Equality impact assessment children's complaints procedure

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1. What is the name of the function, policy or service that is being assessed?

Social Services Children’s Complaints Procedure (Children Act 1989)

2. What are the aims of the function, policy or service? Whose needs it is designed to meet? What are the current priorities?

A statutory procedure to allow children and young people (and others on their behalf) to make representations/complaints about, and challenge, decisions made in relation to specified services provided to them under the Children Act 1989, the Children and Adoption Act 2002, the Adoption Support Services Regulations 2005 and the Special Guardianship Regulations 2005.

3. In what ways might this function, policy or service affect some groups of people differently? Might some groups find it harder to access the service? Do some groups have particular needs that are not well met by the current policy or service? Please ensure that you comment against each of the dimensions listed below and where no issues are identified that you state this clearly against the relevant dimension.

Age

a) Children and young people may need an advocate to access the complaints process. Children who are ‘looked after’ have a statutory right to advocacy (provided by the Children’s Rights Officer - CRO). Some children in need may not be entitled to this service. This may be extended to them at the discretion of the manager of the CRO.

b) Can be particularly difficult for children and young people to complain if they are in a foster care situation and wish to complain about their care.

c) A leaflet detailing the procedure is produced for a general audience. A second, simpler and child-friendly leaflet is also produced for children and young people to raise awareness of the complaints procedure. However, very young children may have difficulty with even this.

Disability

d) Adults making complaints on behalf of children may have difficulties raising a complaint because of eg mental health or literacy problems. There is no statutory requirement to provide advocacy for them.

Gender

No issues identified

Race

e) A leaflet promoting the complaint procedure to a general audience is produced in English, although it does contain a statement in the most commonly used languages, other than English, noting that translations can be made available. However, children (and adults) who do not have English as their first language may find complaining more difficult.

Religion/belief

No issues identified

Sexual orientation

No issues identified

4. What evidence do you have for your judgement? Is there evidence of public concern (e.g. complaints)? Have staff raised concerns? Is there local or national research to suggest that there could be a problem?

Letters relate to points in 3 above:

a) Issue raised by Children’s Rights Officer

b) Raised by the birth parents of children in foster care

c) Due to limited resources, Complaints Manager requested that children’s leaflet appeal to as wide a range of ages as possible, accepting that it may be too complex for very young children.

d) Complaints Manager has encountered adults in this situation and been unable to offer support

5. How and with whom have you consulted with as part of your assessment? What were the results? Have you published the results of that consultation? If so, where?

Discussion with EMAS. No results produced or published.

6. If you have found that the function, policy or service might have an adverse impact on a particular group of people, can you justify this?

No adverse impact on a particular group of people has been identified which can be justified.

7. If the impact cannot be justified, what do you intend to do about this? Are there changes that you could introduce which would make the function, policy or service work better for this group of people? Is further research or consultation required?

Some children in need may not be entitled to the support of an advocate under current regulations. The service may be extended to them at the discretion of the manager of the Children’s Rights Officer.

Can be particularly difficult for children and young people to complain if they are in a foster care situation and wish to complain about their care. Ensure that they are aware of their rights through publications and personal contact eg Independent Reviewing Officers, Children’s Rights Officer.

Adults making complaints on behalf of children may have difficulties raising a complaint because of eg mental health or literacy problems. There is no statutory requirement to provide advocacy for them. It may be possible to use advocacy staff from the adult section, where appropriate, but this is likely to have resource implications.

The general leaflet promoting the complaint procedure is only produced in English. However, it does contain a statement in the most commonly used languages, other than English, noting that translations are available. The Council also subscribes to Language Line and the Complaints Manager is able to engage interpreters on an ad hoc basis.

The complaint leaflet designed specifically for children and young people does not carry the information about translations being available. The statutory complaints procedure is only available to those children who receive services from social services and therefore their social worker is able to support them and request additional language support if required.

8. How will you monitor the take-up or impact of the function, policy or service in future?

Equalities monitoring form issued to all complainants

Views of service users sought through Council surveys

9. What actions do you plan to take as a result of this EIA? Please include target dates for completion of actions and resource implications where possible

Action	Target Date	Resources
Speak to CRO line manager about parameters for offering advocacy support to children in need wishing to make a complaint	Dec-07	Complaints function may have to contribute to CRO function
Ensure that Independent Reviewing Officers, Children’s Rights Officer make children and YPs aware of their rights	Dec-07	None
Speak to Complaints Manager in adult services about possibility of using their advocacy support for adults making complaints on behalf of children	Dec-07	Children’s services may have to contribute to Adult services

10. If no actions have been identified in section 9 above, please state when a further review of this assessment is planned

N/A

11. Name of person completing form

Head of Performance Management & Coordination

Date assessment completed

March 07

12. Name of senior manager approving assessment

Assistant Director Resources, Improvement and Young People

Date assessment approved by senior manager

03 January 2008

Last updated: 14 May 2009