Appeals, Complaints and Whistle Blowing
Application for an appeal
If you have “Failed” your assessment and feel you may have been unfairly treated, you have the right to appeal. The appeals process is as follows:
1) Following your request for an appeal we will tell the original assessor to forward all documentation related to the application (including any notes they may have made) directly to the “appeal assessor”. Please note, neither you, nor the original assessor, is allowed to submit any additional information from this point.
2) The appeal assessor will conduct a full assessment based on the information and documentation provided. The appeal assessor will write to you to tell you the appeal assessment result within 15 working days after receipt of instructions to conduct the appeal.
3) We will invoice you the standard assessment fee for the appeal, but it will be refunded to you in full if your appeal is upheld.
Please note: the appeals process can only be used where you have “Failed” your assessment.
You cannot appeal having “Failed to resubmit” or your assessment is still being assessed.
Failing the appeal
will not prevent your company re-applying to CHAS in the future.
Complaints
Our scheme is in line with the London Borough of Merton Complaints Policy
A complaint is defined as any expression of dissatisfaction about the service provided
by our scheme, our staff, or our approved providers. In applying this definition we
differentiate between a failure to provide a satisfactory service and complaints about
agreed policies. A request for an
appeal will not be dealt with under the CHAS Complaints Policy.
To ensure impartiality in dealing with CHAS complaints, they will be dealt with by
the London Borough of Merton’s Customer Services Officer, based within the
Corporate Services department. If you wish to submit a complaint about our scheme
you can email the Customer Services Officer direct at cscomplaints@merton.gov.uk.
Your complaint will be acknowledged within 3 working days and will include an explanation
of the process and the timescales for dealing with it.
Whistleblowing
If you would prefer your personal details not be disclosed but want your concerns to be made known and investigated you may do so using Merton Councils’ “Whistle blowing” procedure at
http://www.merton.gov.uk/council/plansandpolicies/whistleblowing_policy_feb09-3.pdf
This is intended for use in suspected cases of fraud, theft, malpractice or
serious misconduct by a member of the CHAS team or CHAS Assessor.