Guidance for Clients
Lighthouse hopes that our client’s experience of us is fair and helpful. We work with people who are often in the worst place of their lives, and our aim is that their contact with the service leaves them in a better place than when they started.
We’re an Accredited Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). As such, the charity and our counsellors, are trained and practice in accordance with the BACP Ethical Framework, to help ensure safe, ethical and competent practice.
We welcome comments, compliments and suggestions on how we could improve what we do and obtain client feedback through the use of a post-service evaluation form, for completion once services have completed. We might also ask you if we can contact you in 6/12 months’ time, to follow up and ascertain if your contact with us has brought about positive, lasting change.
We want to ensure that a client with a concern or complaint relating to any of their services or experience with us, can use a procedure that can help resolve it as quickly and supportively as possible.
The difference between a concern and a complaint
A ‘concern’ can be defined as ‘an expression of worry or doubt over an issue considered to be important for which reassurances are sought’. A complaint can defined as ‘an expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about actions taken or a lack of action’.
It’s in everyone’s interest that concerns are addressed, and complaints are resolved at the earliest possible stage.
If you have a concern, you should discuss this, initially, with your counsellor/practitioner. If this isn’t possible or you’re still concerned, you should contact the Clinical Lead on 02890755070.
Most complaints can be resolved informally. If you have a complaint, you should follow the guidelines as outlined in Lighthouse Complaints policy, a copy of which you can download below or is available on request by contacting Lighthouse on 02890755070 or info@lighthousecharity.com.