Complaints Policy

Complaint, Concerns and Compliments Procedure

ASL are committed to providing good quality services. If you feel our services exceed your
expectations, we would welcome your feedback. We also recognise, however, that we
sometimes get things wrong or make mistakes. To deal with this we have a Compliments,
Concern and Complaints Procedure which is available on our website or by request.

What is a Complaint?

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about any aspect of our service that didn’t
deliver what we promised or what you expected from us.

Who can raise a concern or complaint?

• Students / Apprentices who are enrolled on a course /apprenticeship at Access Skills 
• Employers who have employees enrolled on a course/apprenticeship at Access Skills 

When should you raise a concern or complaint?

We respectively request that you raise the concern or complaint promptly and within 8 weeks
of the issue being raised. We do not normally accept complaints after 3 months following
completion of a course or apprenticeship.
If a complaint is about a member of staff, they will be notified and given the opportunity to
respond. In all other respects ASL will maintain confidentiality regarding complaints and
request that students, apprentices, and employers do the same.
Should your complaint concern an appeal about a decision that has been made about the
assessment of your work, then you will find more information on how to appeal an assessment
decision in the ASL Learner Handbook.

Compliments

Compliments will be acknowledged and recorded centrally and on the personnel file of any
member of staff individually complimented. This will be reviewed as part of their appraisal.

How to complain or express a concern

Step 1: Contacting us

The first step is to talk to a member of the Customer Service Team on 0121 510 2169.
We will try to resolve the problem on the spot if we can. If we cannot do this, for example;
because information we need is not to hand, then we will take a record of your
concern/complaint and arrange the best way and time to get back to you. This will normally
take five working days to be acknowledged and will be resolved within 21 days. 

Step 2: Taking your complaint further

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of our initial response, the next step is to put a formal complaint in writing to the Customer Service Team, setting out the details, explaining what you think went wrong and what you feel would put things right. The Customer Service
team address is:

Access Skills Ltd 

Cobalt Square, 

 12th Floor, 

 83-85 Hagley Road, 

 Birmingham, 

 B16 8QG 

Alternatively, you can request a Compliments, Comments, Concerns & Complaints form
from learnersupport@accessskills.co.uk to complete and return to the Customer Service
team. Once the Customer Service Team receives a written complaint, it will be
acknowledged in writing within five working days of receipt. They will arrange for a full
investigation to take place. Investigations should normally be conducted within three weeks
unless the matter is more complicated, such as where other organisations need to be
contacted. Where this is the case, we will still let you know what action is being taken and
tell you when we expect to provide you with a full response.  

Step 3: The next stage

If your complaint is regarding any other matter or if you feel the complaint/concern has not
been resolved, you may document your issues and address your correspondence to Access
Skills Managing Director at the same address above.

Escalating a concern or complaint to the National Apprenticeship Service.

If unhappy with the outcome, apprentice learners and/or employers have the option to email or post the complaint to the ESFA complaints team. 

ESFA complaints team Customer.Complaints@education.gov.uk 

Complaints team 

Education and Skills Funding Agency 

Cheylesmore House 

Quinton Road 

Coventry 

CV1 2WT