Customer guidance: LTA support and complaint handling

Safeguarding covers any concern about the well-being or safety of a young person (aged under 18) or adult at risk. If you have a safeguarding concern, please use our Report A Concern online form which goes directly to the Safeguarding Team. Once you’ve completed the form, you will receive a unique reference number.

To ensure that the LTA Safeguarding Team is able to focus on concerns around safeguarding matters, please ONLY use the Report A Concern form if what you wish/need to report relates to the well-being or safety of a young person under the age of 18 or an adult at risk.  Other matters should be dealt with in accordance with the relevant section of this guidance below. 

If your query relates to DBS enquiries or safeguarding training, then your query should be raised in line with the ‘LTA Products or Services’ guidance below.

If you need to speak to someone about a safeguarding concern outside normal hours, you can call the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000. If someone is in immediate danger, call the police using 999. Information can also be found within our Safeguarding Policy.

To view further information regarding the LTA’s Safeguarding policies please follow the link.  If you are unsure what we mean by “adult at risk”, please check the definition in the “LTA Safeguarding Adults at Risk Policy and Procedure”.

If your query relates to any of the following (which is not answered by the FAQs on the LTA website), it should be referred in the first instance to the LTA Customer Support Team by clicking here:

• LTA Major Events – for example, cinch Championships, ballots, help accessing your tickets, not receiving your tickets, etc
• LTA Courses- for example, online coach and parent workshops as found on our find a course page.
• LTA Products- for example, LTA Tickets app or LTA ticketing account, Competitions platform or products such as World Tennis Number or Competition refunds.
• LTA Programmes – for example, how to sign up for LTA Youth Schools, how to set up an LTA Serves session.
• LTA Advantage membership
• Safeguarding Products- for examples, DBS application process, LTA Safeguarding courses.

The LTA Customer Support Team will:

• Acknowledge your communication and/or redirect it within 3-5 working days
• Provide a response to your query or provide you with an update on your query within 14 working days.
• Handle your query sensitively.

The above timelines and other points apply only to matters to be dealt with by the LTA Customer Support Team directly.

Please note that it may be necessary for the LTA Customer Support Team to refer your query to another team within the organisation or to the relevant National, County or Island Association.

The LTA Customer Support Team will not deal with queries relating to any ongoing investigations or decisions made by the LTA, or with queries covered by a separate policy, procedure or process.

You should follow the steps set out in the relevant policy, procedure or process (including with regard to any appeal process, if relevant and available). This includes, but is not limited to, all safeguarding and disciplinary procedures, selection decisions, and employee related queries dealt with by the LTA’s People Team.

The LTA Competition Regulations cover LTA sanctioned competitions and include the regulations relating to the issuing of code violations and immediate defaults.

If your query relates to an LTA sanctioned competition, then you should raise it with the competition referee or competition organiser for the competition in good time in advance of the competition or at the competition itself.

If you have any safeguarding concern at the competition itself, you should refer it to the welfare officer for the competition in the first instance.

Please do not contact the LTA about any line calls, faults, scores or other decisions relating to play which you perceived to be incorrect.  The LTA will not get involved with these and no amendment to the result of any match will be made by the LTA.

If you are unsure about who to approach or are having difficulty contacting someone, please get in touch with the LTA Customer Support Team who will help you find the right person.

If you query relates to an LTA accredited coach and is not a safeguarding issue or a disciplinary matter falling under the Disciplinary Code, then it should be raised with the venue or coaching provider that the coach currently works for.  Please follow your venue’s procedure for reporting issues or write to the relevant person e.g. chairperson, treasurer etc.

If you are unsure who to approach or are having difficulty contacting someone at your registered venue, please get in touch with the LTA Customer Support Team who will help you find the right person.

Any safeguarding concern at an LTA registered venue should be reported in accordance with the ‘Safeguarding’ section above.

If your query relates to a local matter at an LTA registered venue, such as any of the following, you should raise it directly with your venue in accordance with its policies, processes, procedures or constitution/rules:

• Any matter arising between a member and the registered venue
• Any matter arising between two or more individual members of the registered venue
• Any matter relating to the employment / engagement of a coach or official by the registered venue
• Any matter arising from the registered venue’s own  events and competitions involving only members of that registered venue
• Player or team selection
• Committee or director selection or appointment

If you are unsure who to approach or are having difficulty contacting someone at your registered venue, please get in touch with the LTA Customer Support Team who will help you find the right person.

All ‘Participants’ in tennis are subject to the LTA Code of Conduct and the LTA Disciplinary Code.

Examples of misconduct include (but are not limited to):

• Breaches of the LTA Code of Conduct
• Match fixing and betting offences
• Doping offences
• Other conduct detrimental to the interests of the game of tennis

If you have been the subject of, or have seen or heard, any conduct which you believe to be misconduct, you should raise it with the LTA by completing the Alleged Misconduct Reporting Form and sending it to the email address listed at the bottom of the form.

Depending upon the nature of the alleged misconduct and against whom and by whom the misconduct is alleged, the matter may be referred by the LTA Disciplinary Team to the relevant LTA registered venue or to a National, County or Island Association.

Please do not contact the LTA about any line calls, faults, scores or other decisions relating to play which you perceived to be incorrect.  The LTA will not get involved with these and no amendment to the result of any match will be made by the LTA.

In the rare event that you have a serious concern relating to one of the six public interest areas below and the matter is not otherwise covered by one of the sections set out above, you may make a report via an independent service, Safecall. The six areas cover:

• Criminal offences, including fraud
• Company breaking the law, for example not having the right insurance in place
• Legal miscarriage of justice
• Endangering someone’s health and safety
• Damage to the environment
• Covering up wrongdoing in any of the above categories

Please note that personal grievances (for example bullying, harassment, discrimination) should be raised as set out in, as applicable, the ‘LTA Registered Venue’ or ‘Discipline’ section above or, where it involves a criminal offence, reported to the police.  Safeguarding concerns should be reported as set out in the Safeguarding section above.

Safecall is an independent, and, if required, anonymous reporting service provided by the LTA if any of the above apply. You may contact Safecall 24 hours a day, 365 days a year via telephone on 0800 915 1571. Calls are not recorded. Alternatively, a report can be made online: www.safecall.co.uk/report

Once a report is made, it will be passed on to the appropriate person at the LTA. The report will be treated confidentially, and only those needing to know the detail will be involved. Should you choose to remain anonymous, it will be more difficult to deal with your concern and it may not be possible to investigate it. We therefore encourage you, if this route is the only one available, to provide your details to Safecall.

Safecall is intended primarily for employees of the LTA, of any National, County or Island Organisation or any registered organisation (i.e. the owner or operator of an LTA registered venue).  Please do not make a report through Safecall if the report has also been reported (or could be reported) under any other LTA policy, procedure or process.  Safecall is not an appeal process or other route for review of decisions made under any other LTA policy, procedure or process.