If you're concerned about a child or young person and think they may need help, you can report a child safeguarding concern online.
If the child is in immediate danger, phone 999.
We welcome all compliments, comments and complaints about children's social care as they provide valuable information about ways we can improve our services.
We aim to provide good quality services, but we need your help, telling us what we're doing well and where we can improve.
Get in touch
You can get in touch by:
- email: sccm@medway.gov.uk
- phone: 01634 333 036
- writing to: Complaints Manager for Social Care, Customer and Business Support, Medway Council, Gun Wharf, Dock Road, Chatham, ME4 4TR
- contacting the Young Lives Foundation on 01622 683 815 to ask someone to help you make a complaint.
You will not be disadvantaged in any way by making a complaint.
Give as much detail as possible. It's helpful if you can tell us:
- your name and contact details
- a case reference number if you know it
- what went wrong, when this happened, and whether it involves a particular staff member
- how this impacted you
- how we can make things right
- whether you have a disability that requires us to support you in a different way.
We may contact you to discuss your complaint or to ask for more information.
If we need more information, this may delay our investigation time.
Our commitment to you
We will:
- help you make your complaint
- listen to you and take your concerns seriously
- treat you fairly and with respect
- manage your complaint confidentially
- investigate your complaint as soon as possible
- send you a written response.
If we get something wrong, we will:
- apologise
- explain what happened and why
- try to ensure that it does not happen again
- learn from your complaint
- apply proportionate remedies to try to put you back in a position you would have been in, had the mistake not happened.
Who can make a complaint
The Children Act 1989 Representation Procedure (England) Regulations 2006 states that the following people can complain:
- any child or young person (or a parent or person with parental responsibility for the child) looked after by the local authority, or is receiving services from us
- any parent or person with parental responsibility for the child
- any local authority foster carer (including those caring for children placed through independent fostering agencies)
- children who have left care
- special guardians
- a child or young person (or parent of the child) to whom a special guardian order is in force
- any person who has applied for an assessment
- any child or young person who may be adopted, and their parents
- persons wishing to adopt a child
- such other person as the local authority consider has sufficient interest in the child or young person’s welfare to make a complaint on their behalf.
Consent
There may be times when we need consent from another person to investigate or discuss your complaint. We'll let you know if this happens.
We may not be able to accept your complaint until consent has been established.
What you can complaint about
You can make a complaint about:
- a decision that was unfair or if you feel badly treated
- the quality of the service if you're unhappy
- if you were refused service
- a service not being provided on time
- disagreeing with an assessment
- if your views were not listened to
- the attitude or behaviour of our staff
- how eligibility and assessment criteria was applied
- the impact on the child or young person of a local authority policy
- quality concerns of an assessment or a review.
Time limit for making a complaint
We will not usually consider complaints made more than a year after the grounds to make a complaint arose.
How we will deal with your complaint
We'll acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days of receiving your complaint.
We'll tell you if:
- we accept your complaint
- it will be dealt with as a statutory or non-statutory social care complaint
- the issues you have told us about should be considered through a different process.
Stage 1
Your complaint will be sent to the manager responsible for the service you have concerns about. They aim to respond to you within 10 to 20 working days, but sometimes we need more time to investigate complex complaints. We'll keep you informed and let you know if this is likely to take longer.
Most complaints are resolved at this stage. If you're unhappy with our response at stage 1, you can ask us to consider your complaint at stage 2. You have 20 working days to do this.
Before moving to stage 2, we'll see if there is anything more that could be done to resolve your complaint and may arrange a meeting with you to understand how we can resolve the issues.
Stage 2
Your complaint will be handled by an Investigating Officer who may work for Medway Council and an Independent Person who does not work for the council.
The Independent Person and Investigating Officer may need to meet with you to discuss your complaint as part of their investigation.
The Assistant Director for Children’s Social Care will consider their reports and write to you with the outcome and how we will put things right. We have up to 65 working days to do this and will keep you informed of any delays.
If you're unhappy with the outcome of your stage 2 complaint, you have 20 working days to tell us.
Stage 3
A panel of 3 independent people who do not work for Medway Council will review the issues you complained about at stage 2. They will also review how your complaint was handled.
The panel will produce its report within 5 working days of the hearing and then make recommendations to the Director of People.
The Director will then write to you within 15 working days with their decision.
This is the end of Medway Council’s complaints process. If you're still dissatisfied about how your complaint was handled and/or the outcome, you can complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman looks at individual complaints about councils, social care providers including care homes and home care agencies and other organisations providing local pubic services. It will investigate matters fairly and impartially and is free to use.
There are some matters the Ombudsman cannot or will not investigate. In these cases, it will clearly explain the reason for this decision.
More information
For more information about the children's statutory social care complaints procedures, read the Department for Education's guidance.
Feedback
Medway Council use feedback from comments, compliments, concerns, and complaints to:
- learn what is working well
- help identify potential service problems
- identify and prevent risks
- highlight opportunities for staff development
- collate and analyse information to improve services.