Respect and Dignity Policy

SCBF always strives to deal with members of the community in a professional, courteous and dignified manner. In return, it expects its employees and volunteers to be treated with respect and dignity by members of the community it seeks to serve.

SCBF will not tolerate actions towards its officers which may be considered rude, abusive or designed to adversely affect the operation of the Company, and will act to prevent such exposure.

Actions which SCBF may take include, but are not limited to, withdrawing interaction with the individual through to notifying the relevant authorities if the actions are considered harassment or of an offensive nature.

Organisations’ Reserves policy

Background: in the past SCBF has found it difficult to establish a consistent policy towards funding applicant organisations who hold funds, and also which have assets to maintain. Specifically, these latter have been Farr Hall, Strathnairn Hall, SCATA and Strathnairn Community Woodlands, although the latter has significant revenue raising opportunities. It is good policy (as set out by NCVO) for voluntary organisations to establish policies and practical measures to build reserves for both operational and longer term maintenance expenditure. To counter this, there is also guidance that charities should not build up excessive reserves. It is not clear the extent to which local organisations have such specific policies or are taking steps to develop reserves, although they may well informally be aware they need to carry some reserve.

History: SCBF has tended to reject an application if an organisation has funds. By encouraging/requiring applicant organisations to meet their own expenditure, and by hinting that if disaster should occur SCBF would help, SCBF is not demonstrating good practice in line with NCVO and indeed is preventing organisations from building reserves.

Proposal in principle: SCBF should be seen as taking a lead in encouraging local organisations to adopt good practice in building reserves both for operational purposes and to meet longer term capital asset maintenance or replacement. This will also help to build stronger local organisations more capable of longer term survival once SCBF has smaller funds available for grant support.

Another example: a Village hall have set up 2 reserves, an operational reserve and a Capital reserve. They have set their operational reserve at a level of one year’s operational costs, so that if something happened which cut off their normal income they would have enough funds to meet a year’s costs. Their policy on the Capital reserve is less tangible: it is designed to cover costs of periodic significant repairs as well as eventual replacements, and such costs would be met out of this reserve, so the balance on this reserve could fluctuate significantly. The reserve is built up to cover anticipated expenditure over the remaining useful life of the relevant asset.

Proposal in practice: when reviewing accounts of applicant organisations, SCBF should allow applicants to hold funds sufficient to cover a year’s operational costs before determining whether that organisation has sufficient funds to meet the expenditure being applied for. For those organisations with capital assets to maintain, SCBF should also encourage them to develop and implement a policy to build, and draw from, a capital reserve. Such a policy should be presented along with any application, coupled with demonstration of progress in building such a reserve.

Complaints Policy

Introduction
Strathnairn Community Benefit Fund (SCBF) welcomes feedback, both positive and negative on what we do. These comments are regarded as a useful tool to enable a review and improvement of our decisions and processes.


Scope
This policy applies to individuals or groups external to SCBF. Complaints or concerns from Directors should be raised with the Chair.

Policy


Action in the event of a complaint
Details should be sent to the Chair via the Secretariat by email to cosec@strathnairncbf.com
A complaint should include:
• What the complaint is about.
• When the event occurred and if it is still happening.
• If anyone at SCBF has been contacted about the concern, e.g. expressing dissatisfaction, before making a complaint.
• Contact details for responding to the complaint.


How a complaint is received
A complaint will be acknowledged by the Secretariat within five working days from the date of receipt advising the complainant of when to expect a fuller response.
The Secretariat will log the complaint and forward to the SCBF Chair.
The complaint will be considered at the next available Board meeting. If the complaint is received less than three working days before a scheduled meeting, it will be deferred until the next meeting. A list of Board meeting dates is available on the SCBF website.
The Chair may invite the complainant to attend the Board meeting at which the complaint is considered, or a follow-up meeting of a sub-group of the Board if this is thought to be appropriate and required to investigate the complaint.
The Board are responsible for deciding what action needs to be taken.
A response with details of any action taken or recommendations for further action will be sent to the complainant within seven working days of the Board/sub-group meeting at which the complaint was considered.

What to do in the event of remaining dissatisfied by the SCBF response
If the complainant is dissatisfied with the decision, SCBF is regulated by the Office of the Charity Regulator and further information about how to complain can be found at https://www.oscr.org.uk/contact-oscr/charity-concern-form/.

Review
This policy is reviewed, approved, and endorsed by the Board. It is updated when required to ensure that it reflects best practice for SCBF, or every 24 months whichever is the soonest.

Approved by the SCBF Board on 27th May 2021