Our Role and Mission Statement
The Crisis Pregnancy Programme was established in October 2001 under the Health (Corporate Bodies) Act, 1961, and is governed by Statutory Instrument No. 446 of 2001: Crisis Pregnancy Programme (Establishment) Order, 2001 and Statutory Instrument No. 175 of 2007: Crisis Pregnancy Programme (Establishment) Order 2001 (Amendment) Order 2007.

The primary function of the Crisis Pregnancy Programme is to prepare and implement a strategy to address the issue of crisis pregnancy, in consultation with relevant Departments of State and with such other persons as are considered appropriate.

The purpose of the Crisis Pregnancy Programme is to bring strategic focus to the issue of crisis pregnancy and so to add further value to the work of existing service providers.

The Agency has three mandates:
A: to reduce the number of crisis pregnancies, by providing education, advice and contraceptive services.
B: to reduce the number of women with crisis pregnancies who opt for abortion, by offering services and supports which make other options more attractive.
C: the provision of counselling services, medical services and such other health services for the purpose of providing support, after crisis pregnancy, as may be deemed appropriate by the Crisis Pregnancy Programme.

Our Mission
The Crisis Pregnancy Programme was established by the Minister for Health and Children to:

• Develop and support the implementation of a national Strategy to address the issue of crisis pregnancy, in consultation and partnership with Departments of State and relevant agencies.
• Work in partnership with appropriate agencies to promote and co-ordinate the attainment of the objectives contained in the Strategy.
• Promote the development - by the Departments of State and appropriate agencies - of an operational plan to implement the Strategy in its own sphere of responsibility.  Monitor and review the attainment of the objectives of such operational plans.
• Produce periodic reports on progress and propose remedial action where required.
• Take such measures and engage in such activities as it considers necessary to address the issue of crisis pregnancy.
• Draw up codes of good practice for consideration by agencies and individuals involved in providing services to women with crisis pregnancies.
• Promote and commission research into aspects of crisis pregnancy as considered necessary.
• Furnish, whenever it is so required by the Minister or on its own initiative, advice to the Minister or other Ministers of the Government on issues relating to crisis pregnancy.
• Perform any other functions in relation to crisis pregnancy that the Minister may from time to time assign to it.

Our Customers
Our customers and stakeholders include service providers in the area of crisis pregnancy counselling, elected representatives, Government Departments and Offices, Statutory bodies, voluntary groups and members of the media who interact with the Crisis Pregnancy Programme. The staff of the Crisis Pregnancy Programme are our internal customers and will be treated as such.

Our Aim
The Crisis Pregnancy Programme is committed to delivering a professional, efficient and courteous service to our customers and to do our best to improve the standards of the service which we provide. The purpose of this Customer Charter is to set out the standard of service our customers can expect to receive from the Crisis Pregnancy Programme.

(Note: the publication of a Customer Charter is not intended to create new legal rights for customers).

Our Commitment to our Customers
Customer satisfaction is very important to us and we aim to achieve this by:

• Giving our customers the best possible service.
• Treating customers in a professional, fair, impartial and courteous manner.
• Aiming to ensure that rights to equal treatment set out by equality legislation are upheld in the delivery of our services.
• Aiming, where possible, to meet any special need our customers may have.

Telephone Services
When customers contact the Crisis Pregnancy Programme they can expect:

• That we will answer telephone calls during normal office hours (9:00am - 5:00pm Monday to Friday) on 01 814 6292.  A bilingual voice mail service will be available outside these hours.
• We will answer all calls promptly.  We will identify ourselves.  We will be polite and helpful, and do our best to provide customers with clear and correct information. 
• If we cannot give an answer straight away, we will take the customers details and call them back at a suitable time or ensure that the appropriate member of staff does so.
• We will aim to respond to answer machine messages within one working day.
• We will redirect callers appropriately, if they have contacted the Crisis Pregnancy Programme in error believing that we provide services directly.

E-communications
In the provision of a service through e-communications we endeavour to ensure that our website is tailored to meet the needs of our customers and is accessible and that any customer who wishes to conduct their business electronically is facilitated.

Written Communications

• We will acknowledge the majority of written communications, such as letters, faxes or emails within 5 working days of receiving them.
• We will provide a final or substantive reply within 20 working days. 
• In cases where there is going to be a delay, we will explain this through an interim reply before the 20 day period is up. 
• All replies will be concise, clear and easy to understand
• All correspondence issued by the Crisis Pregnancy Programme will have a contact name and we will ensure that correspondence does not go unanswered when individual staff members are absent from the office.
• All correspondence will be issued on paper that carries the Crisis Pregnancy Programme’s contact details.
• When staff are out of the office they will have an automated response in place on their email accounts to advise customers of this and offer an alternative contact point.
• We will respond to all FOI requests within the required timeframes.
• We will work in accordance with Data Protection legislation.
• If the correspondence is for another Government body or department, we will pass it on directly to them and advise the customer that their correspondence has been passed on to the relevant people.
• In relation to correspondence and dealings with our suppliers, we will comply with Prompt Payments legislation.

Visitors to Agency Premises

• The Crisis Pregnancy Programme does not operate a public walk-in office nor does it provide services directly, but we will ensure:
• that all business meetings with our customers made by prior appointment will be carried out during normal office hours. 
• We will meet all visitors punctually at the scheduled time where appointments have been made.
• We will provide suitable facilities for meetings and will make sure that our offices are clean and meet health and safety standards. 
• We will also endeavour to ensure that our offices are accessible for people with disabilities and others with specific needs

Website
We are committed to ensuring that

• Our websites www.crisispregnancy.ie, www.positiveoptions.ie and www.thinkcontraception.ie are up to date and contain accurate information
• Our publications are available to download direct from the relevant websites in printer friendly formats.
• Our website is accessible to all, including people with disabilities and we will continually strive to improve the accessibility of all of our websites.

Provision of Information
The Crisis Pregnancy Programme is committed to

• The provision of up to date and accurate information through the use of clear concise language.
• The availability of key reports in both electronic and printed formats.
• The availability of key reports in both English and Irish language versions. 

Equal Status Policy
We are fully committed to providing a service that all our customers can avail of and that treats all customers equally.  We will do our best to make sure that the service we provide takes account of the needs that particular groups of customers may have and we will consult with our customers to make sure that their accessibility needs are looked after.

The Agency has an Access Officer who is responsible for arranging for and coordinating assistance for customers with disabilities who wish to access the services of the Crisis Pregnancy Programme.

The contact details for the Access Officer are as follows:

Orla McGowan
Access Officer
Crisis Pregnancy Agency
89-94 Capel Street
Dublin1
omcgowan@crisispregnancy.ie

Equality/Diversity
We will raise equality and diversity awareness in the Crisis Pregnancy Programme through training, information and communication.  In our dealings with our customers, we will endeavour to ensure that their rights to equal treatment set out by equality legislation are upheld.

Service Through Irish
We are committed to providing our services through Irish, if required.

Training and Best Practice
We will ensure that our staff are trained to adhere to best practice standards, including customer service training.

Consultation and Evaluation
We welcome feedback on all our services. Our customers can help us by providing comments, complaints or suggestions about the service we provide.

Customer Complaints
If a customer has a complaint about the service we provide they should put the complaint in writing to the Quality Customer Service Officer for the Crisis Pregnancy Programme. 

We will acknowledge complaints within 5 working days and aim to respond within 20 working days. We guarantee that your complaint will not affect how we treat you in the future.