You can complain if you are dissatisfied about decisions made at a Child Protection Conference.

You can complain if the Conference decides either to put your child's name on the Child Protection Register or to remove their name and you believe the decision was not properly made for one of the following reasons.

• decision was made on the basis of incorrect or incomplete information. This could be because a key professional was not invited to the Conference, or did not attend, or did not provide the necessary information at the meeting.

• decision was unreasonable because of a flaw in the decision-making process e.g. Conference members did not give sufficient weight to certain information.

• were not invited to the meeting or your views were not sufficiently sought and presented to the meeting and this led to the Conference making the wrong decision.

Children, Parents and caregivers are entitled to make representations or complain, in respect of one or more of the following aspects of the functioning of child protection conferences:

• The process of the conference;
• The outcome, in terms of the fact of and/or the category of primary concern at the time the child became the subject of a child protection plan;
• A decision for the child to become or not become, the subject of a child protection plan or not, or to cease the child being the subject of a child protection plan.

Complaints about individual agencies, their performance and provision (or non-provision) of services should be responded to in accordance with the relevant agency’s complaints handling process.

• Complaints about aspects of the functioning of conferences described in 5.52 above, should be addressed to the conference chair. Such complaints should be passed on to Children’s Social Care which, since they relate to Part V of the Children Act 1989 should be responded to in accordance with the Complaints Directions 2006. In considering and responding to complaints the local authority should form an inter-agency panel made up of senior representatives from LSCB and member agencies. The panel should consider whether the relevant inter-agency protocols and procedures have been observed correctly, and whether the decision that is being complained about follows reasonably from the proper observation of the protocol(s)
  
• Professionals contributing to the Child protection process do not have a formal means of complaint against it as do family members.  However, professional who dissent from the consensus view of the child protection conference will have their dissent recorded and in the event that professional views are equally split between the need for a child protection plan or not the Chair person will decide.

More generally a professional from any agency may formally express their concern to Children’s Specialist Services about the management of a particular childs circumstances.  In this instance the file will be read and reviewed by a Service Manager, the professional raising the concerns will be met with and spoken to and the outcome will be recorded on the case file and any actions implemented.

Complaints should be directed to:
Customer Care Manager - OCYPS, SS1003, Castle Court, Castle Hill, Cambridge, CB3 0AP
Tel: 01223 717958