Complaints Procedure

Catherine Knibbs Ltd — covering Children and Tech and all clinical, supervision, training and consultancy services

Our commitment

We take every complaint seriously. Whether your concern is about clinical practice, clinical supervision, a course or training programme, a consultancy engagement, or any other service, we want to hear from you and to put things right where we can.

We will:

Treat you fairly, respectfully and without judgement.
Handle your complaint confidentially, sharing information only where necessary to investigate it or where we are legally or professionally required to, for example safeguarding issues that have been raised.
Deal with complaints promptly and keep you updated on progress in a timely manner.
Make sure you are not treated any differently for raising a concern in good faith.
Learn from complaints to improve our practice and services.
Update policies and procedures as needed following complaints.

Who and what this procedure covers

This procedure applies to complaints about any part of what we do, including:

Clinical practice: which may include assessments and related clinical work
Clinical supervision: including the Drop In Clinic and individual supervision
Training and courses: the CYBERTRAUMA^™ Certificate Course, the FLEXI Course, toolkits, webinars, workshops and other CPD
Consultancy and professional services: safeguarding audits, policy work, keynote speaking, advisory and retained work.
Our websites, communications and online content: including childrenandtech.co.uk and catherineknibbs.co.uk.

Complaints about how we handle your personal data are dealt with under a separate, faster route: see 'Data protection complaints' below.

If your complaint is about something we are not responsible for, we will tell you and, where we can, point you to the right organisation.

What is a complaint?

A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction about our services, conduct, or the way we have treated you, that you would like us to respond to. It is different from general feedback or a routine query, though we welcome those too. If you are unsure, just get in touch and we will help you.

You can complain if you are directly affected, or on behalf of someone you are authorised to represent (for example, as a parent or advocate).

How to make a complaint

You can raise a complaint in whichever way suits you best:

Email: [email protected]
Post: Complaints, Catherine Knibbs Ltd, 3 West Parade, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF1 1LT

To help us respond quickly, please include (where you can):

your name and how to contact you,
what your complaint is about, and which service it relates to,
what happened, and when,
how it has affected you,
what you would like to happen to put it right.

We can make reasonable adjustments if you need support to make a complaint, just let us know what would help.

How we handle your complaint — the stages

Stage 1: Informal resolution

Send an email or letter to ask us to look into your concern and allow us to respond initially to resolve this where we can. Often the quickest way to resolve something is to raise it directly. If you feel able to, contact us and we will try to sort it out straightaway, usually within 5 working days. You do not have to start here — you can go straight to a formal complaint if you prefer.

Stage 2: Formal complaint

If the matter is not resolved informally, or you would rather make it formal, put your complaint in writing using any of the routes above. We will:

Acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days of receiving it.
Investigate it fairly and proportionately, which may include speaking with you and anyone else involved, and reviewing relevant records.
Respond in full within 20 working days (around one calendar month) of our acknowledgement, explaining what we found, our decision, and any action we are taking.

If we need longer (for example, because your complaint is complex), we will tell you why and give you a revised date. This is in line with data protection processes, and we will do our best to resolve things at this stage.

Stage 3: Review

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can ask for a review within 20 working days. A review will be carried out by Dr Catherine Knibbs, or a senior person not previously involved, who will consider whether the complaint was handled fairly and the outcome was reasonable. We will respond to a review request within 20 working days. This is the final stage of our internal procedure.

Complaints about clinical practice and supervision

We hold ourselves to the ethical and professional standards of our registering body. If your complaint concerns therapy, clinical work or supervision, we will handle it under this procedure and in line with those standards.

You also have the right to raise concerns about a registered practitioner directly with the relevant professional body at any time:

NCPS: The National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society, 19 Grafton Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 1QT

If a complaint raises a concern about someone's safety or a potential safeguarding issue, we will act on our Safeguarding Policy and any statutory duties immediately, which may mean we cannot keep the matter confidential — safeguarding is the most important aspect of keeping someone safe.

Complaints about training, courses and toolkits

Complaints about our training, courses, supervision groups and toolkits are handled under this procedure. Requests about payments, cancellations or refunds are dealt with under the relevant booking, course or Drop In Clinic terms.

Complaints about consultancy and other services

Complaints about consultancy, safeguarding audits, speaking or advisory work are handled under this procedure. Where an engagement has its own contract or terms, those terms and this procedure are read together.

Data protection complaints

This section meets the data-protection complaint-handling requirements introduced by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, in force from 19 June 2026.

If you believe we have not handled your personal information in line with data protection law — whether that is your own information, or that of someone you are authorised to act for — you can make a data protection complaint. Please raise it with us first, so we have the opportunity to put things right; you can always go to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) afterwards if you are not satisfied.

How to make a data protection complaint:

Email: [email protected]
Post: Data Protection Officer, Catherine Knibbs Ltd, 3 West Parade, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF1 1LT

What we will do:

Acknowledge your complaint within 30 days of receiving it (the 30 days start the day after we receive it, including where it arrives on a weekend or public holiday). If you complain electronically, this acknowledgement may be an automatic reply confirming receipt.
Take appropriate steps to investigate and respond, proportionate to the complaint.
Keep you updated on progress and on how long we expect it to take.
Tell you the outcome without undue delay, explaining the steps we have taken.

Your right to go to the ICO: You can complain to the ICO at any time, though we encourage you to come to us first. The ICO is the UK's independent regulator for data protection.

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Helpline: 0303 123 1113 · ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

For more about how we use your personal data, see our Privacy Policy.

Timescales at a glance

Stage	We will…	Within
Informal (Stage 1)	Try to resolve directly	5 working days
Formal (Stage 2)	Acknowledge your complaint	5 working days
Formal (Stage 2)	Send our full response	20 working days of acknowledgement
Review (Stage 3)	Respond to a review request	20 working days
Data protection complaint	Acknowledge	30 days (statutory)
Data protection complaint	Tell you the outcome	Without undue delay

Confidentiality and how we handle complaint records

We keep a record of complaints and how they were resolved. We handle this information confidentially and in line with data protection law and our Privacy Policy, sharing it only with those who need it to investigate or resolve the complaint, or where we are legally or professionally required to do so. We keep complaint records for 6 years and then securely delete them.

Anonymous and third-party complaints

We will always consider anonymous complaints, though it may limit how fully we can investigate or respond if this were to breach confidential services such as clinical work. If you complain on someone else's behalf, we may need their consent or evidence of your authority to act for them (assessed with care for cybercrime and social-engineering risks) before we can share information with you.

Unreasonable or abusive complaints

We treat everyone with respect and ask for the same in return. In the rare cases where a complaint is pursued in an abusive, threatening or unreasonably persistent way, we may restrict contact or decline to take a complaint further, and we will explain our reasons in writing.

If a complaint raises a safeguarding concern

If, at any point, a complaint suggests a child or adult may be at risk of harm, we will follow our Safeguarding Policy and any statutory duties without delay. This may mean we share information with the relevant authorities and cannot keep the matter confidential.

Monitoring and review

We review complaints and their outcomes to improve our services, and we review this procedure annually, or sooner if the law or guidance changes.

Contact

Catherine Knibbs Ltd (company no. 14647646), 3 West Parade, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF1 1LT · Email: [email protected]