Making a complaint
If you’re not satisfied with any aspect of our products or services, we want to put it right for you as soon as possible.
Our complaints procedure
Our complaints procedure covers our customers including our learners, who wish to express their dissatisfaction with us about our products or services.
Listening to you
We’re committed to providing you with the best products and services. However, we know that from time to time, things don’t always go according to plan. If you feel that we haven’t met your expectations, we want to know so we can put it right as quickly as possible for you, and stop it from happening again.
Tell us all about it
The first thing you need to do is get in touch.
- By phone*: 0191 239 8000 (or for our skills assessment products, 0300 102 1023)
- By email: [email protected]
- In writing: Customer Recovery team, NCFE, Q6, Quorum Park, Benton Lane, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE12 8BT
- Face-to-face: our representatives are always happy to help
- Via Web Chat: available on all our web pages.
*To continue to improve our levels of customer service, telephone calls may be recorded.
What we’ll need to know
So that we can capture, record and fully understand your complaint, we will need all of the following information:
- Your name
- Centre number (if applicable)
- A description of the complaint
- Any names and/or dates you’ve noted, if you’ve already spoken to someone about this complaint
- How you/others have been affected by the complaint
- A contact number/email address and convenient time to contact you.
What we’ll do
We’ll always aim to resolve a complaint as quickly as we can. When this isn’t possible, we’ll fully investigate the complaint with the aim to resolve it efficiently, and we’ll keep you updated along the way.
We aim to respond to and/or resolve all complaints within 5 working days of receipt. If there are exceptional circumstances, we may take longer due to the complexity of the complaint. We’ll inform you if this is the case.
Once the complaint has been investigated fully, we’ll contact you with the outcome and to discuss any next steps. We’ll also be happy to provide a response in writing where appropriate.
If you’re not satisfied
If you’re not satisfied with how your complaint is being dealt with, you can request at any time for your complaint to be escalated. If, after we’ve done everything we can to help, you’re not satisfied with our final response, you can refer your complaint to our qualification regulators.
Our regulators ask that the complaint is made within twelve months of the action you are complaining about, and that you have completed all stages of the awarding organisation’s complaints process. Here’s how to get in touch with them:
England – Ofqual
Complaints, Ofqual, Earlsdon Park, 53-55 Butts Road, Coventry, CV1 3BH
Wales – Qualifications Wales
Qualifications Wales, Q2 Building, Pencarn Lane, Imperial Park, Coedkernew, Newport, NP10 8AR
Northern Ireland – Council for the Curriculum Examinations & Assessment (CCEA) Regulation
Council for the Curriculum Examinations & Assessment (CCEA) Regulation, 29 Clarendon Road, Clarendon Dock, Belfast, BT1 3BG