Greenwich Children's Services have seen a decrease in social care complaints, according to the Complaints, Compliments and Representations Annual Report 2024-25, which was discussed at a recent Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel meeting. The report highlights that early resolution of complaints through direct communication is key to satisfactory outcomes. The complaints team actively logs and monitors cases until resolution, and learning outcomes are fed back to the service by the operational manager to implement follow-up actions.
The report, which provides an overview of complaints and representations managed by Royal Greenwich Children's Services, showed that Children and Families Social Care received 18 Stage 1 complaints, the lowest number in the last 10 years. Stage 1 complaints are addressed through local resolution.
These initial complaints often relate to:
- Disputing the accuracy of information in reports
- Insufficient communication with the social work team, or requests for a change of social worker
- Disagreement with professional opinions and social work analysis
- The level of service offered, e.g., care and support packages, respite, available placements, and accommodation offers.
Of the 359 representations recorded between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, 251 were complaints or concerns. This equates to 0.94% of service users expressing dissatisfaction, a slight increase of 0.1% from the previous year, but the same percentage as in 2022-23.
While Stage 1 complaints decreased, overall dissatisfaction increased slightly. This is reflected in the 251 complaints and concerns recorded. Actions are being taken to address the wider learning outcomes from 2024/25 to improve services:
- Issue: A stage 2 investigation partially upheld a complaint from a parent that her 18 year old son had not received adequate advice and support from the Care Leavers service and Housing, and they had incurred costs for gaps in the provision of his temporary accommodation.
- Action: The support given was appropriate, but an apology was given for confused communication between Housing and Children's services. Part of the costs were reimbursed, with the remainder of the complaint resolved by Housing. A meeting was held between senior managers within Children's Social Care and Housing to address the issues jointly.
- Impact: To improve inter departmental communication, and provide services better tailored to the needs of individual careleavers.
- Issue: An LG&SCO complaint regarding a school admissions appeal panel found fault, as the Council had not sufficiently recorded how and why the admission panel's decisions were reached. Delays in responding to Stage One Children Act 1989 complaints can create further dissatisfaction with the service.
- Action: An apology was given, and a fresh appeal organised. Staff training was refreshed to address the issues. The Complaints team report weekly on all open complaints, provide support to new managers, and will deliver training to the Team Leaders forum of operational managers who respond to stage one complaints.
- Impact: To promote parents' sense of being given a fair hearing- resulting in a clear understanding of the reasons for decisions regarding school admission appeals. Complainants receive a timely response to their complaint. Early satisfactory resolution prevents complaints from escalating. Operational managers are supported to deliver good responses within the statutory timescales.
The Complaints, Compliments and Representations Annual Report 2024-25 includes information on equalities, detailing the ethnic breakdown of complainants and the gender of complainants.
Ethnic breakdown of all complainants at Stage 1:
| Breakdown by Ethnicity | 2023/24 Stage 1 Statutory | 2023/24 Stage 1 Corporate | 2024/25 Stage 1 Statutory | 2024/25 Stage 1 Corporate | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. |
| Asian | 3 | 9% | 7 | 9% | 1 | 5.3%. | 2 |
| Black | 6 | 18% | 10 | 13% | 8 | 42.1% | 22 |
| Mixed race/ heritage | 4 | 12% | 3 | 4% | 0 | 0% | 4 |
| White British | 12 | 35% | 23 | 29% | 8 | 47.3% | 26 |
| White Other | 7 | 20% | 3 | 4% | 1 | 5.3%. | 10 |
| Unknown or not stated | 2 | 6% | 32 | 40% | 0 | 0% | 17 |
| Any other ethnic Group | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1% | 0 | 0% | 4 |
Gender of complainant for all Stage 1 complaints:
| Gender of | 2023/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| complainant | statutory | corporate | statutory | corporate |
| Male | 10 (29%) | 27 (34%) | 6 (20%) | 13(15.3%) |
| Female | 23 (68%) | 48 (61%) | 12 (80%) | 70 (82.4%) |
| Both M and F | 1 (3%) | 4 (5%) | 0 | 2(2.3%) |
| Gender Fluid / | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| non-binary |
Complaints and representations provide insight into how well services are received and the quality of work undertaken. Learning from investigating complaints is a useful tool for improving and developing services and monitoring standards. Appendix 2 of the report summarises key learning points and proposed actions to improve services.
Service users who are not satisfied with the outcome of Stage 1 complaints have further recourse. The Children Act and corporate procedures have a three and two stage process respectively. At the conclusion of the final stage of either procedure, the complainant can refer the matter to the LG&SCO for further investigation.
For Children Act complaints:
- Stage 1: Local resolution
- Stage 2: Investigating officer and an independent person with adjudication by a senior manager
- Stage 3: Review Panel of three independent people followed by local authority response to panel recommendations
For Corporate complaints:
- Stage 1: Local resolution
- Stage 2: Senior manager
