Responding to comments and complaints to the NBN Trust

How we listen to you

To help us build our relationship with our network, learn from your suggestions and provide opportunities for you to engage with us, we want to encourage your feedback.

This includes our annual Conference and AGM as well as through the NBN Forum, social media and other communications. We recognise that some feedback may require a formal individual response: this page explains how we do that.

What is a complaint and what is a comment?

All feedback will be treated with courtesy and respect, and handled sensitively within an appropriate timescale, involving only those who need to know and following any relevant data protection requirements. The NBN Trust expects people who provide feedback to do so fairly and appropriately.

Comments are suggestions or expressions of satisfaction or dissatisfaction: these are also opportunities for learning and improvement, and a record is normally kept, however while we will normally respond to comments, the response is not part of a formal process.

A complaint is a formal claim that the NBN Trust has failed to meet an organisational commitment as set out in the NBN Trust Articles of Association, Rules and Standing Orders, Annual Trustees’ Report & Accounts, a relevant Code of Practice, law or a regulation.

A complaint requires an investigation, a formal response and a record.

Concern regarding the behaviour of a staff member or volunteer will also be treated as a complaint, using our HR policies and procedures: in such cases, the detail of any outcome may need to remain confidential.

Please tell us what has gone wrong

If you are not happy with the service offered by the National Biodiversity Network Trust (NBN Trust) please tell us.

If you wish to provide feedback on a service we provide please email support@nbn.org.uk or contact a member of the NBN Trust team.

If you are unhappy with an individual within the NBN Trust and feel unable to tell them directly please contact the Chief Executive Officer. 

Often, we will be able to give you a response within 3 working days. When the matter is more complicated, we will acknowledge the issue within 3 working days and aim to respond within 14 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response or wish to raise the matter more formally, as a complaint, please write to the Chief Executive Officer. If your complaint is about the Chief Executive Officer, please write to the Interim Chair of the Board of Trustees. This is currently Pete Tomlin. Please email p.tomlin@nbn.org.uk

If, after we have responded, you are not satisfied, please notify the Chair of the Board of Trustees who will report the matter at the next meeting of the Trustees who will then decide on any further steps to resolve the situation.

In the event that your complaint is still not resolved you have the right to escalate your complaint to the Charity Commission.

To assist in resolving the complaint as swiftly as possible, please provide sufficient information for us to be able to understand what the issue is, its cause and a potential resolution.

Complaints should be raised within 12 weeks of the activity relating to the complaint.

How you can contact us

You can call us on 0115 8500177.

Our team is available from Monday to Friday between 9am and 5.00pm

You can email us support@nbn.org.uk

Please provide your name, address and contact telephone number if you email us so that we can get in touch with you easily. When contacting us, please feel free to let us know how you think the matter could be resolved: your ideas and suggestions are always very helpful to us.

General Feedback – How we listen to you

We want to encourage your feedback and may contact individuals directly as a result and where appropriate.

We may choose not to respond to all feedback, for example, if it:

  • Concerns something that the NBN Trust has no direct connection to we may choose to respond to provide clarity, but we are not obliged to;
  • Has clearly been sent to the NBN Trust and several other organisations as part of a bulk communication: in such cases the NBN Trust will choose whether or not it is necessary to reply;
  • Unreasonably pursues a complaint that we have already responded to or pursues a line of enquiry to the point it becomes vexatious. If we choose not to reply again, we will inform you of this decision.