Complaints
How to raise a concern about your course, tutor or service, and the stages of our response.
Last updated 2 November 2026
Contents
Purpose
- To outline the procedure to follow when dealing with complaints made by learners or customers regarding the service offered by National Safety Academy (NSA).
Scope
- This policy and procedure applies is to be used where the issue cannot be resolved through another NSA policy
Policy Statement
- A complaint is defined as ‘an expression of dissatisfaction with any individual, service or lack of service whereby a response is reasonably expected, and has not been resolved by an informal approach’
- Any learner or customer may make a complaint
- A group of students may use this procedure to make a collective complaint, provided that one student identifies themselves as the main contact for the purposes of communication throughout this procedure.
- Anonymous complaints will not be considered unless there are exceptional and evidence-based reasons to do so. In many circumstances, raising a concern anonymously could impede investigation and communication of the outcome
- A complaint must be made within 30 days of the event that gave rise to it
- The following do not constitute a complaint:
- Disagreements with the academic decisions of assessors in relation to the result or feedback in an assessment If a student wishes to appeal against the outcome of an assessment, this must be dealt with under the Re-marking Procedure, and then subsequently the Appeals Policy.
- Disagreement with the decisions made in relation to special consideration or reasonable adjustment requests, or in relation to the outcome of a malpractice investigation. These must be taken under the Appeals Policy
Procedure
- Informal complaints will be dealt with, where possible, by the Learner Support Team. These complaints may be received via email, phone call or by monitoring NSA’s official forums
- Where a complaint cannot be dealt with informally, the wish to escalate the complaint to the formal procedure must be made via email and can be emailed to the NSA Complaints Officer at complaints@nationalsafetyacademy.co.uk – the complaint must be submitted within 30 days of the event taking place
- The complaint will then be investigated and escalated as necessary. In order to escalate the complaint, a complainant must inform the Complaints Officer of their desire to do so within 5 working days of the initial outcome being communicated to them
- At each stage of the investigation, NSA will inform the complainant of the outcome of the complaint within 10 working days. This will be communicated via email
- Once a complaint has been resolved the complaint will be closed, and may not be reopened, unless the terms agreed to upon resolution of the complaint have not been met
- If the complaint has reached the final stage of escalation and has not been satisfactorily resolved, the complaint will be referred to the Appeals Policy. At this stage, a student is welcome to launch an appeal against the outcome of the complaint, and will be subject to the conditions as laid out in the Appeals Policy
- NSA reserves the right not to investigate complaints considered to be vexatious or malicious. Where NSA deems this to be the case, the complainant or appellant will be informed in writing
Other documents
Every National Safety Academy learner agrees to these policies on enrolment. Read them alongside our terms and privacy policy.
Questions about this policy?
Our team can explain how it applies to your course, or help you make a request under it.
0161 399 0702hello@nationalsafetyacademy.co.uk