Complaints Procedure
How to complain about the way we use your personal data
About this procedure
This procedure explains how you can complain to the International Coaching Federation UK Charter Chapter (“UK ICF”, “we”, “us”, “our”) if you are unhappy with the way we have handled your personal data. It also explains what we will do when we receive your complaint, how long it should take, and what you can do if you are not happy with our response.
We are responsible (the “controller”) for the personal data we hold about our members, event attendees, volunteers and website users. Our Privacy Notice explains what personal data we collect and how we use it.
This procedure follows the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR),the Data Protection Act 2018 and guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO),the UK’s data protection regulator.
What you can complain about
You can complain to us if you think we have not handled your personal data properly. For example, if you think we have:
- collected or used your personal data without a good reason
- kept your personal data for longer than we need it
- shared your personal data with someone we should not have
- not kept your personal data safe and secure
- held personal data about you that is wrong or out of date
- sent you marketing after you asked us to stop
- not dealt properly with a request you made about your personal data, such as a request for a copy of your data (a “subject access request”) or a request to correct or delete it.
You do not need to use legal terms, or the words “data protection” or “complaint”. If it is clear that you are unhappy with how we have used your personal data, we will treat what you tell us as a complaint under this procedure. If we are not sure whether you want to make a complaint, we will ask you.
What this procedure does not cover
This procedure is only for complaints about how UK ICF handles personal data.
- If you want to complain about the conduct of an ICF member or coach, this is dealt with by the ICF Global Ethics team under the ICF Code of Ethics. You can contact them at ethics@coachingfederation.org.
- If your concern is about personal data held by ICF Global (for example, your global membership or credential records), ICF Global is responsible for that data. Please see the ICF Global privacy notice. If you are not sure who to contact, send your complaint to us and we will help you.
- If your complaint is about something else, such as one of our events or services, contact us at admin@coachingfederation.org.uk and we will explain how we will deal with it.
How to make a complaint
You can make a complaint to us:
- By email: admin@coachingfederation.org.uk
- By post: Data Protection Lead, International Coaching Federation UK Charter Chapter, 59 Birmingham Road, Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS13 6PG
- By telephone: 01922 660088
We can send you a complaint form if you would find it helpful, but you do not have to use it. You can also tell any of our volunteers about your complaint, and they will pass it to our Data Protection Lead.
If you raise a complaint with us on social media, we will not discuss it publicly. We will contact you privately and ask for a secure way to deal with it.
What to tell us
To help us look into your complaint, please tell us:
- your name and how we can contact you
- what happened and why you are unhappy
- any relevant dates, and copies of any emails or letters aboutthe issue
- what you would like us to do to put things right, if you know.
If you cannot give us all of this information, please still contact us. We will help you.
If you need help
If you need help to make a complaint, or you would like us to contact you in a different way or format (for example, by telephone or in large print), please let us know. We will make reasonable adjustments to help you.
Making a complaint for someone else
Someone else, such as a family member, friend, solicitor or other representative, can make a complaint for you.Before we look into it, we need evidence that they have your permission to act for you. This could be:
- a letter of authority signed by you, or
- a valid power of attorney.
We will still acknowledge the complaint within our usual timescale (see section 7), but we will not start looking into it until we have received this evidence. If we are unsure whether the evidence is valid, we may contact you to check.
Checking your identity
We will only ask you to prove your identity if we are not sure who you are. If we do need to check, we will ask you as early as possible and will only ask for the information we need. We will use this information only to confirm your identity.
What happens after you complain
Key timescales at a glance
| Stage | What we will do | When |
|---|---|---|
| Acknowledgement | Confirm we have received your complaint | Within 5 working days (and never later than 30 days, the legal limit) |
| Our response | Send you our full written response | Within one calendar month, or sooner if we can |
| Internal review | You can ask us to review our decision | Ask within 28 days of our response; we aim to reply within 20 working days |
| Complaining to the ICO | You can complain to the ICO | At any time |
We will acknowledge your complaint
We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days of receiving it. The law gives us up to 30 days to do this, but we aim to be much quicker. When we acknowledge your complaint, we will:
- confirm our understanding of your complaint
- give you a reference number
- tell you who will be dealing with your complaint
- check how you would like us to contact you
- explain what will happen next and how long we expectitto take.
We will look into your complaint
We will start looking into your complaint straight away. We will review the details you have given us, check our records and systems, and speak to the volunteers or staff involved. Where needed, we will also ask organisations that handle personal data for us, or with us (for example ICF Global or our IT and membership system providers),for relevant information.
We will keep you informed
We will keep you updated on our progress. We aim to send you our full response within one calendar month of receiving your complaint. If your complaint is complex and we need more time, we will tell you why and give you a new date for our response.
Our response
We will send you our response in writing, by email or post, whichever you prefer. Our response will:
- explain what we found, answering each of the points you raised
- tell you whether we think we have broken data protection law
- explain what we have done, or will do, to put things right. This might include:
- correcting or deleting your personal data
- changing the way we do things
- giving you a further explanation or an apology
- tell you how to ask for an internal review if you are not happy with our response
- tell you about your right to complain to the ICO, and how to contact them.
If you are not happy with our response
If you are not happy with our response, you can ask us to review our decision. Please contact us within 28 days of receiving our response, using the contact details in section 4, and explain why you are unhappy. Where possible, the review will be carried out by someone who was not involved in the original investigation.
We aim to complete the review within 20 working days and will write to you with the outcome.
Asking for an internal review is optional. You do not have to ask for, wait for, or complete a review before complaining to the ICO.
Complaining to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
You have the right to complain to the ICO at any time. The ICO is the UK’s independent regulator for data protection. The ICO will usually expect you to have raised your concern with us first, so that we have had the chance to put things right.
- Website: ico.org.uk
- Make a complaint online: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
- Telephone: 0303 123 1113
- Post: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
How we use your personal data when dealing with your complaint
We will use the information you give us to deal with your complaint,to improve the way we handle personal data, and to meet our legal obligations. We will only share it with people who need itto look into or respond to your complaint. This may include ICF Global or a service provider involved in your complaint, orthe ICO ifit asks us for information.
We keep a record of every data protection complaint. We keep complaint records for 6 years after the complaint is closed, and then delete them securely. For more information, please see our Privacy Notice.
Contact us
If you have any questions aboutthis procedure, please contact our Data Protection Lead:
- Email: admin@coachingfederation.org.uk
- Post: Data Protection Lead, International Coaching Federation UK Charter Chapter, 59 Birmingham Road, Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS13 6PG
- Telephone: 01922 660088