social care complaints

A number of parents have told us at meetings and events that they had put in complaints and made Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. At the Every Disabled Child Matters (EDCM) Strategy Group we attend, an increase in complaints to children's social care was reported. So, we contacted Cambridgeshire County Council to ask them how complaints and FOI requests are used to inform better practice, and how parents find out what happens.

This is the response with received from Gael Pryce, the Customer Care Manager for social care complaints (April 2011).

"With regards to collating complaints; there are different teams who each deal with specific types of complaints. Children's Social Care complaints are directed to me and collated by my Administrator who enters them onto a database. With respect to outcomes;  the CYPS Social Care Complaints Annual Report is published via the CCC website.

This identifies the outcome of all complaints as upheld/partially upheld/not upheld and summarises key outcomes/actions. However it does not give specific details of the outcomes/actions for particular complaints. Such specific actions/outcomes are detailed in individual responses sent to complainants, and the responding Manager is responsible for implementing identified actions.

All complaint responses are seen by a Manager senior to the respondent who can then ensure learning is implemented. I (as Customer Care Manager) also regularly feedback actions identified to Management teams generally, so that all teams can learn from the lessons of other teams. In addition, the complaints team compiles quarterly reports for internal use, which are similar to and feed into the Annual Report.  The LGO also publishes a report which details their investigation and outcomes of any Local Authority complaints, and Ofsted publishes its inspection reports (which can/do make reference to complaints and outcomes)."