We recognise that we may sometimes get things wrong, make mistakes or may not meet the high expectations people have of us. When this happens, we will try to put it right as quickly as possible. We look at complaints as opportunities to see how we can improve the way we work.
You can make a complaint if you’re unhappy with our service or the way you’ve been treated by a member of staff.
This might be because:
- you feel staff were rude or unhelpful;
- you think information you’ve been given is misleading or inaccurate; or
- you think staff haven’t followed policies, rules, or procedures properly.
What is not a complaint?
There are some issues that will not be treated as complaints.
These include but are not limited to:
- disagreeing with the Commissioner’s opinion on a public issue;
- disagreeing with the issues the Commissioner focuses on as part of her work.
We welcome your communication on these issues but it is important for you to understand that they will not be handled as complaints.
How to make a complaint
You should make your complaint directly to a member of staff you have been dealing with.
In this way, it has a good chance of being resolved quickly.
You can make a complaint by:
- speaking to a member of staff over the phone;
- sending an email or letter;
- a direct message on social media.
It will normally be about an issue that has happened very recently but we understand that occasionally a complaint may be delayed for good reason. You can check with us if you are thinking of making a complaint about an issue that occurred in the past and we can advise you.
Normally, the member of staff who has been involved in your issue will try to resolve it with you.
You can ask for another member of staff to deal with your complaint if you prefer.
If we need to gather information to help us resolve the complaint, we will aim to do this within ten working days. We will keep you updated on progress.
Complaints that are resolved directly with a member of staff are normally straightforward issues that can be resolved quickly. If the member of staff can’t help, they will explain why. You can then ask to take your complaint further.
Contacting us
Phone: 01792 765600
Email: post@childcomwales.org.uk
Social media: Twitter/Facebook
Post:
Children’s Commissioner for Wales
Llewellyn House
Harbourside Business Park
Harbourside Road
Port Talbot
SA13 1SB
Taking your complaint further
Your complaint can be taken further and investigated in full if:
- you’re still not happy after we’ve tried to resolve the complaint;
- we think your issue is too complex or serious to be addressed without an investigation; or
- you specifically request an investigation.
To take your complaint further we will need to understand why you are still unhappy, what you think went wrong and what you feel would put things right.
To give us this information you can fill in our complaints form, or if you don’t feel able to do this, we can support you with this by speaking with you and making a note of our conversation.
We will:
- let you know we’ve had your complaint within 5 working days;
- appoint a staff member to look into your complaint. Normally this will be a manager who wasn’t involved in the issue;
- look into your complaint thoroughly and fairly;
- respond to you within 20 working days.
If you’re still not happy
If you’re unhappy with our response, you can ask for the Chair of the Commissioner’s Advisory Panel to look into how we handled your complaint. They will look at how we’ve dealt with your complaint and whether we’ve done what we promise to do with complaints.
They will:
- let you know they’ve had your request within 5 working days;
- tell you what evidence they’ll be using to look into your complaint and our response to your complaint
- write to the Commissioner and to you within 20 working days with a copy of the report explaining what they’ve found
Their response might highlight things that we should have done differently.
The Commissioner must then respond to this report within 20 working days, addressing all of the points made.
In our response we will:
- formally apologise if necessary
- tell you about any changes we are making as a result of your complaint and how it was handled
This is the last step of our complaints process.