Resolving concerns and complaints
We take pride in our ability to work with the families and children we serve to find shared resolutions to concerns and complaints. If you are not satisfied with the service you have received from us, we encourage you to discuss your concerns with your worker. If you have done this and remain unsatisfied, there are a number of ways you can continue to seek resolution.
To download a brochure with all the information you need, click on either of the links below. Or you can read the information on this webpage.
Download Here: Making a Complaint – CCAS Hamilton English Brochure
Download Here: Making a Complaint – CCAS Hamilton French Brochure
Informal resolution process
Speak with your Worker’s Supervisor
You can contact your worker’s supervisor to arrange a conversation either in person or on the phone.
Speak with the Service Director
If you have spoken with your worker and his/her supervisor, and your concerns remain unresolved, you can contact the appropriate Service Director to request a conversation or meeting. The Service Director will work with you and the staff to resolve your concerns. The worker and supervisor may also be present at the meeting. If you wish, you may bring someone to support you during this or any future discussion of your concerns.
Formal resolution process
Our Internal Complaint and Review Process (outlined below) offers a fair and open method to have your concerns or complaints resolved, if you have been unable to do so through the informal means identified above, or if you choose not to.
At any time during the Internal Complaint and Review Process, you may bring another person with you for support or to help interpret your concern if you are more comfortable communicating in a language other than English or French. Please note that the Internal Complaint and Review Process (ICRP) will not be used for issues which are currently before the court or matters that are subject to another decision-making process under the Child, Youth and Family Service Act or the Labour Relations Act.
Internal Complaint Review Panel (ICRP)
To begin a review of your concern or complaint with the ICRP, you must put it in writing, using this form, and send it to the Director of Child Welfare Services at CCASH. If you are French speaking, you can submit your complaint in French. The complaint will be reviewed by the Society within 7 days to determine whether it is eligible for review. The Society is required to provide you with a written response to notify you that either:
- Your complaint is not eligible for review and the reasons why, or;
- Your complaint is eligible and will be reviewed by the ICRP, and you will be provided with a date and time for a meeting.
If your complaint is eligible for review, the ICRP will meet with you in person at a time that is convenient for you and the members of the panel within 14 days after you have received the response from the ICRP, or later if you request it. The panel chosen by the Executive Director of the agency will be comprised of senior agency staff not involved with the family and a person not employed by the agency (this could be a member of the Board of Directors of CCASH). If you are French speaking, the ICRP will be conducted in French. You may bring a representative with you to this meeting. If you are a member of a band or aboriginal community, you may also bring a representative of your band or aboriginal community. The panel will review your concerns and discuss them with you at the meeting.
Within 14 days after the meeting, the ICRP will send you a written summary of the meeting, including any agreed upon steps. The decisions of the agency, once it has completed this formal review process, are final.
For more information on this process, please contact CCASH at 905-525-2012.
Child and Family Services Review Board
You may ask the Child and Family Services Review Board (CFSRB) at the Social Justice Tribunals Ontario to review your complaint. In order to do so, your complaint must meet one of the following criteria.
You claim that CCASH has:
- refused to proceed with a complaint
- failed to respond to your complaint within the required time frame
- failed to comply with the complaint procedure outlined above
- not given you an opportunity to be heard regarding a decision affecting your interest or concerns about the service you received
- failed to provide you with the reasons for a decision that affects your interests.
You may contact the Child and Family Services Review Board if you claim inaccuracy in your file at CCASH. This complaint about file accuracy can only be made after it has been heard by CCASH’s Internal Complaint Review Panel.
Your request for a review at the Child and Family Services Review Board will need to be in writing on a prescribed form available through the Child and Family Services Review Board. This website provides additional information about the CFSRB process.
Decisions of the CFSRB cannot be appealed. However, if you have concerns about the CFSRB, the Ontario Ombudsman may investigate complaints and may report and make recommendations arising from such reviews.
Contact the Child and Family Services Review Board:
655 Bay Street, 14th Floor
Toronto, Ontario, M7A 2A3
(416) 327‐0111 or 1‐888‐777-3616
Fax: (416) 327‐0558
www.cfsrb.ca
[email protected]
The Ontario Ombudsman
The Ontario Ombudsman can receive and respond to complaints from children and youth. If you are a child or youth, you may complain directly to the Ombudsman about any matter, without beginning or completing a process to complain to a society’s Internal Complaints Review Panel.
The Ombudsman can also conduct investigations. You can ask for an investigation once you have tried to resolve your complaint through the steps listed above.
The Ombudsman is also able to receive and respond to complaints regarding the provision of French language services.
Contact the Ontario Ombudsman’s Office:
Bell Trinity Square
483 Bay Street, 10th Floor, South Tower
Toronto, ON
M5G 2C9
Phone: 1-800-263-1830
Outside Ontario: 416-586-3300
Fax: 416-586-3485
TTY (Teletypewriter): 1-866-411-4211
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: https://www.ombudsman.on.ca
Complaint provisions of the Child, Youth and Family Services Act
This document provides an overview of the complaints provisions in the Child, Youth and Family Services Act and its regulations.