Making a complaint

While we always try our best to provide the best possible programme, we all know no one is perfect - and we know there's a possibility that we could let you down, or that something could happen outside our control.  In those instances we rely on you letting us know so we can address your concerns and, if it's something that could affect others in future, so we can change the way we do things for the better.

We want it to be as easy as possible for you to share your thoughts with us, so we've laid out a guide for how to make complaints.

Please send any questions about our complaints process to contact@ayli.org.nz.

Complaints about AYLI, our people or our programmes

If you have had a negative experience with us, we'd like to know.  

Please send your concerns (and, if you'd like, recommendations for how we can improve) to us at contact@ayli.org.nz.  We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 72 hours and respond to it within two weeks after our review.

Complaints about our programme participants

Breaches of our Delegate Agreement (including its Code of Conduct)

• If you believe one of our delegates has breached their Delegate Agreement with us / that Delegate Agreement's Code of Conduct (please refer to the relevant delegation's page on our website for this information), you may submit a formal complaint to us.

• As per the terms of our Delegate Agreements, a formal complaint about a delegate may result in consequences that (for example) could include AYLI removing them from their delegation, whether or not they've already left for their conference. Please refer to the relevant Delegate Agreement for further detail about consequences of termination.

• Formal complaints should be made via email to contact@ayli.org.nz, or verbally to a Head Delegate or Executive Director. They must:

  • identify the delegate concerned;

  • outline the delegate's behaviour / actions in as much detail as possible;

  • identify how, in your opinion, their behaviour / actions have constituted a breach of our Delegate Agreement; and

  • tell us whether or not you wish your complaint to be treated as anonymous (bearing in mind that the nature of some complaints may make this impossible if we choose to take action in response to your complaint).

• With your complaint, you can recommend a course of action you believe is appropriate for AYLI to follow in response - but the decision about how to respond is ultimately at AYLI's sole discretion.

• We will:

  • acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 72 hours;

  • decide (at our sole discretion) whether to take any action, and inform you of this decision within one week of receiving your complaint;

  • use our best efforts to treat every complaint with urgency, especially if the complaint is made soon before a delegate is due to depart or while they are overseas; and

  • where reasonable, inform you of the outcome of your complaint once it has been resolved (though, in the interests of privacy, we reserve as appropriate the right to not disclose full details of this outcome or the process leading to it).

• We may, at our sole discretion:

  • discuss your complaint with the delegate you have complained about in order to corroborate your allegation/s;

  • discuss your complaint with our volunteers and/or other programme participants in order to corroborate your allegation/s;

  • provide an opportunity / opportunities for the delegate you have complained about to amend their behaviour and/or compensate for their previous behaviour / actions; and/or

  • take action in response to your complaint - which, at our sole discretion, may include terminating our Delegate Agreement with the delegate concerned and enforcing any of the consequences outlined in that Delegate Agreement.

Other feedback about our programme participants

• If a delegate has acted in a way that you believe warrants our attention but does not, to your knowledge, breach our Delegate Agreement, you are still welcome to provide us with feedback about them.

• If you believe a delegate's behaviour does breach our Delegate Agreement, but in such a way that you believe it does not warrant any disciplinary action, you also may provide us with feedback that is not a formal complaint. You must tell us that this feedback is not a formal complaint.

• Feedback should be sent via email to contact@ayli.org.nz. It must:

  • identify the delegate concerned;

  • outline the delegate's behaviour / actions in as much detail as possible; and

  • tell us whether or not you wish your complaint to be treated as anonymous (bearing in mind that the nature of some complaints may make this impossible if we choose to take action in response to your feedback).

• With your feedback, you can recommend a course of action you believe is appropriate for AYLI to follow in response - but the decision about how to respond is ultimately at AYLI's sole discretion.

• We will:

  • acknowledge receipt of your feedback within one week; and

  • decide (at our sole discretion) whether to take any action.

• We may, at our sole discretion:

  • if we believe it would be beneficial to the wellbeing of the delegation, inform our Head Delegate of your feedback to assist their leadership and coordination of the team (unless you expressly request us not to do so);

  • if we believe it would be beneficial to the wellbeing of the delegation, discuss your feedback with the delegate you have complained about to allow improvement or amendment of their behaviour / actions (unless you expressly request us not to do so); and/or

  • take any other actions in response to your complaint - but these actions will not include terminating our Delegate Agreement with the delegate concerned.

• If you provide feedback about a delegate but request we do not discuss it with our Head Delegate or the delegate concerned, we may be unable to do anything to respond to or resolve your concerns.

• We will not take further action against a delegate (that is, termination of their Delegate Agreement with us) on the basis of feedback alone. This does not, however, prevent us from taking such further action on the basis of our own direct observation of the same reported behaviour / actions, or of another person's complaint on the basis of the same reported behaviour / actions.

• If we believe your feedback or its implications are sufficiently severe, we may request your permission to treat it as a formal complaint as above.