Here you will find advice about how to make a complaint or compliment about Northumberland children’s services and where to get support.
Please click here to view the statutory complaints procedure. PLEASE NOTE: We would always suggest that you speak to the officer from children's services with whom you have had the most contact. This should be your initial attempt to try and solve any problem, before taking it further.
Informal complaints If you have spoken to the officer, and they cannot resolve your issues, you can contact the children’s complaint officer directly (see below). This process will allow you to:
Formal complaints If you are dissatisfied with the response you have received, you can ask for an investigation by telephone or in writing to the children’s complaint officer. An investigating officer and independent person will be appointed to investigate your full complaint and provide a report on their findings. The council will respond to the findings in an adjudication response.
If they cannot resolve it, or if you want someone else to deal with your complaint/concerns, please follow our advice below. Alternatively, you can click here to read the children’s services complaints procedure for detailed guidance. The Mind of My Own (MOMO) app is also available for children and young people to reference. Please click here to find out more about MOMO.
Informal complaints We will ask a manager to look into the complaint and discuss this with you. We will try to agree on a way to solve it and will write to you, outlining what we have agreed to do. Formal complaints If you are unhappy with the first response from the council, and do not think we have resolved your problem fully, you can ask for independent people - those who do not work for the children’s services - to help us resolve your complaint. A senior manager will then send you a copy of the independent report and a letter, informing you how we will resolve your complaint. We can also meet with you and your advocate to explain this in more detail, if prefered.
Review panel If you are still unhappy with the results of your complaints, you can escalate this to a review panel. Three independent people, who have not dealt with the complaint previously, will meet you. The independent people from the formal complaint and someone from children’s services will also be there. They will ask questions to discover what we have done to sort out your problem previously. After the meeting, the panel will write a report to say what they think children’s services need to do to sort out the complaint. This is the final stage of the council’s complaint process.
Local government ombudsman If you remain unhappy with the council’s response, after the first three stages have been completed, you can take your complaint to the local government ombudsman. They can give you advice and help you with your complaint.
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