Complaints and appeals
How to raise a concern.
Issued by
Girl Boss HQ Limited
Registered in England and Wales, company number 15090657.
Registered office: Cherry Tree Farm, Cherry Tree Lane, Rostherne, Altrincham, Cheshire, England, WA14 3RZ.
Girl Boss HQ Limited is not VAT registered. Every price shown for a course is the total price you pay.
There are two different things on this page and they go to two different people. Read the first two paragraphs and you will know which one you want.
A COMPLAINT is about how we have treated you: the service, the facilities, a member of staff, how a booking was handled, how long something took. An APPEAL is about a decision made about your work: a mark, an assessment outcome, a decision that you are not eligible, or a decision to withdraw you.
Clause 1Making a complaint
- Tell us. Ring the academy or email customer services with what happened and what you would like us to do about it. Most things are sorted out here, on the day.
- If that does not resolve it, put it in writing to customer services and ask for it to be escalated. We will acknowledge it within five working days and tell you who is dealing with it.
- We will investigate and reply within 20 working days. If we need longer, we will tell you why and when to expect an answer.
- If you are still not satisfied, you can ask for it to be reviewed by a director, who will not have been involved in the original decision.
Clause 2Appealing an assessment decision
This is the route for a decision about your work, and it is time limited because assessment records and the awarding organisation's own deadlines are.
- Talk to your assessor first. A great many appeals are a misunderstanding about which criterion was not met, and that is a five-minute conversation.
- If you still want to appeal, do it in writing within 20 working days of being given the decision. Say which decision you are appealing and why you think it is wrong.
- An internal quality assurer who was not involved in the original decision reviews it and replies within 20 working days.
- If you disagree with that outcome, you can escalate it to the head of the regulated provision, who will look at how the appeal itself was handled as well as the decision.
Clause 3Taking it further
If you have been through our appeals process and you are not satisfied, you can take an appeal about a regulated qualification to the awarding organisation directly, and after that to the qualifications regulator. We will give you the contact details and the reference numbers you need, and we will not obstruct you.
Clause 4What we will not do
We will not treat you worse for making a complaint or an appeal. Raising one has no effect on your place, your dates or your assessment.
Clause 5Complaints about your personal data
A complaint about how we have handled your personal information goes down a different route, with a statutory deadline attached to it. That is at /legal/data-protection-complaints.