How to make a complaint about children and families social care

You have the right to complain about anything that makes you unhappy, upset or angry. It’s OK to complain, you won’t get into any trouble.

That might be:

• feeling that your race, culture, religion or sexuality is not being respected
• being moved from where you live without anyone talking to you about it
• being bullied
• feeling uncared for
• being touched in a way that feels wrong
• having no say in important decisions about your life, or your child’s
• our staff’s attitude or behaviour
• anything to do with the way social care looks after you or your child

You can contact us in the following ways.

• by phone on 023 9284 1172
• in person by making an appointment on the above number
• by writing to The Complaints Manager for Social Care, Portsmouth City Council, 5th Floor, Civic Offices, Guildhall Square, Portsmouth, PO1 2EP
• by using our pre-paid comments, compliments and complaints form, Your Shout! which can be obtained by calling the above number or by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page
• by sending an email to csccomplaints@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
• by telling your advocate what the problem is

The complaints manager will write to you within two working days of receiving your complaint, to let you know we have received it and how we plan to investigate your concerns. We may also telephone you or invite you to a meeting to try and sort things out.

We take complaints very seriously. While we try to provide a good service, we know that sometimes things go wrong. We have developed a complaints procedure in response to this. We aim to sort out complaints quickly and fairly and we will try to sort out any mistake or misunderstanding straight away. Sometimes it may take longer but we will let you know how long it will take.

It is always helpful from the beginning to know what you want us to do to put things right.

If you are not happy with the manager’s response to your complaint, please come back to either the manager or the complaints manager straight away and we can discuss why you are still unhappy and what we can do to put things right.

This may be a meeting to talk over your concerns to try and sort things out or if we cannot do any more we may ask an independent person that doesn’t work for social care to investigate the matter further.

If this happens, the investigator will first meet you to discuss your concerns and then also speak to the staff. The investigator will then write a report about what they found in their investigation and may advise us what they think we can do to put things right if they are wrong. We do not have to do what the investigator says but we would take their advice very seriously.

If you are not satisfied with the independent person’s investigation, it may be possible to arrange for a review panel to look at the investigator’s work. The complaints manager will discuss this in more detail with you if this should happen.

If you are a child or young person under 25 years old and would like some help to make a complaint, No Limits can assist. No Limits is an advocacy service – an independent charity that helps young people.

Either ask the complaints manager to find you an advocate, call them yourself on 023 8022 4224, or email them at enquiries@nolimitshelp.org.uk. For more information and advice visit www.nolimitshelp.org.uk

If you are an adult making a complaint about children’s services and need help in making your complaint, please contact the complaints manager and they will try to put you in touch with an advocacy agency.

You may contact the Local Government Ombudsman at any time. Their contact details are:

• Local Government Ombudsman, PO Box 4771, Coventry, CV4 0EH
• Call 0300 061 0614
• Text “call back” to 0762 480 3014
• Fax 024 7682 0001
• Email advice@lgo.org.uk
• online complaint form
• visit the Local Government Ombudsman site