you

If you have reason to raise a formal complaint with us, we promise to:

  • follow our company values and act with integrity, openness, honesty, fairness and respect
  • strive for the highest standards
  • listen and learn

How to complain

If you’ve been in touch with BACP and feel that our service hasn’t met the high standards you should expect, you have a right to make a complaint. We take all complaints seriously and we’ll listen to you to find a fair and balanced way to seek to put things right.

You can contact us to make a complaint:

  • by email to complaints@bacp.co.uk
  • in writing to Complaints, BACP, 15 St John’s Business Park, Lutterworth LE17 4HB
  • by phone, you can call us on 01455 883300 and speak to one of our customer service officers

This process only relates to complaints about the service provided by BACP. If you have a complaint about a BACP member, this can be reviewed by our Professional Conduct team, subject to our Professional Conduct Procedure. 

What we can't look into

There are some things we can’t deal with through our service complaints process. Examples are:

  • requests for information (i.e. subject access requests)
  • any attempt to have a previous complaint reconsidered
  • complaints relating to active Professional Conduct Procedure (PCP) cases. This includes any live case, those going through the PCP appeals process and those that are still within the 28 days in which an appeal can be raised. Service complaints relating to PCP cases will only be accepted once the 28 day appeal window has passed, or a decision on the appeal has been reached and communicated to the complainant
  • any decisions made under our Professional Conduct Procedure

If your concerns can’t be dealt with under our service complaint policy, we'll contact you and explain the reason why.

What happens when I’ve made a complaint?

If you send your complaint to us in writing (by letter or email), we'll acknowledge this within five working days of receipt. If you call us, our customer service team may be able to help address any issues or concerns you have without raising a complaint.

Sometimes things can be put right quickly, if your concerns can be addressed sooner and more informally, we’ll aim to do so. If not, we’ll investigate your complaint fully and will respond within 20 working days of receipt. If the investigation of your complaint takes longer than this, we’ll contact you to explain why and agree an extension to this timescale with you.

How we’ll put it right

If things have gone wrong, we will:

  • explain what went wrong
  • apologise and tell you how we’re putting things right
  • review our existing processes and provide further staff training if needed to prevent the same issues occurring in the future

Response and Appeals Panel

If you remain dissatisfied with our response, you can ask for your complaint to be reviewed by the Response and Appeals Panel (RAP). The panel consists of key staff members from different areas of BACP who’ll review your complaint and our initial response. Once reviewed, a member of the panel will respond to you within 20 working days, the panel will explain the reasons behind any decision made. 

In the unlikely event that the panel are unable to provide a full response within 20 working days, we’ll contact you to explain why and will provide an estimated response time.

The decision of the Response and Appeals Panel is final and there is no further right of appeal.

How long do I have to make a complaint?

Normally, we’d expect you to contact us within a month of you finding out you have reason to complain. We may be able to accept your complaint after this deadline in exceptional circumstances.

Should you wish to appeal the outcome of your complaint and raise this with the Response and Appeals Panel, this should be done within 6 months of the original complaint. If an appeal has not been raised within this timescale, the complaint will be considered closed with no further right of appeal. 

Unreasonable complaint behaviour or vexatious complaints:

We’re committed to dealing with all complaints fairly and impartially. Although rare, there may be occasions when we believe an individual’s behaviour is unreasonable or that a complaint is vexatious. A complaint may be regarded as unreasonable or vexatious when the person making the complaint:

  • refuses to articulate or specify the grounds of a complaint, despite assistance from BACP staff
  • doesn’t accept that some issues raised are outside the scope of our complaint procedure
  • changes the basis of a complaint whilst an investigation is already underwayor adds irrelevant information at a later stage 
  • frequently raises irrelevant questions and insists they are all answered
  • makes excessive demands on the time and resources of staff with lengthy emails to more than one member of BACP and / or expecting immediate responses
  • refuses to accept a final decision and continues to put forward points without any new evidence
  • submits repeat complaints with small variations, and insists these are new complaints

A professional response

We hope that you don’t have reason to complain however, any matters raised will be progressed in a professional and respectful manner. We’ll make every effort to help fully address your complaint so please provide us with as much information as possible, if we need further details then we’ll let you know.

If you have any questions about how to make a complaint, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to assist.