FAQs

Complaints to the OCO can be made directly by children (anyone under the age of 18) about something that affects them.

Adults can also bring complaints on behalf of children and young people. Parents or extended families often bring complaints to the Office on behalf of their children but professionals such as teachers and youth workers can bring complaints too.

The Ombudsman for Children can now examine complaints about public bodies providing services or making decisions about children and families or organisations providing services on behalf of the State. There is no official list of public list of new bodies. This is to ensure that as many bodies as possible come under the Offices remit. However, we have developed an indicative list as a guide.

Examples of Government Departments and public bodies we can look into are:

• The Health Service Executive (HSE)
• Department of Health
• Department of Education and Skills
• Local Authorities and County Councils

There are some public bodies that we are unable to examine – for example we are not able to look at complaints about the Garda Síochána as there is a Garda Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman for Children can now examine complaints about public bodies providing services or making decisions about children and families or organisations providing services on behalf of the State. There is no official list of public list of new bodies. This is to ensure that as many bodies as possible come under the Offices remit. However, we have developed an indicative list as a guide.

If you are unsure about whether this Office can examine the public body you are complaining about you can contact our Office on 1800 20 20 40 or email ococomplaint@oco.ie and our Complaints and Investigations team will try and help you with your query.

It is important that you try to resolve your complaint with the organisation you are unhappy with first.

Before submitting a complaint to the OCO you should try, as far as possible, to make your complaint in writing directly to the organisation and follow their complaint process (i.e. the various steps you have to take when making a complaint to them). If you contact the organisation you have a difficulty with you can ask them about their complaints process and what steps you need to take.

If you are still unhappy after receiving the response and after you have followed all of the steps, it may be then be the right time to submit a complaint to the OCO.

If you wish to make a formal complaint, then yes, it is good to get organised with your complaint. It is important to put the complaint in writing to the organisation you wish to make a complaint about. This will help ensure that the formal complaint procedure is being followed. It also promotes better communication between you and the public body in order to resolve the matter.

The organisation that you are contacting should be able to give you details on how to make a more formal complaint.

It is a good idea to keep copies of all the letters and emails that you write and receive in relation to the complaint. Later on, it may also help our Office to have a greater understanding of the complaint and to determine what our role may be in the matter.
 

If you have followed the steps set out by the organisation and you remain dissatisfied, at that stage you may submit a complaint to our Office. At that point it is helpful to send us the letter of complaint which you sent to the public body along with any decision letter received.

Local complaint procedures are simply the steps you need to take within the organisation, school or hospital to make a complaint. Some organisations give those details on their website, others will provide it if asked over the phone or in writing. It is important that the body you wish to make complaint about have an opportunity to resolve it before you come to our Office. That’s the first stage in making a complaint.

You can fill out our complaint form online,

or

you can print a copy off and post it to
Ombudsman for Children's Office
Millennium House
52-56 Great Strand Street
Dublin 1

or

you can fax it to us at 
01 874 7333

or

you can contact our Complaints and Investigations team on 1800 20 20 40 and we can arrange to send you out a complaint form.

While we know that each complaint represents a unique and different set of circumstances there is certain information we will always need from you. When you are making a complaint the OCO will need as much information as possible about the complaint such as:

• What you are complaining about and how you think it has affected the child(ren) on whose behalf you are making a complaint
• The name and age of the young person you wish to make a complaint for
• Your personal details and relationship with the child or young person
• What you have done to try and resolve the complaint directly with the organisation
• What are the views (if possible and appropriate) of the young person you are making a complaint on behalf
• What you would like to happen
• Any other relevant information about what has happened

The easiest way to give us this information is by filling out one of our complaint forms which are available on our website. The complaint form will give us a good idea about what your complaint is and if we need more information from you we can then ask for it.

If you are submitting a complaint form it can also be useful to give us copies of any letters or correspondence you have sent to, or had from, the organisation.

The OCO seeks to be as accessible as possible and therefore, if you are not in a position to submit a complaint form in writing for any reason you can contact us at the Office on 1800 20 20 40 and we can figure out the best way for you to make your complaint.
 

This Office is independent and impartial. This means that we are not allowed to take sides and we have to consider both sides of the complaint.

We will write to you to let you know that we have received your complaint and to explain what will happen next.

The Complaints and Investigations team will look at it and decide on the next steps. That means we check

• If the complaint is something we can look at
• what stage local procedures are at
• how the matter could be resolved
• that the necessary criteria have been met (i.e. that there may be a negative impact on a child and that the administrative actions may not have been fair or sound).

If we decide that your complaint requires our involvement, then we may write to the public body to give them an opportunity to respond.

Many complaints are resolved at this stage.

However, this Office may decide that further investigation is required. An investigation may include meetings with the people involved as well as looking at all of the correspondence. We will keep you informed of all of the steps we take and any decisions that we make.

Currently, this Office does not investigate complaints relating to social welfare payments or benefits made to parents/guardians in respect of children. If your complaint relates to these payments, you may wish to contact the Office of the Ombudsman. The contact details are:

Office of Ombudsman
18 Lr Leeson Street
Dublin 2
Lo Call 1890 223030
 

The Health Service Executive (HSE) and An Garda Síochána are the agencies that have responsibility for investigating concerns of this nature. Concerns of a child welfare and protection nature should be referred directly to the HSE Children and Family Social Work Services  and/or An Garda Síochána. You can contact the HSE Info Line on 1850 24 1850 to find out which Social Work Department you should report any child protection concerns to.

We can look at complaints about how child protection concerns may have been handled by the HSE, schools, hospitals or other public bodies, but we do not have the authority to investigate any child protection or welfare allegations that have been made. We cannot intervene in family law or care proceedings.

The Ombudsman for Children must have regard to the best interests of the child and ensure that we act in accordance with Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children.

Where the screening and /or investigation of a complaint indicates to this Office that there are concerns regarding the safety and welfare of a child, then these concerns will be referred on by us to the HSE or An Garda Siochána. Where we refer such concerns to the relevant agencies, then we inform the complainant directly.

This can vary on a case-by-case basis. We do our best to resolve complaints as quickly as possible but in order to be fair we must allow the organisation adequate opportunity to sort the problem out.