Complaints must be part of the Child Protection Authority

Resolution Ready has submitted a response to the Department for Education’s consultation on the proposed Child Protection Authority for England.

Our response focuses on a gap we see consistently in practice: statutory children’s social care complaints are not yet recognised as a source of national learning, and they should be.

Complaints are a formal mechanism through which children, young people and families raise concerns about child protection practice. They regularly bring early signs of systemic weakness to light, including poor threshold decisions, drift, weak multi-agency working and failures in escalation. That learning stays local. It rarely reaches national oversight in any structured way.
Our response makes the case for complaints to be treated as a legitimate source of system intelligence that the CPA should draw on alongside inspections, reviews and data.

We also noted the importance of accountability in implementation. Learning from complaints and investigations too often fails to change practice because ownership is unclear and follow-through is weak. The CPA has an opportunity to address that directly.

We welcome the direction of travel and hope the final design of the CPA reflects the full range of sources through which children and families tell us what is and is not working.

Read the consultation