Having a child-focused reportable conduct investigation process and a transparent complaints handling culture is critical for protecting the wellbeing of children, preventing harm, and ensuring that your organisation is accountable and responsive.
Having processes in place to support your complaints handling culture also aligns with Standard 6 of Tasmania’s Child and Youth Safe Standards, which requires that an organisation’s processes to respond to complaints and concerns are child focused.
A culture that makes it safe for children to raise concerns:
- puts children at the centre of the process
- promotes the rights of children and young people to have a voice in decisions that affect them
- removes barriers that can discourage children from speaking up
- supports families throughout the procedure
- is transparent and provides clear expectations for every step in the process
- has processes that are understood by children, families and workers
- involves regularly reviewing and updating complaint handling policies and procedures.
Your organisation can work towards creating a child-centred complaints culture by:
- creating processes to encourage and support all children to raise complaints related to their safety
- being proactive in engaging with children and young people, so they can share their thoughts
- making sure the complaint handling policy is accessible and child focused
- ensuring complaint handling processes are understood by children and young people, families and workers
- taking complaints seriously, and responding promptly and thoroughly
- reporting concerns and allegations to relevant authorities.
To truly understand what young people are experiencing, they should be actively involved in the feedback process. They should be consulted about the method they would like to use to make a complaint and be provided multiple ways to raise concerns.
Children and young people's feedback should inform how the organisation engages, and puts the Child and Youth Safe Standards and Universal Principle for Aboriginal Cultural Safety into practice.
Research commissioned through the Tasmanian Commission of Inquiry shows that children are more likely to provide feedback when:
- they are aware of processes for raising concerns
- they are provided the opportunity raise concerns anonymously
- there is a trusted person they can share concerns with.
From a primary school focus group participant for the Commission of Inquiry Children’s Report:
“The school, the principal. Needs to not wait for there to be a problem but like come up with ways that they can find out about issues… kids aren’t going to come to them, so they have to go to the kids.”
- From a primary school focus group participant for the Commission of Inquiry Children’s Report
| Myth | Fact |
|---|---|
| Organisations that receive concerns or allegations from children are not child safe. | Receiving concerns or reportable allegations means the complaints system is working, and that children and young people feel safe to raise issues. A key message from CREATE Foundation’s 2019 Voices in Action Conference on was that organisations need normalise a complaints handling culture and encourage children to speak up about concerns, with one participant stating: “Have a culture around it being positive to actually complain. A complaint shouldn’t be a mark against your name.” |
Useful resources
| Resource link | Description |
|---|---|
| Complaint Handling Guide: Upholding the rights of children and young people | This resource was developed by the National Office for Child Safety to help organisations build their capacity in handling complaints involving children and young people. The guide is accompanied by a short reference guide and a fact sheet. |
| Child-centred Complaints Handling: Best Practices Guide | Receiving concerns or reportable allegations means the complaints system is working, and that children and young people feel safe to raise issues. A key message from CREATE Foundation’s 2019 Voices in Action Conference on was that organisations need normalise a complaints handling culture and encourage children to speak up about concerns, with one participant stating: “Have a culture around it being positive to actually complain. A complaint shouldn’t be a mark against your name.” |