Complaints Procedure

Raising a concern or making a complaint to NDNA about Millie’s Mark

NDNA’s vision is for all children and families to flourish through high quality early childhood education and care.

NDNA’s mission is to lead and empower the sector so that nurseries and the early years workforce deliver sustainable, high quality early childhood education and care.

We welcome any suggestions from nursery providers about how we can improve our services and will give prompt and serious attention to any concerns. All concerns will be dealt with professionally and promptly to ensure that any issues are handled effectively and to ensure the welfare of all children.

The following process will be followed for all concerns and complaints received:

• Concerns or complaints should be sent confidentially in writing, addressed to a member of the Millie’s Mark team
• Concerns or complaints referring to quality of care and education will be directed to the regulatory body, and child protection or safeguarding concerns will be directed to the relevant local authority. The Millie’s Mark award may be suspended until further investigations at this stage
• Should the concern or complaint fall within the scope of Millie’s Mark, a full investigation will be undertaken, which may include sending details of the complaint to the defendant and inviting the nursery provider to respond in writing
• For concerns or complaints referring to Millie’s Mark, panel members will meet to discuss the issues raised. The evidence from both the complainant and defendant will be examined
• The panel may decide to:
• Dismiss the complaint on the basis of lack of relevance to Millie’s Mark
• Dismiss the complaint due to lack of evidence
• Uphold, or partially uphold, the complaint and suspend the Millie’s Mark award
• If the nursery provider does not agree with the panel decision, they may appeal within 10 working days to the Senior Leadership Team stating the reasons for appeal and providing relevant evidence
• The appeal will be heard at the next scheduled Senior Management Team (SMT) meeting
• SMT may decide to uphold or overturn the decision; the decision of SMT is final
• The nursery provider will be notified of SMT’s decision within five working days of the meeting
• Complainants and nursery providers commit to recognise the sensitive nature of complaints under this process and will keep details confidential and not discuss them publicly
• A record of complaints, subsequent actions and related correspondence is kept in a confidential central file
• If a complaint is regarding the delivery of Millie’s Mark by NDNA, please refer to the NDNA complaints procedure.