The piece is on what happens when a complaint reaches Stage 2 and an independent investigator gets involved. After more than 75 Stage 2 investigations across more than 15 local authorities, the patterns are consistent, and they are not always what practitioners expect. The substantive decision is usually defensible. It is almost always the process around it that lets people down, and recording sits at the centre of that.
The complaints procedure is not something done to you. It holds your service to account on behalf of the children and families you work with. And when your practice is good, that is what the investigation will find.
