Kids’ One-Stop-Shop Opens

Children in Blaenau Gwent have a special one-stop-shop where they can make complaints and talk about services which affect them.

Assembly business minister Jane Hutt officially launched Blaenau Gwent’s new Corporate Children’s Complaints Service, a new project set up in response to the recommendations of the Children’s Commissioner, which outlined that children and young people should have their own facilities for making complaints.

A system of Service Buddies has now been put in place to allow children and young people between the ages of five and eighteen to make complaints, compliments and recommendations to the council via a freephone number, text, email or in person.

A Service Buddy will log the complaint, and ensure that it is investigated, and a response provided.

Young people from Tredegar Youth Cafe came up with the idea of Service Buddies and they designed posters and leaflets to promote the project.

Councillor Nigel Daniels, Blaenau Gwent’s Executive Member for Governance, said: “It is one of the Council’s strategic aims to shape and deliver services that meet the needs of all our customers, and to be accountable to them.”