Children's Social Care Complaints

Complaints about children's social care are dealt with under the Children and Young People's Statutory Complaints Policy and Procedure which complies with the Children Act 1989 Representation Procedure (England) Regulations 2006. If your complaint falls outside of this procedure, for example SEND, EHCP, Early Help or School Transport complaints, this will be processed under the Local Authority Corporate Complaints Procedure.

Before you make your selection...

If you believe that a child or young person is at immediate risk, you should report this without delay to the police on 999.

If a child is not in immediate danger, you can do one of the following:

• call the Contact Centre on 01744 676767 and tell them that you have a concern about a child
• outside of office hours, call the Emergency Duty Team on 0345 050 0148
• call Merseyside Police on 0151 709 6010 (24 hour line)
• discuss your concerns with a professional you can trust such as a health visitor, teacher or GP
• contact the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000.

Why you should tell us what you think

Your views are important to us. We want you to tell us about your experience to help us to look at service provision and plan for future improvement.

Who can make a complaint

A complaint can be made by the following people:

• any child or young person (or a parent of his or someone who has parental responsibility for him) who is being looked after by the local authority or is not looked after by them but is in need
• any local authority foster carer (including those caring for children placed through independent fostering agencies)
• children leaving care
• special guardians
• a child or young person (or parent of) to whom a Special Guardian order is in force
• any person who has applied for an assessment under section 14F(3) or (4)
• any child or young person who may be adopted, their parents and guardians
• persons wishing to adopt a child
• any other person whom arrangements for the provision of adoption services extend
• adopted persons, their parents, natural parents and former guardians; an
• such other person as the Department consider has sufficient interest in the child or young person's welfare to warrant their representations being considered by them

Making a complaint

Complaints about people's services are handled by a dedicated complaints team. 

Contact us using our online CYPS Complaint Form.

Make a complaint

What happens next?

When you contact us with your complaint, we will try to sort out the problem quickly to resolve the matter.

If your complaint cannot be addressed quickly, we will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days from the date it is received. The investigating officer may contact you to discuss your concerns further and agree a plan of investigation. You will be advised by the Complaints Team when you can expect to receive your response letter.

The person handling your complaint will carry out an investigation into your concerns and respond to you directly (or through your advocate/representative if you prefer). For complex complaints, we may need more time to investigate and respond to you. If this is the case, we will keep you informed.

If you are not satisfied with the complaint response, you can contact the Complaints Team who will look into this matter further and advise of the next steps.

Reasons why we will not investigate under the complaints procedure

There are some occasions when a complaint is not dealt with under this policy. This includes when there is a separate appeal or review procedure. This may be an internal council procedure or external legal process through the courts. If this is the case, we will explain this when you first contact us. We will tell you what to do next.

Who can I contact for further help and advice?

If you are still dissatisfied and we have not been able to resolve your concerns, you can contact the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman to review the way we have dealt with your complaint. Their contact details are: 

Postal Address:
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
PO Box 4771
Coventry
CV4 0EH

Telephone: 0300 061 0614

Online: https://www.lgo.org.uk/ 

Advocacy arrangements

If you are a service user who requires support to make a complaint, you can access the advocacy scheme at advocacyfocus.org.uk

Please note, our Corporate Complaints Policy is currently under review and as such, the contact email information included in the document is incorrect.