Children's Services Complaints and Compliments

How to make a complaint or provide a compliment

We aim to deliver high quality services for families. However, we recognise that there may be times when we are not able to meet the high standards that you rightfully expect. To help us improve and continue to learn, we welcome your feedback when things have gone wrong.

When we are doing things right, we'd also like to hear from you.

Make a complaint or provide a compliment

You can contact us:

If there are any circumstances that we need to consider when dealing with you about this complaint, such as a disability, please let us know, so that we can do all we can to remove any barriers to you in the complaints handling process.

How we will deal with your complaint

We have a three-stage complaints procedure for most services the Trust provides, which we call the statutory complaints procedure.

Statutory complaints 

Stage 1

  • When we receive your complaint, we will notify the relevant manager that you are unhappy.
  • The manager will investigate your complaint and let you know what they have found out. They will try and do this in 10 working days. If your complaint is complex, they can have an extra 10 working days to finish the investigation.
  • If you feel that your complaint hasn't been resolved, you can request that your complaint is escalated to Stage 2 by contacting the Customer Relations Service. You will need to provide the reasons why you wish to take your complaint to the next stage, along with the outcomes you would like to see as a result of doing this.

Stage 2

  • At Stage 2, we will appoint an Investigating Officer to consider your complaint. We will also appoint an Independent Person to assist the Investigating Officer.
  • The Investigating Officer and Independent Person will investigate your complaint. When they have completed their investigation, they will both write a report for the relevant senior manager to consider.
  • When the senior manager has read the reports, they will write to you to let you know what the Investigating Officer and Independent Person have found.
  • We will aim to provide you with the outcome report within 25 working days, however for more complex cases an extra 40 working days can be given to complete the investigation.
  • If you are still unhappy that your problem hasn't been resolved, you can request to take your complaint to Stage 3.

Stage 3

  • At Stage 3, we will appoint three independent panel members to review how your complaint was investigated at Stage 2. We call this a Review Panel.
  • You will be invited to attend the panel to explain why you remain unhappy, and what you would like to happen. After you have told the panel how you feel, they will write to the relevant Director within five working days to confirm their findings and any recommendations they have to make.  The Director will consider the Review Panel’s findings and recommendations, and will write to you within 15 working days.
  • If you are still unhappy after Stage 3, you can refer your complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
  • If the statutory complaints process is not applicable, complaints may be investigated via the Trust’s local complaints process.

Local complaints

Examples of complaints that cannot be considered through the local complaints procedure include:

  • Early Help and Family Support
  • Child protection including S47 enquiries and conferences 
  • Assessments of potential foster carers and adopters
  • Youth Offending

The Customer Relations Service can provide advice about which complaints procedure will apply to your complaint.

There are two stages to the local complaints procedure:

Stage 1

  • When we receive your complaint, we will notify the relevant manager that you are unhappy.
  • The manager will investigate your complaint and let you know what they have found out. They will try and do this in 20 working days.
  • If you feel that your complaint hasn't been resolved, you can request that your complaint is escalated to stage 2 by contacting the Customer Relations Service.  You will need to provide the reasons why you wish to take your complaint to the next stage, along with the outcomes you would like to see as a result of doing this.

Stage 2

  • We will ask the line manager of the manager who responded at stage 1 to review your complaint and check that we have done everything possible to try to resolve the concerns you have raised.
  • We will aim to reply to you within 25 working days.
  • If you are still unhappy after stage 2, you can refer your complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

Contact details

The Customer Relations Service will arrange for someone independent to act on your behalf. This service is free of charge if you’re a child or you're unable to present your views in person or writing.

Telephone: 0121 303 9052 

Email Customer Relations