Celebrate Gymnastics Club Complaints Procedure

Individual coaches might be able to talk through your problem informally before it escalates instead of starting the formal complaint process. Talking through your problem might be quicker and less stressful for you.

If you are aware of anything that gives rise to a complaint, please ensure that your concerns have been highlighted to Angela Gratze and Sarah Hill. This can be done informally or if you find it difficult to speak in person, it can be reported in writing, preferably by email.

The below complaints process will be used if you feel a problem has not been resolved after approaching it informally.

Making your complaint

If you want to submit a formal complaint, you must submit this in writing. It must be addressed to Angela Gratze (Director) and Sarah Hill (Office Manager) and you must include in the title or content that it is a formal complaint.

How we handle unacceptable behaviour

It can be stressful to make a complaint, but we won’t accept poor treatment while dealing with your complaint, including:

• aggressive behaviour.
• abusive language or swearing.
• unreasonable demands – like demanding that someone talks to you immediately.
• If you’re seriously or repeatedly abusive we might refuse to deal with your complaint.

Step 1: We will acknowledge your complaint

Angela Gratze or Sarah Hill will acknowledge that you have submitted a complaint and set out for you the timeframe in which they will respond after they have concluded their investigation. This will usually be 14 days but please be aware that the right is reserved to extend this timeframe if additional investigation is required.

Step 2: We will investigate your complaint.

A full investigation will be undertaken. This might include talking to other people about the situation. Confidentiality will be observed. Celebrate Gymnastics reserves the right to consult with an external body or independent consultant if appropriate to ensure that the investigation is thorough and unbiased.

Step 3: We will submit a reply to you in writing

After investigating your complaint, a response will be submitted in writing. If an external consultant has been involved in the investigation, Celebrate Gymnastics reserves the right to engage them to compile the report and response, which will be approved by management as appropriate.

Step 4: We ask for you to review our response.

If you’re happy with our response, no further action is required. If you are not happy with the reply to your complaint, within 6 weeks you can submit any relevant comments and appeal any decision we have made or ask us to review our response. We will acknowledge your comments or appeal and will respond within 14 days to this.

For the purpose of fairness, in the event of an appeal request, an independent party will be consulted who was not part of the initial investigation, report and response. This may be within or outside of Celebrate Gymnastics staff.

After an appeal, if you are still not happy with our response and we are unable to come to a mutual agreement or arrangement, we will consult with British Gymnastics for further assistance.

Please also reference Appendix A from British Gymnastics Guidance regarding Complaints and Appeals, which can be found at https://www.british-gymnastics.org/complaints-and-appeals