PANIC MONTHLY NEWSLETTER 6th EDITION | Page 5

On the CYF website it states: Our promise to you

We are committed to providing excellent service for families, the children and young people that we work with.

We will...

- Be courteous and professional

- Work with family and whānau to make decisions in the best interests

of the child or young person

- Communicate with you clearly

- Respond to you quickly

- Encourage you to bring support people when we meet with you, as

long as this is safe for everyone

- Respect your privacy

- Connect you with people who can help if we aren't able to

- Always try to answer your questions. If we can't give you the

information you want, we will always explain why.

Complaint email address. [email protected]

http://www.cyf.govt.nz/about-us/our-service-commitment/index.html

If you feel cyf have not followed the above then do not hesitate to write a formal complaint. PANIC encourages its clients to make these complaints as this gives not only a good record for yourself but also insures CYF are able to identify common errors enabling them to improve its services. Complaints made via email allow you to save the complaint from the sent area of your email thus keeping a date stamped archive. Remember to give details such as social worker, branch, childs names and birth dates and ways of contacting you. Ask that they reply via email rather than phone as this again insures a good paper trail. Please also CC your PANIC advocate into your complaint and state in the body of the email that they are to include your PANIC advocate in their responses. PANIC advocates can work with you throughout the complaints process.