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The grievance pack for veterinary practices

Most grievances are better solved in a conversation. This pack is for the ones that are not, and for the practices that need the formal stage to be right first time because there are two partners and no HR department.

Editable Word document, free, emailed to you.

What is in it

• Grievance form. Six questions, including the one most employers never ask: what outcome are you looking for.
• Grievance hearing invitation, with the right to be accompanied set out properly, including the five working day postponement.
• Grievance outcome letter, structured so each element of the complaint is answered separately and plainly.
• Appeal invitation and appeal outcome letters.
• Guidance notes on informal resolution, who hears it in a two partner practice, grievances raised during a disciplinary, and what to do when discrimination is alleged.

The question that resolves grievances

“What outcome are you looking for?” A surprising number of grievances end the moment you know the person wants a rota change rather than an apology, or an apology rather than a rota change. Practices spend weeks investigating a complaint without ever asking what would fix it.

Say plainly what you upheld

The most common failure in a grievance outcome letter is warmth without an answer. It is sympathetic, it thanks the person for raising it, and it never says whether the complaint was accepted.

The outcome letter in this pack forces each element to be numbered and marked upheld, partly upheld or not upheld, with reasons. Partly upheld is a legitimate and common answer. What loses the employee’s confidence, and looks bad afterwards, is a letter they have to read three times to work out what was decided.

Who hears it when there are two partners

The person complained about cannot hear the grievance, and ideally should not hear the appeal either. In a small practice that is genuinely difficult and the pack sets out the options that work: the other partner hears it and an external adviser hears the appeal, a manager from another site, or an external adviser chairs and the partner decides on the recommendation.

Note also that Acas consulted on a revised Code between July and September 2026 which leans considerably harder on trying informal resolution first. Record the informal attempt even briefly, because “tried and it did not work” is a much stronger position than a file that begins at the formal stage.

Read it alongside our guide to handling a grievance, and if the matter is about conduct rather than a complaint, the investigation and suspension pack is the other half.