This policy relates to the activities operated by CVS Lincolnshire.
Our mission is ‘to enable the development of stable, thriving communities with the capacity to plan and manage lasting improvements to their quality of life’.
Our services aim to:
a) Strengthen connections within communities
b) Increase the impact of voluntary action
c) Stimulate inclusive economic growth
d) Reduce inequalities
e) Improve health and wellbeing
We ensure that people are able to access our services in a variety of ways, to suit their lifestyle choices and needs.
Our services deal with the following interventions:-
Enquiries – in person, or by telephone, email, social media and website, or post usually to find out about opportunities available in the local area, or to gain information, or self refer
Appointment – a one-to-one appointment in person, by telephone or video link.
Outreach – including talks to community groups, health and care professionals, and other statutory and non-statutory service providers.
Referrals – made on behalf of an individual or groups of Individuals to an appropriate
community activity.
Signposting – providing information to facilitate community activity.
Follow-up – Individual confirmed as ‘placed’ in a community activity.
We work with organisations across the county to gain an in-depth understanding of the services they provide, develop appropriate community activities for individuals to access and provide appropriate support for the sustainability of those projects through our Volunteer Centre Services- referring volunteers and providing support with policies, procedures, dissemination of information, training and networking opportunities.
Standards of care
We aim to provide a service which is responsive to the needs of our clients, and is consistent in quality and effectiveness across the County.
1. Individuals
Stage 1: Clients make an initial enquiry in person, or by telephone, email, or via a third party referral. This is acknowledged usually on the day of contact/receipt and definitely within a maximum of 10 working days. They will be thanked for their interest and the parameters of the service will be broadly explained. They will also be notified of how their data is stored and issued an abridged version of our privacy notice. Individuals who decide not to take their enquiry further will be signposted to a more appropriate service, where necessary.
Stage 2: Individuals are offered either an appointment in person or by telephone, video link, or an outreach session, or details of self helps sites such as Connect to Support or Help My Street, to suit their preferences, timescales and locality.
At the appointment our team member will discuss with the individual their interests, skills and goals and help match them with appropriate opportunities. Data protection and confidentiality procedures will be explained to them, before entering the individual’s details on the database. The team member will explain that no personal information will be passed to anyone except the organisation/s the individual chooses to be referred to and, if appropriate, to comply with the requirements of funders.
The team member will make referrals on behalf of the individual to the opportunities and organisations they are interested in pursuing.
Each interaction will be logged on the relevant database, to maintain an audit trail. Information relating to individuals will be stored securely and we will only collect information that is appropriate to facilitating their community activity and for statistical monitoring. Anyone working with information is expected to work within data protection and confidentiality requirements.
Stage 3: All Individuals are followed up as a minimum standard at 1 month and again at 6 months, by phone, email or letter/questionnaire and outcomes/action required recorded on a CRM system.
2. Organisations
Stage 1: All the organisations we work with are registered on the database so that we can track our relationship and interactions.
Stage 2: We work hard to ensure that the community activities offered on the local database are current and relevant to the needs of Individuals by:-
Stage 3: Organisations are routinely contacted when their opportunities are due to expire, to check whether or not they still active and if they have others to advertise.
We collect feedback from organisations through a range of different routes: follow up on referrals made, comments books, training evaluation, networking meetings, social media, and contact by email, telephone and letter.
We undertake an annual survey of organisations as a minimum to ascertain how satisfied organisations are with the service we provide. Lincolnshire County Council and some District Councils also conduct a quarterly external audit of our services, including the individual experience for organisations and individuals.
3. Managing information
Individuals at Stage 2 will be asked for their consent to have their details entered onto a CRM system. Data protection and confidentiality procedures will be explained to them. No personal information will be passed to anyone except the organisations the individual chooses to be referred to and to comply with the requirements of funders.
Information will be stored securely and we will not collect any unnecessary data about the individuals, but only that appropriate to their volunteering activity.
Each intervention will be logged on a CRM system, to maintain an audit trail.
Anyone working with individual information will work within data protection and confidentiality requirements.
4. Feedback and complaints
We will deal with any comment or complaint fairly and transparently and will always consider comments and complaints to help shape the future of our delivery.
5. Feedback about our service
If an individual has any complaints, compliments or suggestions we encourage them to feedback using any method appropriate to them, e.g. email, telephone, social media, evaluation forms, surveys, etc.
If contact details are supplied, we will reply within 10 working days to let the Individual know what action we will take.
Organisations are asked for their feedback on our services on at least an annual basis, via a survey, but also through networking meetings, training and telephone and email contact.
6. Complaints about our service
Should follow the Complaints Policy.
7. Maintaining excellent standards
The Customer Care Policy is underpinned in all through:-
Individuals, staff and volunteers are made aware of the customer care policy and procedure through:-
