Complaints procedure for our children and young people’s services

Find out how to give your comments, compliments and complaints about our children and young people’s services.

We care about what you think

Your views will help us plan and improve care services for children, young people and families in the future.
We welcome your compliments about our care services when you are pleased with them.
We like to hear your suggestions about how our services can be improved.
We want to know if you are unhappy about anything and want to make a complaint.

You can fill in our online complaints form, or contact us on the details below.

If you have a compliment about a member of staff, we will pass on your compliment to them.
If you have a comment, we will respond within five working days. We may contact you to discuss your suggestions.
We will respond to complaints within 10 working days. If the complaint is complex, it may take us up to 20 working days to respond.

We will consider complaints about all of our children and young people's services.
Some issues may need to be handled under our corporate complaints procedure.

If your complaint is about a school, please contact the head teacher. Schools have their own complaints procedures.

Normally we can only look at complaints made within 12 months of the events you are complaining about.
In exceptional circumstances, we may be able to consider a complaint that exceeds this timescale.
If your complaint is about something that happened more than 12 months ago, please explain why you did not contact us at the time.

We follow a three-stage statutory procedure to help us resolve problems quickly and effectively, and to learn from your complaints.

We know that you want your complaint handling as soon as possible. We will work with you to try to sort out the problem.
We will try to resolve your complaint within 10 working days (or up to 20 working days if your complaint is complex).
We will send you a written response to your complaint. Before that, we may arrange a meeting with you to discuss your complaint.
If we can't resolve your complaint in stage 1, you can ask for the complaint to move to stage 2.

Stage 2 involves an investigation by an independent investigating officer and an independent person.
They make findings to the Children and Young People directorate, who will respond to your complaint.
There are statutory timescales that we must meet in investigating and responding to your complaint.

If you aren't satisfied with the stage 2 response, you can take your complaint to a review panel.
The panel is made up of three independent people who review your complaint.

If you are not happy about the way we have dealt with your complaint, you can contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman online or by calling 0300 061 0614.
You should try and resolve your complaint with us before contacting the ombudsman.

Third Floor, Laurence House, 1 Catford Road, London, SE6 4RU

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Published on: 29/01/2023