We aim to provide the best possible support and care for children, young people and their families who need our help. We believe everyone has the right to express their views and raise concerns. Providing your views will help us to shape and improve the service we deliver.
We hope that most things that you are concerned or unhappy about can be resolved easily and quickly. The first step is to talk about the problem with the person you normally talk to or their manager.
If they have been unable to resolve your concerns you may have the right to make a complaint under the Complaints and Representations Policy. This is different from our corporate complaints procedure.
3860How we deal with complaints about children's services.
You can make a formal complain if you think we have:
- Done something wrong
- Behaved unfairly or impolitely
- Not carried out a service to an agreed standard
- Not responding to your request for a service within our stated timescale
To help us deal with your complaint effectively please tell us:
- What the problem is
- How and when it occurred
- How it has affected you
- What you would like us to do to put things right.
Who can make a children's services complaint
- Children and young people
- In some circumstances complaints from parents, carers, and people with Parental rights and responsibilities Opens in a new window will be considered depending on the nature of the complaint.
We will advise you of how your complaint will be handled in the acknowledgement we send to you.
Complaints from children or young people
If a child or young person is making a complaint they are entitled to be supported by an advocate. An advocate is someone not employed by us who will listen to them and speak, if they wish, on the child’s or young person’s behalf. CheckPoint provides this service.
How we deal with Children's Services complaints
The service manager responsible for your case will look into the issues being raised and will aim to send you a response no later than 10 working days after your complaint was received. If it is not possible we may need to extend the deadline by a further 10 working days.
If you are unhappy with the response you received at stage one you can ask for your complaint to be considered at stage two. You should ask for this within 20 working days of receiving the stage one response.
Stage two involves a formal investigation being carried out. The investigation will be carried out by someone independent of the service you are complaining about, this may be an employee of Torbay Council or an external investigating officer. An independent person, not employed by Torbay Council, will also be appointed to ensure that your complaint is fully and fairly investigated.
You should receive a response within 25 working days, but sometimes, due to the complexity and/or availability of key staff this may be extended to a maximum of 65 working days.
If, following the stage two investigation you are still unhappy with our response, you have 20 working days to ask for it to be reviewed. The review will be carried out by a panel of three independent people not employed by us. They will review your complaint to ensure that it has been considered correctly.
You will be able to attend the hearing of the review panel.