When it goes wrong
This chapter looks at the complaints process - what happens when children in care are dissatisfied with the services they receive. Despite the introduction of guidelines and procedures aimed at encouraging and supporting children and young people to complain about the services they receive, children in care still face barriers to doing so in practice. Following semi-structured interviews with children in care, social workers, senior managers and independent reviewing officers from two English local authorities, the research uncovered issues of concern. Complaints by children in care are managed at the lowest possible level and senior managers have an overly optimistic view about children in care being informed of complaint procedures and being encouraged to do so. Children in care are worried about complaining and their voices are often not heard. However, when issues are clearly defined, independent reviewing officers have some degree of success in resolving complaints from children in care.