The Future Generations Commissioner is committed to acting in the interests of future generations, in line with the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015, by advising, encouraging and promoting the way public bodies work towards the Act’s well-being goals using the five ways of working.

The Commissioner is committed to improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales, and as part of that commitment we aim to:

• Provide an accessible, simple and transparent process for looking into complaints about the service we give
• Respond quickly to complaints
• Apologise and provide any appropriate redress if we have given poor service

We welcome your feedback, as it helps us to continually improve our service and ensure that problems do not repeat themselves, so please tell us when a problem arrives.

How do I complain?

If you are unhappy with:

• our service
• an investigation of an issue you have raised
• a decision not to investigate an issue you have raised
• the outcome of an investigation
• inappropriate behaviour

Behaviour which may cause concern include behaviour which:

• is illegal, improper, or unethical
• is in breach of constitutional convention or a professional code
• may involve possible maladministration, misuse of public funds or resources;
• unprofessional judgement, unfairness, bias, or prejudice
• may involve giving advice that is misleading or inadequate
• is inappropriate behaviour or harassment or may pause a danger to others;
• may involve acting in a way that favours unjustifiably or discriminates unfairly against particular individuals or interests

You can also use our complaints procedure to complain about other things, for example, you might wish to complain about undue delay in responding to correspondence; or that you feel a member of staff has been rude or unhelpful; or that we have not done what we said we should.

If possible, you should give the member of staff that has caused you concern the opportunity to deal with your complaint in the first instance.

However, if you are not sure who to contact, or if you are not satisfied with the way your complaint has been dealt with by a member of staff, please contact the Deputy Commissioner by email: Email: contactus@futuregenerations.wales – you can also request the email address of the Deputy Commissioner if you don’t want to share the complaint information with our admin team.

Or you can write at:

Deputy Commissioner
Office of the Future Generations Commissioner
Tramshed Tech
Pendyris Street
Cardiff
CF11 6BH

Although you can discuss complaints with our staff, we recommend that you make them in writing. You can write your complaint in Welsh or English.

When you write to us, please tell us your address and phone number; full details of your complaint; and if you have any communication or additional needs such as large print, please inform us and we will do our best to accommodate them.

If the complaint relates to a behavioural concern of the Commissioner, the Welsh Government’s procedure as described in their ‘Guidance for managing concerns and complaints against senior leaders in the Public Sector in Wales’ will apply in addition to this policy once the guidance is approved by Welsh Government. This guidance is currently in draft (January 2024) – the corresponding link will be inserted as soon as available. If you chose the Welsh Government’s complaint procedure, you should complain to the Welsh Government’s complaint Unit directly, and if possible, please inform our Deputy Commissioner of your complaint.

What happens to my complaint?

The Deputy Commissioner will deal with your complaint herself. Once you have made a complaint to the Deputy Commissioner, she will send you an acknowledgement within five working days of receiving your letter or email.

The Deputy Commissioner will give serious consideration to the issues you raise and will investigate as appropriate. The investigation will start at the point that you are sent the acknowledgement.

If the complaint is about the Deputy Commissioner, or the Deputy Commissioner has been involved in the matter you are complaining about, a senior member of staff will investigate instead. If the Deputy Commissioner decides that your complaint is valid, we will send you an apology in writing, along with details of any other steps we think are necessary in the circumstances, including what we will do to prevent the problem happening again.

If the Deputy Commissioner decides that your complaint is not valid, we will write to you explaining why.

We aim to send a full reply to all complaints within 20 working days of the complaint arriving with us. If that is not possible, for example if the matters you raise require more detailed work, we will let you know.

Is there a time limit for complaining?

It can be difficult to look into matters which happened some time ago. In general, we would expect you to make any complaint about the service reasonably soon after you become aware of the problem and in any event within twelve months.

What if I am not satisfied with the response to my complaint?

You should write again to the Deputy Commissioner stating that you wish to appeal to the Commissioner. You should set out as clearly as possible why you are dissatisfied with the response which was made to your complaint.

The Deputy Commissioner will acknowledge your appeal within five working days of receiving it.

The Commissioner will personally consider your appeal at that point and will aim to send you a full reply within 20 working days. Again, if this is not possible, we will let you know.

The Commissioner’s decision is final. We will acknowledge further correspondence from you but, unless this raises new issues that we consider significant, we will not send further substantive replies.

Can I appeal the Commissioner’s decision?

If you are not happy with the decision of the Commissioner, you may ask the Chair of the independent Audit and Risk Assurance Committee to review the Commissioner’s decision.

Complaints which you feel remain unresolved with us can be escalated to the Public Sector Ombudsman – Making A Complaint (ombudsman.wales).