Making A Complaint To Us
Complaint? Let us know
Baseball and softball in the UK are run by the British Baseball Federation (BBF) and the British Softball Federation (BSF), supported by BaseballSoftballUK (BSUK). When participants in our sports, including the parents of young players, have concerns or complaints, we want to make it easy to contact the right person.
It is important to us that all complaints are taken seriously and dealt with positively, and that people with concerns are encouraged to raise them in an appropriate manner without fear of reprisals. We see every complaint raised as an opportunity to improve the way our sports are run.
Our commitment
- We are committed to improving the experience of everyone involved in baseball and softball. This includes dealing with any complaint you may have.
- We will help you to raise your complaint in the most appropriate way.
- We will deal with your complaint quickly and fairly.
- We will tell you what is happening with your complaint and we will do everything we can to help you.
- We will treat the information you give us in confidence, except where legally required to pass information onto appropriate agencies.
- We will explain our decision.
- We will use complaints to review and improve the way we run the sports.
- If you make a complaint, it will not affect your rights to participate in the sports.
Who to make a complaint to
This will depend on the type of complaint, and on whether it involves someone under the age of 18 or a vulnerable adult. If you need help working out how to make your complaint
Contact BaseballSoftballUK on
Alternatively complete the form and a member of staff will get back to you with advice
Most complaints will fall into one of the following categories:
Concerns relating to young people or vulnerable adults
If you wish to raise a concern or make a complaint that relates to child protection or any incident involving someone under the age of 18 or a vulnerable adult, you should either speak to the local Club Welfare Officer, or contact the National Welfare Officer at BaseballSoftaballUK
Issues involving young people or vulnerable adults are handled in accordance with our Joint Safeguarding Complaints Procedure.
Club or league issues
Complaints arising from adult play at club level will be handled through the relevant club or league rules. Your club or league officers will be able to advise you how to proceed.
Complaints about other services or administration
If you are unhappy with the service you have received from, or the way you have been treated by, one of the national organisations responsible for running the sports, you should raise your complaint with the relevant organisation.
If you make a complaint to the wrong organisation, we will ensure that it is passed onto the correct organisation within seven days of receipt. Where your complaint relates to the activities of more than one organisation, we will ensure that they are all involved in investigating and resolving your complaint.
Complaints About | Complaints To |
British Baseball Federation Adult national baseball teams British Baseball League |
Send an email to the BBF |
British Softball Federation Adult national softball teams BSF softball tournaments |
Send an email to the BSF |
BaseballSoftballUK Coaching courses Sports development All other issues |
Send an email to BSUK Write to: |
Complaints Process
For some types of complaint, there is a specific procedure that should be followed. We will explain this procedure at the time you make your initial complaint. Where no specific procedure exists, the following general complaints process will be followed:
Informal complaint - Step 1
We will try to deal with your complaint informally. This means that you should take your complaint to the staff member or officer you were dealing with. Our staff and officers will do their best to settle your complaint without you needing to do anything else.
Formal complaint - Step 2
If you have spoken to the relevant person about your complaint but they have not been able to put things right, or you are not happy with the result, the next step is for you to make a formal complaint.
Please put your complaint in writing, or ask someone to help you do this. You can contact us at the email addresses, phone numbers and postal addresses shown above.
Please detail:
- Who or what the complaint is about
- The behaviour or circumstances that led to the complaint
- The date, time, location and event it occurred at
- Whether there were any other witnesses to the behaviour/circumstances
- Any action you took at the time, such as whether you spoke with the individual in question about the issue, whether you reported it to anyone else, etc
We will write to you within ten working days to let you know we have received your complaint. We will give you a reference number and the name of the investigating officer dealing with your complaint. This information will make it easier for you to contact the person dealing with your complaint if you need to.
The investigating officer will:
- Investigate your complaint
- Take any necessary action
- Write to you within one month to explain their decision and to tell you the outcome of your complaint
If your complaint will take longer to investigate and we will not be able to send you a written reply within one month, the investigating officer will write to you and let you know when you will receive a written reply.
Complaint Review - Step 3
If you have been through the formal complaint process at Step 2 of the Complaints Procedure and you are still not happy with the outcome, you can ask for the Joint Complaints Panel to review your complaint. The Joint Complaints Panel is made up of three people nominated by the Executive Boards of the British Baseball Federation, the British Softball Federation and BaseballSoftballUK.
The Joint Complaints Panel will write to you within ten working days to let you know:
- That your complaint is being reviewed
- Approximately how long it will take to carry out the review
- When we will send out a written reply
Where the Joint Complaints Panel upholds a complaint, it is empowered to make recommendations about actions required to put things right and to reduce the likelihood of similar problems occurring in future. Any recommendations made will be included in the
written reply made to the complainant and copied to the relevant organisation(s).
We will review any such recommendations within six weeks. Where a recommendation is accepted, we will set a date by which we intend to carry it out. Where a recommendation is not accepted, we will explain why.
Where appropriate, we will publish information about the types of complaints we have received, and the actions we have taken to improve things.
Complaints we will not investigate
We will not investigate certain complaints, for example those:
- Relating to contractual disputes
- That are being, or have been, considered by a court or similar body
- Relating to incidents or decisions that are more than three months old
- Considered to be vexatious or malicious.
If we decline to investigate a complaint, we will explain why. If you disagree with our decision, you may still ask the Joint Complaints Panel to review your complaint.
Comments and suggestions
As well as learning from complaints, we want to know any comments or suggestions you may have to help us improve our sports. You can do this by telling a member of staff or an officer about your comment or suggestion or by putting your comment or suggestion in writing via our contact us page.