Complaints policy and procedures

Introduction

Royal Museums Greenwich is committed to offering our visitors and supporters the highest standards of service and experience. If you feel that we have fallen short in any respect we want to hear from you as complaints can be an opportunity to improve quality of service and we welcome constructive feedback of any sort.

This procedure sets out how RMG will handle complaints. It should be read in conjunction with our Complaints Policy.

Feedback and informal complaints

We hope that most complaints can be resolved informally and swiftly either by bringing the issue to a member of staff on duty in the Museum who can, if necessary, escalate any issues to a manager or supervisor, or emailing our enquiries service at RMGEnquiries@rmg.co.uk. We will aim to resolve the problem as soon as we can.

Formal complaints

If the complaint is more serious in nature or you are not satisfied with our response to an informal complaint, then you should raise a formal complaint with us. You are invited to write to the Head of Governance and Museum Records at RMGFormalcomplaints@rmg.co.uk or by post to Royal Museums Greenwich, Park Row, Greenwich, SE10 9NF.

Formal complaints should include:

• Your name and contact details (email or postal address).
• A telephone number in case we need to discuss the matter with you as part of our investigation.
• A full description of the complaint including details (where appropriate) of location, date of incident and any members of staff involved where known.

Our response to a formal complaint

Upon receipt of a formal complaint, we will:

• Acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 5 working days.
• Make a formal log of your complaint.
• Bring the complaint to the attention of the CEO, Royal Museums Greenwich.
• Carry out a full investigation of the matter, led by the relevant Head of Department and Director.
• Respond to you in writing with our findings within twenty working days of our acknowledgement.

We will keep a record of your complaint, including your personal details, for a minimum period of three years after the complaint has been resolved. After this time, we may continue to store the details of your complaint and our response to it for the purposes of monitoring, but unless there is a good reason to keep your personal details (for example if the information is required by law, or if necessary, for a particular function such as health and safety or the management of our collections), the record will be anonymised, and your personal details deleted.

Appeals

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint you can appeal to the CEO, Royal Museums Greenwich.

Appeals should be made in writing and addressed to: CEO, Royal Museums Greenwich, Park Row, Greenwich, SE10 9NF or by email to RMGFormalcomplaints@rmg.co.uk

Appeals will be investigated by the relevant member of the senior staff. The final decision by RMG will be sent to you in writing in the timescales outlined above.

Further unresolved complaints will be referred for investigation by a panel of the Board of Trustees.

In the unlikely event that you are unhappy with the outcome of this final investigation, you may wish to take up the matter with one of the following:

• The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport – Royal Museums Greenwich is a non-departmental public body (NDPB), with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as our sponsoring body.
   
• The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman - The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman make decisions on complaints that have not been resolved by UK government departments or UK public organisations.
   
• The Fundraising Regulator - RMG is registered with the Fundraising Regulator. They investigate complaints regarding charitable fundraising that are not resolved by the organisation concerned.

Review

These procedures were approved in September 2023 and will be reviewed every two years.