We want Tasmanian children and young people to have the best possible chance of reaching their full potential.

To help them achieve this, we provide family violence counselling and support, child safety, out of home care, adoptions, youth justice and other services.

Our promise to you

We strive to provide useful, respectful and fair services sensitive to your choices, needs, values and culture. We also strive to work in partnership with you in a courteous, professional and responsive way.

We will always try to answer your questions, but if we cannot give you all of the information you want, we will explain why.

Who can make a complaint?

Anyone who has contact with our services can make a complaint if they are not satisfied.  You can make a complaint to any of our staff.  The easiest way to sort out a problem is to speak with the person you have been dealing with or their manager.  If you are worried about the rights of a child in care not being upheld, you can contact the Child Advocate for Out of Home Care by email at
child.advocate@decyp.tas.gov.au

If you are not fully satisfied with our response to your concern you can make a formal complaint.

What can you expect when making a complaint?

When you make a formal complaint our staff will listen to you, give you information where we can and keep your concerns confidential. We will help you make your complaint and make sure it gets to the right person. If you are unhappy with the outcome of your complaint we will help you to take it further.

How to make a complaint

It is always a good idea to put your concerns in writing.

You can either email your concerns to cyf.liaison@decyp.tas.gov.au or mail them to
GPO Box 65, HOBART, TAS, 7001.

This helps us get a clearer picture of your concerns.

We will contact you within a week of receiving your formal complaint to talk with you about how we will address your concern. We will try to resolve any formal complaint within four weeks of receiving it – if it will take any longer we will let you know. We will treat your complaint confidentially and only discuss it with the people involved in sorting it out. We will write to tell you the outcome and explain our decision.

What should I include in my written complaint?

Here are a few suggestions of what to include to help us address your concern:

• Who was involved, the date it happened and did anyone else see what happened.
• Please attach any documents or photographs to support your complaint, and say what they are about.
• Describe how your concern has affected you, your family or your client.
• What would you like to see happen to resolve your concerns.
• Please give us your contact details

How to take your complaint further

If you are not fully satisfied with the outcome of your formal complaint you can ask for it to be reviewed by the Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman will review your complaint to make sure proper procedures were followed and that you have been treated fairly.

Contact information

Children and Youth Services Complaints

Email cyf.liaison@decyp.tas.gov.au or write to GPO Box 169, HOBART, TAS, 7001.

Ombudsman Tasmania

Phone 1800 001 170, email ombudsman@ombudsman.tas.gov.au or write to GPO Box 960, HOBART, TAS, 7001.

If English is not your first language, you can call the Telephone and Interpreter Service on 131 450 for assistance.

Resources

Complaint Information Sheet How to resolve your concern (PDF, 128KB)