Domestic and International Adoptions – Complaint Policy and Procedures

POLICY:

New Horizons Adoption Agency, Inc. provides services that are meant to be in the best interest of the children we serve. New Horizons goal is to provide efficient services to our clients and while every effort is made, sometimes mistakes happen. We aspire to learn from our mistakes and the complaint procedure is seen as very important in improvement of our program.

ADDRESSING COMPLAINTS TO NHAA:

Applicants who have a complaint in the adoption process may address the complaint in the following manner:

A.    Discuss the complaint with your social worker.
B.    File a written statement regarding the complaint directed to the Assistant Director in which a meeting may be requested.
C.    Upon receiving a written complaint, a meeting with the assigned social worker and Assistant Director will be scheduled within 30 days.
D.    Upon meeting the Assistant Director and social worker, a written response will be provided to the applicant within 30 days.
E.    If resolution is not obtained, a meeting with the Executive Director, Assistant Director, and Social Worker can be requested.

INTERNATIONAL:

If you do not feel your complaint was handled by the above procedure, please see the procedure listed below to file a formal complaint. The Hague Complaint Registry is a web-based system hosted and monitored by the Department of State that records complaints against accredited, temporarily accredited, or approved adoption service providers. Once a complaint is filed with the Hague Complaint Registry, it will be available to the accrediting entity for appropriate action.

PROCEDURE:

Information for the Complaint Registry: http://adoption.state.gov/hague/overview/complaints.html
Any complaints that are filed with New Horizons will be reviewed and responded to within 30 days according to the following procedures. (Expedited review will occur with time sensitive concerns or those related to allegations or fraud). While New Horizons recognizes that clients have different needs and that adoption is an emotional process, it is our goal to satisfy all clients as possible. When a client files a complaint, it is assumed it is because the client’s issue was not adequately resolved at a lower organizational level. Complaints that are filed in good faith by a client will never result in any adverse consequences to the client. However, it is possible that the inability of the agency to solve the problem with a particular client may mean that the client would be better served by another agency. New Horizons will always attempt to resolve client complaints and successfully complete services.

The following steps will be taken for complaints:

  1. Any birth parent, adoptive parent, prospective adoptive parent or adoptee may file a complaint with New Horizons regarding any services      provided by New Horizons, it’s staff, board of directors, or supervised providers related to an issue of compliance with the Hague convention, IAA, UAA, or any service provided by New Horizons. 
  2. Anyone filing a complaint is requested to complete a “complaint form” (see attached form). This form requests the appropriate information needed to review the stated problem.
  3. The Executive Director will review all complaints. The complaint will be fully investigated and a response will be provided to the client within 30 days of New Horizons receiving the complaint.
  4. The complaints and their outcome will be filed and available for review at New Horizons main office building located in Minnesota.
  5. New Horizons maintains a record of all complaints received and steps taken to investigate and respond to such complaints and this record is available to the accrediting entity or secretary upon request.
  6. New Horizons does not discourage a client or prospective client from, or retaliate against a client or prospective client for: making a complaint, or expressing grievance, or providing information to an accrediting entity on New Horizons performance.
  7. The agency provides to accrediting entity and the Secretary on a semi-annual basis, a summary of all complaints during the proceeding 6 months and an assessment of any discernible patterns in complaints received against the agency, along with information about what systemic changes, if any, were made or are planned by the agency in response to such patterns.
  8. New Horizons has a Quality Improvement plan and uses quality improvement methods such as reviewing complaint data, and using client satisfaction surveys.
Click here for a printable version of the Complaint Policy and Procedures

NEW HORIZONS ADOPTION AGENCY, INC. COMPLAINT FORM

NAME: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ADDRESS: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

HOME PHONE: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CELL PHONE: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nature of Complaint: (Please be specific, including names of involved staff members, time of incident, place of incident and issues related to the incident).

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Suggestions on how we could best resolve the issue or handled better in the future:

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Investigated By:  _________________________________________________________________                         Date: ______________________________________________

Action Taken: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Click here for a printable version of the New Horizons Adoption Agency, Inc. Complaint Form

Click here to see the Complaint Process