Complaints Policy

Our Complaints Policy

Suffolk Music Therapy Services is committed to providing a high quality music therapy service to all our clients, wherever it is delivered. An important part of this is listening to the views of children and adults and rectifying situations where the care or family support delivered was not as expected. Initially, we would encourage that anyone who has a concern about any issue relating to the care of their child, staff, student or family member, voice their concerns to the music therapist involved, in order to rectify the situation as soon as possible. If this is deemed inappropriate, we would encourage you to contact the Music Therapy Manager (

Ray Travasso) who can follow up the complaint further.

When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. If you have a complaint, please contact us with the details. We will take your complaint seriously and refer it to the appropriate person. If the complaint is about the music therapy manager, it will be passed onto the deputy manager.

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Who Can Complain?

Anyone who has used or tried to use the services of Suffolk Music Therapy Services.

Making a Complaint

We aim to handle complaints quickly, effectively and in a fair and honest way. We take all complaints seriously and use valuable information from investigating to help us improve our service. We treat all complaints in confidence.

When Should I Complain?

You should make your complaint as soon as possible after the event, which has given rise for your concern. Suffolk Music Therapy Services will only usually look into complaints which are made within six months of the event or within six months of your realising that you have grounds for complaints, as long as this realisation does not come more than twelve months after the event.

How Do I Complain?

You can make your complaint to Suffolk Music Therapy Services in a number of ways:

By Telephone to Ray Travasso on 07730136604 or Jenny Travasso 07730136041. Please be aware we may, where appropriate ask you to put your complaints in writing.
By email to ray@suffolkmusictherapyservices.co.uk or jenny@suffolkmusictherapyservices.co.uk
By letter to Suffolk Music Therapy Services, 62 Bristol Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4 4LP
By a personal visit

Alternatively, if you feel unable to speak with someone from Suffolk Music Therapy Services, please discuss with the named link music therapy individual of the organisation/school in which the music therapist is working and they will follow this complaint up according to their local complaints handling policy and procedure.

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What Will Happen Next?

First of all, the staff concerned will try to resolve your complaint. We expect that some complaints will be sorted out on the spot. It may be that we can offer you an explanation or an apology, which answers your concern straight away. A Director will initially review the complaint. We will investigate your complaint as necessary, which may involve talking to the individuals, staff, yourself and /or client.

If you write to us, we will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your complaining within five days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure and the name and contact details pf the person investigating it. We will keep you informed about the progress of the investigation.

The music therapy manager will invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. S/he will do this within 30 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter. We usually aim to give a full written answer within 20 working days of first receiving your complaint.

Within three days of the meeting, the music therapy manager will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions s/he has agreed with you.

If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, the music therapy manager will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including his/her suggestions for resolving the matter, within 20 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.

At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for the school/organisation to review the decision.

We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons. If we have to change any of the timescales above, we will let you know and explain why.

Time Limits

You should register a complaint as soon as you can after the date on which the event occured. If you complain more than twelve months later, we may not be able to investigate properly. Consideration will however, be given as to whether you have good reason for not making the complaint sooner and whether, despite the delay, it is still possible to investigate the complaint effectively and fairly.