It is our organisational vision to be an inclusive and innovative regulator, trusted by all. And our values underpin the way we work. We work collaboratively and respectfully and we expect others to treat us respectfully too. Read more about our values and our strategy.

Many different types of people contact us, including patients, the public, students, osteopaths and other health professionals, and it is our aim to provide everyone with a high quality of service.

We want to hear from you whether you have compliments about your experience with us or whether you are dissatisfied with the service you received.

There are separate complaints procedures for concerns about osteopaths, about members of Council and committees and about the GOsC as an organisation.

What we will do

We will deal professionally and respectfully with all who contact us. This means that we will treat you with courtesy, efficiency and fairness and will preserve confidentiality. We expect in return to be treated in the same way.

Our aim is that at the close of contact with us, you should feel satisfied that you have been listened to and that your query has been answered. If we have not been able to help you, we will do our best to signpost you elsewhere for assistance and will make sure you are clear about why we couldn’t help you on this occasion.

It is our aim to answer emails and letters within 5 working days. If we cannot give you a full reply in that time, we will tell you when you can expect a reply and from whom, and keep you informed of progress.

If things go wrong

We endeavour to provide an effective and efficient service at all times, but we recognise that there could be occasions when we fall short of the standards we set ourselves or the expectations of others. We are committed to responding swiftly and efficiently to comments and complaints about our service. We will seek to find out what happened and what may have gone wrong, so that we can learn from the experience and improve how we deal with similar situations in the future.

What we expect from you

We ask you to treat our staff respectfully and with courtesy and politeness. We take a zero tolerance approach to all forms of bullying, harassment, or abusive behaviour.

This explicitly includes inappropriate language or abusive behaviour from customers. Any such behaviour will not be tolerated, and our staff are encouraged to report incidents immediately so that the organisation can take appropriate action.

If a caller behaves inappropriately towards our staff, our member of staff will aim to point this out. Examples of unacceptable behaviour include swearing, shouting, insulting personal remarks and sexist, racist or other discriminatory comments.

If such behaviour continues during the call, we will end the call, explaining why we are doing so, and ask the caller to write to us instead. The matter is then likely to be raised with our Chief Executive and Registrar who will contact the caller.

Where someone sends us an abusive email, the matter will be raised with our Chief Executive and Registrar.

Get in touch

We want to hear from you if you have had a great customer experience in dealing with us or feel someone deserves praise. Do let us know by emailing info@osteopathy.org.uk.

We also want to hear from you if you are dissatisfied with the service you received. If the way we dealt with you did not meet your expectations, we would encourage you, wherever possible, to raise concerns directly with the member of staff you have been dealing with, or with their manager.

If this seems inappropriate, or if it is impossible to reach a resolution, we offer a formal complaints procedure. This procedure is explained in our leaflet Making a complaint about the GOsC, which includes a complaint form to use if you do send in a complaint.

If you need further information, please email corporatecomplaints@osteopathy.org.uk or call the Chief Executive and Registrar’s office on 020 7357 6655 x246.