We always try to do the best that we can to provide a high-quality service to as many people as we can. Our charity is small, is in demand, and many people need our help.   

We can sometimes help people over the phone, or at one of our drop-in sessions. But some people need an appointment to discuss their problem in detail or may need help with something that takes a long time.

When people miss appointments without letting us know it can have a serious impact on the service because that appointment slot is unfilled.  This reduces the number of people that we can see and takes up our adviser’s valuable time.  For that reason, we have the following policy to deal with appointment problems.

1.    If you are going to be late for your appointment

If you are going to be late, please telephone 024 7652 1100 (or your named adviser) as soon as you can. We will try to keep your appointment open, but this will depend on other circumstances on the day.

If you arrive more than 15 minutes late, we will have assumed that you were not going to attend your appointment.  Also, because other people will also have appointments, it is unlikely that we will be able to advise you and you will need to return on another day.

2.    If you cannot attend your appointment

If you cannot attend your appointment, please telephone 024 7652 1100 (or your named adviser) as soon as you can.  This will allow us to give your ‘slot’ to someone else.  If it is your first cancelled appointment, we will try and give you another appointment as soon as possible.

3.    If you miss ONE appointment

We understand that life can be complicated and that unforeseen circumstances arise. If you are going to miss an appointment, please let us know and we will try to reschedule another one as soon as we can.

Please note that we are very busy, and it could be a few weeks before another appointment is available. This is why it is important to keep appointments, especially if the problem is urgent.

If you do not let us know, we will assume that you no longer need our help.

4.    If you miss TWO OR MORE appointments

If you have already missed one appointment, we hope that you will make every effort to attend a second appointment. If you fail to attend your second appointment, we will assume that you no longer need our help.

Unless there are exceptional circumstances, it is unlikely that we will be able to offer you another appointment. Depending on the nature of your problem, you may be able to visit one of our drop-in services.  Alternatively, you might find it more convenient to seek advice from another organisation.

If you consistently fail to attend our appointments, or if you continually ignore the advice that we have given, we may exclude you from our service.  This will only be done in the most serious of circumstances and we will always notify you in writing if we intend to do this.

5.    If WE need to reschedule your appointment

Whilst we make every effort to ensure that you are seen when your appointment is scheduled, there are occasions when we may need to reschedule due to circumstances beyond our control. If we need to reschedule, we promise to:

• Contact you as soon as possible.  We will always try to telephone you to let you know that there is a problem. This is why it is so important to leave us a telephone number or an alternative way of getting a message to you.
• If we cannot speak to you, we will try to leave a voicemail explaining that there is a problem, with a request that you contact us to rearrange your appointment. We will send you an SMS text message and/or an email if we have these details.
• If we need to reschedule, we will try to offer you another appointment as soon as possible.

We appreciate that your problem may be very urgent and that you may have nowhere else to turn. For that reason, we apologise for any inconvenience that rescheduling your appointment causes.

6.    Comments, suggestions and complaints

If you have any feedback about our service or our appointments policy, we want to hear from you.

If you have any comments or suggestions, then please write to us or email info@covadvice.org.uk or fill in the survey on our website.

Full details of our complaint’s procedure can be found on our website. We will always try to resolve the issue to your satisfaction if we can. If we can, we will try to change the aspect of the service that you are unhappy with or try to find another solution for you.

If you have problems writing to us, you can telephone us on 024 76521100.  If you have difficulty communicating in writing and by phone, please attend one of our drop-in services and we will arrange for someone to take details of your feedback for further action.

Last updated 1st May 2026