Complaints

The procedure has three stages; informal problem solving, formal registration, and review.

Informal problem solving - At this stage you should contact the social worker, occupational therapist, home carer or person who is working with you. Talk through the problem and try to have it put right. If you are still unhappy, go on to the next stage.

Formal complaint - Write to the director of Social Services or to the Complaints Officer, setting out exactly what your complaint is and ask for this to be registered as a formal complaint. If you need help to write the letter, the social worker can help you, or any member of social services or a friend, relative or neighbour.

At this stage the Complaints Officer will investigate the complaint. The officer will be somebody who has not had contact with you before. If the complaint is made on behalf of a child, an independent person must be appointed by social services to assist in the investigation of the complaint. You must get a reply within 28 days of the authority’s receipt of your registered complaint. If this is not the full response to your complaint, you should get an explanation of the current position with a full response within three months.

Review - If you cannot resolve a complaint informally or are unhappy with the authority’s full response to your registered complaint, you can ask for the complaint to be heard by a review panel. You must ask for a review within 28 days of the date the local authority tells you the result of their consideration of your complaint.

The review panel consists of 3 people; at least one person, the chairperson, must be independent of the authority (ie not an elected member or an employee). Its hearing must take place within 28 days of the date the local authority received your request for a review. You should be given at least 10 days notice, in writing, of the time and place of the hearing. You should be accompanied by someone who may speak on your behalf - this person should not be a lawyer acting in his or her professional capacity.

The review panel must record its recommendations within 24 hours of the hearing and notify you in writing. Their letter should explain the reasons for their recommendations.

your local authority then has 28 days to decide what action, if any, to take in the light of the review panel’s recommendations. The authority’s reply should also give reasons for the decisions taken. This is particularly important if the decisions differ from the review panel’s recommendations. A High decision stated that your local authority can’t overrule the Panel’s decision without ‘substantial reason and without having given (the Panel’s) recommendation the weight it required’.

Other steps - as well as using the complaints procedure, you can take the matter up with local councillors or your MP if you feel it would be helpful for them to know the system is not working for you. Rather than use the complaints procedure, you may wish to consider a legal remedy such as judicial review or a complaint to the local authority’s Monitoring Officer. The Monitoring Officer (usually the Chief Executive or Borough Solicitor) is responsible for ensuring decisions are lawful and procedures correctly followed. It may be useful to contact a national organisation to discuss ways of pursuing your case. You must act quickly. Contact your local law centre or the Disability Law Service or Public Law Project. Or you may wish to contact the Local Government Ombudsman. It is also possible to ask the Secretary of State to us his default powers.

Law Centres & Disability Law Service - see section Law Centres

Public Law Project - Room E608, Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX (tel: 020 7467 9807, advisors only)