Make a complaint to Youth Justice NSW

The person making a complaint is called a complainant.

A complainant can be:

• yourself or any other young person that is getting a service from Youth Justice
• the family or carer of a young person getting a service from Youth Justice NSW
• a victim or the victim’s support person
• your support person or representative
• an Official Visitor.

A representative is someone making the complaint for you. This could be:

• your support person
• your Youth Justice Caseworker
• your doctor
• a barrister or solicitor
• an officer of the Aboriginal Legal Service.

The NSW Ombudsman is an independent organisation that makes sure that other organisations like Youth Justice are doing their job right.

You can complain about your safety or the quality of care at Youth Justice.

This could be things like:

• the way Youth Justice employees or volunteers behave or treat you
• anything that makes you feel unsafe when you are with Youth Justice
• the behaviour of other young people at Youth Justice
• the quality of care you get from Youth Justice or other services paid by Youth Justice.

It can be scary and stressful to make a complaint. You might be nervous that people will get angry or treat you in a different way.

Youth Justice staff are there to support you. Staff must make sure you are safe and not treated in a different way because of your complaint.

These people can help you with your complaint, filling in the form and other things:

• Youth Justice Community Office employees like caseworkers, psychologists and managers
• Youth Justice Centre employees like unit managers, youth officers, caseworkers and psychologists.

Support person

You can ask to have a support person. This could be:

• someone from your family, your partner or carer
• a friend from the centre (NOT a co-offender)
• a lawyer
• a chaplain or Official Visitor.
• Youth Justice staff that agree to support you.

Your support person should:

• help you make the complaint
• keep you up to date about your complaint
• make sure you understand everything
• be there for you if you feel sad or upset.

Youth Justice might help with things like paying for your support person’s travel to visit you.

If you are a young Aboriginal person, you can get extra support from an Aboriginal staff member. You can choose if you want this extra support or not.

Representative

You have the right to use a representative. Your representative can make the complaint for you. Youth Justice does not pay for your representative. YJNSW might pay for phone calls or if there are special reasons why you need a representative.

Special reasons can be your:

• mental health or disability
• language or culture.

You can have a representative and a support person.

If you are a young Aboriginal person, you can have a representative, a support person and an Aboriginal staff member to support you.

Interpreter

Youth Justice will pay for an interpreter if:

• you have problems speaking or understanding English
• you are hearing-impaired or deaf.

Complaint handler

Youth Justice will have one person that is responsible for your complaint. This person is called the complaint handler. Your complaint handler is someone who is neutral because they have nothing to do with your complaint.

If you are an Aboriginal person, your complaint handler will get support from an Aboriginal staff member to make sure your culture is respected.

If you are worried that you will be treated in a bad way because of your complaint, you can talk to a manager. If you are still unsure, you can make your complaint to an external organisation instead like the NSW Ombudsman.

You can also make a complaint about Youth Justice to another organisation that is completely separate to Youth Justice.

An external organisation could be:

• the NSW Ombudsman
• Official Visitors to Youth Justice Centres managed by the Inspector of Custodial Services
• NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC)

Youth Justice can help you with your complaint to an external organisation. You can also choose not to tell Youth Justice about your complaint.

Youth Justice must keep you up to date about what is happening with your complaint. If your complaint is about a Youth Justice staff member, this person is not allowed to talk to you about your complaint. Tell another staff member or manager if this happens. Information about you and your complaint will be kept as private as possible. Youth Justice will only share information with people that are part of sorting out your complaint.

Complaints should be sorted within 5 days. Some complaints might take longer. All complaints should be sorted within 21 days.

Youth Justice might look into your complaint and decide that it is 'frivolous or vexatious'. Frivolous or vexatious means that your complaint was not meant seriously. You only made the complaint to annoy or cause trouble. Youth Justice must tell you in a letter why they will not sort out your complaint. It must be written in a way that you understand their decision. Your complaint handler can help you understand it. 

Everything about your complaint must be recorded in the complaints database. Your information is private and confidential there.

A complainant who is not satisfied with the decision on the complaint may apply to the complaint handler’s supervisor or to the Secretary for a review of that decision.

You can get in touch with an external party if you are not happy with:

• how Youth Justice dealt with your complaint
• the outcome of your complaint.

This could be the NSW Ombudsman or Official Visitors for example.

Youth Justice must:

• Tell you about your rights including the right to make a complaint.
• Protect you and your rights when you make a complaint.
• Support you to make a complaint.
• Have clear rules for dealing with complaints.
• Treat all parties in a fair way.
• Sort out complaints as quickly as possible.
• Keep you up to date about your complaint.
• Keep all information confidential.
• Keep records of all decisions and reasons for decisions. A complainant who is not satisfied with the decision may appeal to the complaint handler’s supervisor or to the Secretary for a review of that decision.