Watershed Complaints Process

Watershed welcomes feedback from the people and communities we work with whether they are audience members, Café & Bar customers, artists, creatives, filmmakers, conference clients, partners, freelance practitioners, external stakeholders or others.

If you would like to give us some general feedback or a compliment please do get in touch.

If you have a complaint about Watershed, we have outlined how you can tell us about your experience below.

NB: This information does not cover complaints from staff, who should refer to the staff website or contact Watershed HR. 

If your complaint is about Watershed's Fundraising approach, you can also contact the Fundraising Regulator.

What does Watershed consider a complaint?

A complaint is anything that you have found to be unsatisfactory or unacceptable in your experience of Watershed or someone acting on our behalf in relation to our venue, activity or programme.

Our aims for this Complaints Process

Watershed is a registered charity and social enterprise, with a well-established set of values and ethics as well as responsive policies on inclusion, dignity at work, safeguarding and the environment underpinning its approach.

When we are not as good as we should be, and do not deliver the best experience we can, we want to know about it so that we can put things right. Our aims are to ensure that:

• The complaints process is as simple and easy as possible
• The complaints process is available to all customers, audiences, partners and stakeholders via Watershed’s website
• All complaints are fairly assessed and responded to promptly
• We comply with legislative requirements at all times.

If you make a complaint to Watershed you can expect that we will:

• Treat you with respect
• Tell you what to expect while your complaint is being looked into
• Carry out the complaint handling process in as fair and open a way as possible
• Provide reasons for decisions/outcomes that are made, unless restricted by confidentiality
• Protect your privacy

How do you make a complaint?

If you wish to make a complaint in person you can:

• Speak with a relevant member of staff
• Speak with the Duty Manager who is on duty at the time.
• Call us on (0117) 927 6444

If you wish to make a complaint in writing you can either:

1. Do so anonymously and confidentially by completing this short form 
   NB:This means we will be aware of your concerns and take them on board, but will not respond to you directly
    
2. Provide your name and contact email when completing this short form to enable us to respond to you.

If you require reasonable adjustments to support you with making your complaint, please note this within the form or email info@watershed.co.uk.

How will my complaint be handled?

Depending on the nature of the complaint we will either respond directly to your concerns or we will undertake an investigation to understand more about what has happened. Either way we will let you know how your complaint is being handled.

If we require a more detailed response from you in order to investigate your complaint, we will be in touch within 10 working days of our initial email. We will keep in touch if the process takes longer or if there are any further steps that we think are necessary.

Vexatious complaints

Watershed may take action if a complainant has acted in a way that could be considered abusive, unreasonably persistent or vexatious or if their behaviour hinders Watershed’s ability to investigate their complaint or the complaints of others.

Where a complainant tries to reopen an issue that has already been considered within our Watershed’s complaints procedures, they will be informed in writing that the procedure has been exhausted and that the matter is now closed. 

Your Personal Information

Watershed is committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold about you. We use your information in accordance with all applicable laws concerning the protection of personal information. For more information, take a look at our Privacy Policy.

Complaints will be investigated in confidence, only involving those whose views are necessary to establish what has happened.  Further information or evidence may be sought from you as part of the investigation.

If you use our complaints procedure (unless it is through the anonymous form), you are agreeing that we can use some of the personal information you send us for purposes connected with your complaint as follows:

• Using your details so that we can contact you with regards to your complaint
• Passing on details of your complaint to relevant members of staff so that the complaint can be investigated
• Any reports of fraud or criminal activity will be treated very seriously and where appropriate, we will involve the police. In such an instance, we would consult with you first before sharing your personal information.

Watershed’s policies detail the principles that underpin how we work with audiences, artists and staff, such as our ethics policy, fundraising policy and inclusion policy, and can be found on our website.

If you are unhappy with how Watershed has dealt with your complaint you can contact the Chair of Watershed’s trustees on Chair@watershed.co.uk.