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 policy 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 service. 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 Support 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.  

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 relevant dates, times, and names of any colleagues involved 
• any supporting documentation such as emails, letters or 
• assessment results 
• your desired resolution. If you’re a learner with a complaint, before raising concerns with us, you’re required to exhaust your centre’s complaints process. If you have not exhausted your centre’s complaints process, we’ll clarify this requirement with you and redirect you to your centre. If the complaint is resolved by your centre, and you still have concerns you would like to raise, you can submit a complaint to NCFE. 

What we’ll do  

We’ll always aim to resolve a complaint as quickly as we can. When this is not 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. 

If you’re not satisfied 

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. Please refer to our complaints policy for Awarding Regulator’s contact details.