Stage 1 – Discussing your concerns with your training provider
Each year, more than 20,000 learners chose to study an industry-leading YMCA Awards qualification with one of our approved centres. Most learners complete their study and assessments without issue, but we understand that sometimes things go wrong. You may be unhappy with the way your tutor is delivering your qualification, believe there is a mistake in learning materials or feel that an assessment decision is unfair.
If you have any concerns, the first step is to talk to your centre so they can investigate. As part of their investigation, your centre may contact us on your behalf or for support in putting things right.
All our approved centres must have formal complaints and appeals processes in place to support their learners. They will be able to give you more information about the steps you need to take but the process usually ends with your centre providing you with a formal written response to your concerns.
Stage 2 – Contacting YMCA Awards with feedback and complaints
If you’re unhappy with the outcome of your centre’s internal complaints process, or you feel they haven’t followed their procedure correctly, you can ask us to review your case by completing our feedback and complaints form or by writing to us at:
Feedback and complaints
YMCA Awards
112 Great Russell Street
London
WC1B 3NQ
You’ll need to provide:
- details of your original complaint
- evidence that you’ve given your centre an opportunity to respond
- a phone number and email address.
Where we can help
Our priorities when reviewing learner complaints are to ensure, wherever possible, that:
- learners are supported to meet the learning outcomes of their qualification
- learners are appropriately certificated for their achievement
- our approved centres learn from complaints and feedback to support future delivery.
We’ll check the information you’ve provided and investigate to determine whether your centre has broken any of the rules set out in our Centre Agreement/Terms and Conditions for Approved Providers. Where they have, we can set actions to ensure that they make things right, or we can withdraw approval to stop them from working with us in the future.
We aim to provide a detailed response within 15 working days. If we’re unable to address your concerns within 15 working days, we’ll provide you with an update on our investigation and information on when you should expect our reply.
We don’t publish actions we set our approved centres unless our regulators tell us to, so we may not be able to fully communicate the outcome of our review to you.
Financial disputes
Centres charge fees for the services they provide, including venue hire, learning materials, teaching and assessment. We are not involved in setting these fees and cannot intervene in financial disputes between you and your centre.
Similarly, we are not involved in funding qualifications and have no power to write-off debt to funding agencies if you do not complete your qualification.
Stage 3 – Final review by YMCA Awards
If you don’t feel that our response has addressed your concerns, you can ask for a senior manager to review your complaint. They will check to ensure that we’ve provided as much support as possible, and that we’ve followed our process correctly.
You can request a final review of your case by replying to our complaint response, or by writing to us at:
Feedback and complaints
YMCA Awards
112 Great Russell Street
London
WC1B 3NQ
Stage 4 – Escalating to the regulator
If you’ve exhausted our complaints process and would still like to escalate your concerns further, you can get in touch with the regulator of our qualifications in your area.
Stage 1 – Contacting YMCA Awards with complaints
Each year, more than 300 approved centres chose to deliver teaching and/or assessment of industry-leading YMCA Awards qualification. Most centres do so without issue, but we understand that sometimes things go wrong. You may be unhappy with how long we have taken to respond to a query, believe there is a mistake in our teaching and/or assessment materials or be unhappy with an interaction with us.
To submit your complaint you can:
- call and speak to our Customer Support and Operations Manager (or Head of YMCA Awards if your complaint is about our Customer Support and Operations Manager)
- complete a ‘Contact YMCA Awards’ form in Y-Connect
- complete our feedback and complaints form
- write to us at:
Feedback and complaints
YMCA Awards
112 Great Russell Street
London
WC1B 3NQ
You’ll need to provide:
- details of your complaint
- your name and contact information
- your centre name.
If you’re writing to us or completing our feedback and complaints form, you should also include any supporting documentation. We’ll check the information you’ve provided and let you know next steps within two working days. To allow us time to fully investigate your concerns, we aim to provide a detailed response within 15 working days. If we’re unable to address your concerns within 15 working days, we’ll provide you with an update on our investigation and information on when you should expect our reply.
Stage 2 – Escalating your complaint
If your feel our response hasn’t addressed your concerns or you’re unhappy with the way we have handled your complaint, you can ask for a Senior Manager to review your case by:
- calling and speaking with our Head of YMCA Awards
- adding a public comment to the Y-Connect form and selecting the ‘Escalate’ button
- responding to our Stage 1 response
- writing to us at:
Feedback and complaints
YMCA Awards
112 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3NQ
When escalating your complaint, you should clearly indicate why you are unhappy with the outcome of Stage 1.
Stage 3 – Escalating to the regulator
If you’ve received a response from a Senior Manager but would like to escalate your concerns further, you can get in touch with the regulator of our qualifications in your area.