Challenging Children (Scotland) Act decisions

Local authorities are required to have procedures for considering representations or complaints and these should be well publicised and easily accessible. See the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman for more information on how to make a complaint.  

Decisions made by social work departments in relation to the Children (Scotland) Act may be open to challenge by means of judicial review where the complaints procedure is not available or when it is inappropriate, for example, where a homeless care leaver needs accommodation immediately and the local authority's complaints process is too slow.

For detailed information about judicial review, please see the section on challenging local authority decisions.

Complaints of maladministration can be made to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. For information about making a complaint to an Ombudsman, please see the section on challenging local authority decisions.