Complaints
Families’ Alliance for Change is advocating for an independent complaints process to be introduced urgently. We believe that a failing local authority should not be allowed to continue to mark its own homework. The complaints below illustrate the dangers of allowing this practice to continue.
Complaint 3 - concerns over safeguarding unanswered and shut down with a blatant lie to an MP
Jesse Norman MP asked Paul Walker, CEO of Herefordshire Council, to provide answers to unanswered safeguarding concerns raised in a formal complaint first submitted in August 2024 . What eventually came back to Jesse Norman in writing, reproduced below, was a blatant lie. The date of this blatant lie from Herefordshire Council: 3 February 2025.
Complaint 2 - unlawful s47 practices
The Council has been forced to admit liability and pay damages for an unlawful s47 inquiry but FAC remain concerned that:
(i) the Complaints Team initially attempted to deny there was any problem and did not uphold the complaint
(ii) the complaint was processed under the wrong complaint track with the result that the complainant has been denied the right to a Stage 3 independent hearing and the Council has therefore avoided any outside scrutiny of its unlawful practices which are likely to have affected hundreds of families.
Complaint 1 - concerns about the conduct of the Monitoring Officer rejected on the grounds that she is too senior to be investigated
Concerns about the conduct of the Monitoring Officer rejected on the grounds that she is too senior to be investigated!