FEATURES
other party or parties involved, those in your Chain of Command or subject matter experts on your Unit. This ultimately achieves aquicker resolution to the issue and the Service has had significant success in assisting personnel to resolve their complaints informally rather than through the formal route. Your Unit Equality and Diversity Advisor should always be involved in complaints involving bullying and harassment. There are also three areas where aSpecial- to-Type procedure must be followed before aformal Service Complaint can be submitted. For Housing matters, the unit Service Community Support Officer can offer informal advice, prior to the householder contacting CarillionAmey to initiate aformal complaint. Medical and Dental issues should be raised with the Unit Medical or Dental Centre Practice Manager in the first instance. Concerns with Pay, Pensions and Allowances should first be referred to the Joint Personnel Administration Centre.
Once these avenues of potential resolution have been fully exhausted, and if you are still not satisfied, you should contact your unit HR staff (probably OC Personnel Service Flight) to access the Service Complaints process. The HR staff will also be able to provide you with an Assisting Officer to advise you and guide you through the process if you have not already chosen your own. And don’t forget –anyone with apotential or ongoing complaint may contact the Ombudsman at any time to discuss the matter of concern or the conduct of the Service Complaint.
CarillionAmey Helpline: 0800 707 6000 (option 5for complaints)
Joint Personnel Administration Centre: 0141 2243600 Freephone 08000853600
DBS-JPAC@dbspv.mod.uk
Service Complaints Ombudsman: 020 7877 3450
contact@servicecomplaintsombudsman.
gsi.gov.uk
What Happens Next? Your complaint should be submitted in writing to your Commanding Officer, stating the nature of your grievance and what remedy you seek –your Unit HR staff have aproforma that will capture all required details. Having established that the complaint has been submitted within the time limit (3 months from the date of the ‘wrong’), has exhausted the Special-to-Type process where applicable, and does not concern excluded matters, your Commanding Officer will want to discuss the Service Complaint with you and all others it involves, in order to decide if the complaint is ‘admissible’. If it is admissible, the Complaint will be forwarded to the Service Complaints Team at HQ AIR Command, who will appoint aDecision Body (this may be an individual or aPanel, and may be your Commanding Officer) to carry out further investigations and will have been delegated powers to grant an appropriate remedy if the Service Complaint is upheld. At all stages of the process you will be informed of progress and key decisions, and
afforded the opportunity to comment where appropriate. Once the Decision Body has either granted aremedy or judged the Service Complaint to be unfounded, you will be given the opportunity to appeal the outcome, and if you do, an Appeal Body will be appointed to review the Service Complaint. The decision of the Appeal Body is final unless you decide to refer your complaint to the Ombudsman for further investigation.
Where can Igotofor support? Any conflict situation in the workplace will be stressful for all involved, including families and colleagues. The RAF has access to awide range of agencies able to provide free, confidential and impartial advice and support including: Unit Equality and Diversity Advisor,Unit Service Community Support Officer,Unit Medical staff,Chaplaincy,the RAF Mediation Service, ACAS,SSAFA, RAFFA, MOD Mental Health Support website and HIVE Information Service. However,Service personnel must seek Legal advice if required at their own expense.
Where can Ifind more information? ‘RAF Internal Briefing Note 86/15 – Service Complaints Reform Jan 16’ outlines the new Service Complaints process and provides links to additional sources of information.
‘Joint Service Publication 831 –Redress of Individual Grievances’ provides the detailed policy for the management of Service Complaints.
www.raf-ff.org.uk
Spring 2016
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