Student Appeal Policy
Introduction
Sometimes, Ayurva needs to communicate with you about issues relating to your welfare or behaviour while being a student on your course. The issue can come to our attention in a number of ways:
- Another student may have contacted Ayurva to raise a concern or complaint.
- Your tutor, a marker or other member of staff may have raised a concern or complaint with us.
- A placement client or service may have contacted us.
- We may have received information from another source.
Generally speaking, welfare issues can fall into three categories which for the sake of ease we will refer to as ABC (Ability, Behaviour, Concern.) These categories, in turn, give rise to three questions we’ll ask about your studies.
- Ability – a concern has been raised about your ability to do the course, e.g. academic ability or attendance, or some other issue affecting your ability to continue your studies. The question we will ask is: Are you able to continue your studies?
- Behaviour – a concern or complaint has been raised about your behaviour, which may be seen as inappropriate for, or incompatible with, doing this kind of training. The question we will ask is: Is it allowable for you to continue your studies?
- Concern – a concern has been raised about your welfare and its impact on your studies; for example, you may need healthcare support or therapeutic help, and it could be that you are facing personal challenges which may make it difficult for you to continue studies at the moment. The question we will ask is: Is it appropriate for you to continue your studies?
Of course, an issue could fall into more than one category.
What We Do
When we receive a concern or complaint about you, this is handled by our Student Welfare Officer. It’s their job to decide how to proceed, and they will follow a number of steps.
First Step: Is this within our remit?
The first thing they will decide is whether the complaint or concern is in our remit. What this means is deciding whether Ayurva needs to get involved because the issue actually relates to your course and your training as a therapist. Examples of things which may fall outside our remit are:
- Complaints which are best handled by your tutor, e.g. complaints of a minor nature
- about something you said in class.
- Complaints about your private life which have no relevance to your course.
- Complaints where the complainant doesn’t have the “capacity to complain” e.g.
- second hand information.
- Complaints in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes that have been
- made by Ayurva in order to facilitate continued learning; or the direct affect that
- this has had on your personal situation.
Where it is unclear that a complaint may or may not be in our remit our usual practice is to contact the student and ask for a response to seek clarification on the issues raised by the concern or complaint.
Second Step: Investigating, Attempting Resolution, and getting your side of the story
If the complaint is within our remit, the Student Welfare Officer will contact you to hear your version of events, and will also, if they think it’s appropriate, contact other relevant people, e.g. witnesses, or your tutor. They may ask for information in writing and will provide you with a copy with any evidence or information which has been sent to them that’s relevant to the case.
When the Student Welfare Officer contacts you, if possible, they will work with you to try and resolve the issue appropriately and with your agreement. The Officer will make every effort to help you resolve the issue in an appropriate manner.
Confidentiality
It may be that the sources of the issue raised about you are kept confidential by Ayurva. However, it’s important to note that we do not accept anonymous complaints.
In order to fully look into the concerns raised, the Student Welfare Officer may need to discuss this with the Ayurva Concerns and Complaints Officer and / or other staff within Ayurva. This will be kept within only the necessary people and not disclosed outside of this.
Interim Suspension
In some rare circumstances, the Student Welfare Officer may decide that there could be a serious issue requiring your suspension from studies; for example, evidence has been received of unethical or inappropriate behaviour. If the Officer decides to suspend your studies, they will write to you and tell you. As an extra safeguard, if your studies are suspended, the Officer’s decision will be referred to the Course Director (or in their absence the Concerns and Complaints Officer) for confirmation. The Director’s (or Officer’s) decision is final.
Third Step: Making a Decision
The Student Welfare Officer will make a decision as to what is the appropriate action to take. They will base their decision on the following test:
Does the evidence suggest that the issue which is the subject of this procedure adversely impact on the ability, allowability or appropriateness of the student continuing their studies in their present form?
The Officer will use the following documents in making their decision, if relevant:
- Your Personal Training Agreement
- The Ayurva Code of Practice
- Our marking and grading guides
- Accreditation standards
- The relevant Professional Association Codes of Ethics (NCS or HS.)
- The evidence provided.
In making their decision, the Officer can decide three courses of action:
- The evidence does not suggest that there is any relevant impact on your ability, allowability or appropriateness and so you can continue your studies.
- The evidence suggests that there is some impact on ability, allowability or appropriateness – so there will be some conditions on your training. (Conditions can vary widely: it could be anything from making an apology to undertaking personal therapy.)
- The evidence suggests that there is serious impact on ability, allowability or appropriateness and so you should stop training, either temporarily or permanently.
The Officer will write to you explaining their decision. The Officer’s decisions are reviewed on an annual basis by our External Assessor to ensure consistency and appropriateness. Ayurva, if possible, will try to assist you with any relevant support in dealing with the outcome. If you are removed from training, the Officer’s decision will be referred to a Company Director or the Course Manager for confirmation of that decision.
Non- Compliance With Sanctions/Conditions imposed by the Student Welfare Officer.
If you do not comply with the sanctions imposed by the Student Welfare Officer, and do not appeal these sanctions or conditions to the Independent Adjudicator, you could be suspended from the course conditional upon your completing those sanctions. If you don’t complete those sanctions within the time set by the Officer, you will be removed from the course.
If you are suspended from, or removed from, the course for non-compliance with sanctions, the Officer’s decision will be referred to the Course Director or Concerns and Complaints Officer for confirmation of that decision. On confirmation, this decision is final.
Fourth Step: Independent Adjudication
If you wish to appeal the outcome of your complaint, you can do so through our Independent Adjudicator (IA). This person will not be an employee of Ayurva and will normally be a trained complaints specialist and/or mediator.
The details of the IA will be provided to you at the time the Student Welfare Officer writes to you under Step 3 of the procedure. Your appeal must be sent directly to the IA and must be done so within 14 days of the date the Student Welfare Officer writes to you with their decision. If you contact the IA after 14 days, they will not be able to hear your appeal.
When contacting the IA, you should look to outline the full grounds of your appeal. If there is any additional information that the IA needs in order to undertake a full review, they will contact you and/or the Student Welfare Officer to request this.
The IA will then make a ruling as to how the Student Welfare Officer handled your complaint. Their decision is final, although once a year their decisions will be reviewed by Ayurva’s External Assessor as part of our quality assurance processes. They will write to you with their decision.
The IA will use your evidence and, if relevant, any information requested from Ayurva such as your Personal Training Agreement, relevant Code of Ethics and course standard documents, to make their decision. If the Adjudicator confirms all or some of the sanctions or conditions (or decision to suspend or remove) imposed by the Student Welfare Officer, the enforcement of this confirmation will revert to the Officer.
Non- Compliance With Sanctions Confirmed by the IA.
If you do not comply with the sanctions confirmed by the Independent Adjudicator, you could be suspended from the course by the Student Welfare Officer conditional upon your completing those sanctions. If you don’t complete those sanctions within the time set by the Student Welfare Officer, you will be removed from the course. If you are suspended or removed from the course for non-compliance with sanctions, the Student Welfare Officer’s decision will be referred to the Course Director or Concerns and Complaints Officer for confirmation of that decision. On confirmation, this decision is final.
Further Step: Complaining to Our Accrediting Bodies
If you feel unhappy with the IA’s decision, you may contact the relevant primary accrediting body’s Public Protection Officer (National Hypnotherapy Society or National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society) for your course. Ayurva must provide you with the details if you don’t already have them. The Public Protection Officer will review the IA’s decision and all the evidence, and they will then make a decision as to whether they can accept your complaint. If they can, your complaint will be sent to the next meeting of the Society’s Professional Standards
Committee for a paper review. The committee will write to you explaining their decision, which is final. It’s important to note that the Societies cannot deal with complaints which have not been through the Ayurva Independent Adjudication process.
Please be advised that the National Hypnotherapy Society and National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society will not accept concerns/complaints that fall outside of their remit (i.e. concerns/complaints concerning internal Ayurva matters: this would include refunds, course provider policies/contractual issues). In such cases, should a student not accept the Independent Adjudicator’s decision, the student should look to seek their own legal advice.
Key Performance Indicators
Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) are our way of setting targets for our complaints and welfare process to ensure that issues are dealt with in a reasonable time frame where possible.
The KPI’s for this process are:
- The Student Welfare Officer to decide on remit: One Week.
- The Student Welfare Officer to contact you after deciding to proceed: Two Weeks
- The Student Welfare Officer to gather appropriate evidence and make a decision: Six Weeks.
- The Independent Adjudicator to resolve your complaint and write to you with their decision:
- Six Weeks from the date you email the Independent Adjudicator