Complaints
Area Camden supports the young person’s right to make complaints about any aspect of their treatment whilst living at the home.
Young people will always be made aware of their right to complain should they feel they have been treated unfairly or disrespectfully. Young people will be encouraged to value themselves highly.
Area Camden’s policy is for any child or young person who makes a complaint to do so without fear of retaliation or reprisal. Young people will have access to fair representation, and will be kept informed of the progress of any complaint or grievance procedure.
Area Camden have a written Complaints Policy and Procedure that is available to the young person to consult alongside information in The Children’s Guide.
Wherever possible, complaints will be discussed on an informal level with the Registered Manager in the hope that they can be resolved as quickly as possible with the minimum of anxiety to the young person. Many complaints are, upon discussion, an expression of dissatisfaction and can be easily explored and remedied to the young person’s satisfaction.
For those complaints that cannot be remedied by informal discussion, the young person will be given the opportunity to follow the process through to formal investigation and resolution.
All young people will:
- Be heard by the staff team.
- Reassured by the staff team that they would not be punished for making a complaint
- Will have their complaint acted upon
- Be given support throughout
- Be kept informed throughout
- Be given names and telephone numbers of organisations who can help them independently if they are dissatisfied e.g. Ofsted, NSPCC, Childline.
Unless the complaint is against the Registered Manager it is the manager who will conduct any investigation.
The manager will inform the young person’s social worker and other parties with a legitimate interest in the welfare of the young person and decisions may be made to involve other professionals such as Child Protection Teams.
Where the complaint has been made against a member of staff, the member of staff will be cautioned against personalising the complaint and, where necessary, will have their performance scrutinized and appraised. Complaints against staff can lead to the Disciplinary Procedure being invoked.
At each stage of the complaint, the child will be kept informed of the outcome and advised about the next stage of the process.
The young person’s Social Worker and the young person’s parents or carers would also be kept informed. Written records of the meetings and outcome report would be kept.
Our complaints policy is available on request and contact details for how to make a complaint can be found at the end of this document.