Making a complaint

Who can make a complaint 

If you are not satisfied with how an entity responded to a reportable allegation, you can make a complaint to the Office of the Children’s Guardian.  

If you need to notify a reportable allegation, please use our reportable conduct notification forms. You can also refer to our fact sheets for support and guidance. 

If you need help to determine if an allegation is reportable, please call the Reportable Conduct Enquiries Line on (02) 8219 3800. Please wait for our advice before you complete a notification form. 

Complete the Reportable Conduct complaint form

How we respond to reportable conduct complaints

We are not a complaint handling body. However, we can receive and respond to reportable conduct complaints to help oversee the way entities respond to reportable allegations. 

We will:

• confirm we have received your reportable conduct complaint and provide you with a reference number 

• assess your complaint, advise you of our assessment, and let you know of any action we might take in response to the complaint, as long as it is allowed by law. 

We will consider: 

• whether you have complained because you are not satisfied with the entity’s response to a report about a reportable allegation 

• whether your complaint relates to an active or finalised reportable conduct matter 

• the seriousness of the complaint 

• whether the entity has had a chance to respond to your complaint 

• whether the Children’s Guardian has the authority to address or resolve your complaint 

• your connection to the complaint. 

What you can expect from us when we respond to your complaint

We aim to acknowledge all reportable conduct complaints within 7 business days. We may contact you to ask for more information. 

Unless we are required to do so by mandatory reporting obligations, we will not release your details to another party without your consent. 

Once we have assessed the action we might take in response to your complaint, we will let you know: 

• any action we plan to take, unless it is not in the public interest to do so or we are prevented from telling you by law, and  

• if we can, information about the outcome, where we act on your complaint.  

We will communicate with you in a clear, professional and respectful way. We will assess your complaint objectively and act impartially. We aim to resolve your complaint in the least formal and most timely way possible. 

Protections for complainants

If, acting in good faith, you make a reportable conduct complaint to the Children’s Guardian, you will be protected against retribution (section 64) and immunity from civil or criminal liability (section 68). 

It is an offence for any person to take or threaten to take detrimental action against a person because they have made a reportable conduct complaint, unless the complaint was made in bad faith. This includes providing information you knew to be false or misleading. 

What can I do if I am not satisfied with how the Children’s Guardian responds to my complaint?

Our assessment of, and action on, reportable conduct complaints is final and cannot be reviewed. 

However, if you are concerned that our conduct in responding to your complaint was illegal, unreasonable, unjust or oppressive, improperly discriminatory, based on improper or irrelevant grounds, based on a mistake of law or fact, or otherwise wrong, you can make a complaint about us. 

Please first give us the chance to respond to any concern about the conduct of an employee of the Office of the Children’s Guardian. Please email us at ocg@ocg.nsw.gov.au.

You can also raise your complaint about the conduct of an OCG employee directly with the Office of the NSW Ombudsman.