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How to complain about children’s services in England

This briefing provides general information on complaining about local authority children’s services in England. However, an individual considering complaining about children’s services would be advised to seek specialist advice tailored to the specific circumstances of their case.

The Library briefing on how to find and pay for legal help may be useful. The following organisations may also be able to help:

• The Family Rights Group, a charity providing advice to families involved with children’s services
• Coram Child Law Advice, charity offering advice on family law, including local authority involvement with families.

Statutory complaints process

Under section 26(3) of the Children Act 1989, every local authority in England is required to establish a procedure for considering certain complaints about children’s services.

This includes complaints about:

• the council’s services to children in need or in care
• the provision of special guardianship support services
• fostering and adoption services
• services to children leaving care

The statutory procedure does not cover complaints about child protection enquiries or how the council assesses families and prepares reports for the court in private proceedings. These will be dealt with under the council’s own complaints procedure (see below).

More information and the kinds of decisions or services a complaint can be about is provided by the Family Rights Group.

Who can make a complaint?

Complaints can be made by a parent, a person / people caring for a child, or family members who are involved with the child. Children and young people are also able to make a complaint themselves.

Complaints should be made within one year of the actions or decision being complained about.

For a full list of who can complain, see paragraph 2.6.1 of the Department for Educations statutory guidance on Children’s social care: getting the best from complaints.

Complaints procedure

Details of the statutory procedure by which complaints are considered are set out in The Children Act 1989 Representations Procedure (England) Regulations 2006, SI 2006/1738. Local authorities must also have regard to statutory guidance on Children’s social care: getting the best from complaints, published by the Department for Education.

There are three stages to the children’s services complaints process, each with an associated timescale. Further information is available on the website of the Family Rights Group at:

• Stage 1:Local resolution and informal problem-solving
• Stage 2: Formal investigation by an independent person
• Stage 3:Consideration by a Review Panel

Complaints using the local authority’s own complaints procedure

Complaints that are not covered by the statutory procedure, for example about child protection enquiries, can be made under the local authority’s own complaints procedure.

All councils have published complaints procedures that show how they investigate complaints. These vary but usually include two or more stages, each operated by a more senior member of staff than the last stage or, in some cases, elected councillors.

At each stage the council will normally send a written response and invite the complainant to comment. The council will normally tell the complainant when it writes to them if there is another stage of the complaints procedure.

What if the complainant is unhappy with the outcome?

If someone remains unhappy after completing the local authority complaints process, either under the statutory procedure or the council’s own procedure, they can complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

A complaint to the ombudsman should normally be made within 12 months of the problem that the person is complaining about.

Further information about complaining to the Ombudsman is available on its website at: Make a complaint.