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Youth Legal

Complaints and Feedback


How to make a complaint and how we will deal with it

At Youth Legal, we aim to provide a high-quality, respectful and accessible service. We hope you are happy with the help you receive, but we recognise that sometimes things can go wrong.

If you are unhappy with our service, we want to hear from you. We take complaints seriously and use them to put things right where possible and to improve our services.

Making a complaint will not affect your right to receive help from Youth Legal.

What can I complain about?

You can complain about any aspect of our service. For example, you may be unhappy about:

  • how your case has been handled;
  • delays or lack of progress;
  • difficulty communicating with us or getting a response;
  • how you have been treated by a member of our team;
  • a decision or the way it was explained to you;
  • discrimination or unfair treatment;
  • confidentiality or the way your personal information has been handled; or
  • any other aspect of the service you have received.

How do I make a complaint?

If you feel comfortable doing so, you can first raise your concern with your solicitor, caseworker or another member of our team. We will try to resolve the issue quickly and informally where possible.

You do not have to do this. If you would prefer to make a formal complaint straight away, you can do so.

You can complain by email, telephone, in writing or in person. You do not need to use any particular wording or complete a special form.

Please tell us, where possible:

  • what happened;
  • when it happened;
  • who was involved;
  • why you are unhappy; and
  • what you would like us to do to resolve the matter.

Email: maureenvincent@youthlegal.org.uk            
Telephone: 020 3195 1906
Post: Youth Legal, The Devas Youth Club, 2a Stormont Road, London SW11 5EN

If you need help making a complaint or need us to make an adjustment to the process for you, please tell us and we will do our best to help.

What happens after I complain?

1. Early resolution

Where appropriate, we will first try to resolve your concern quickly and informally.

You do not have to agree to informal resolution. If the issue cannot be resolved in this way, or you want your complaint to be dealt with formally, we will investigate it.

2. Formal investigation

We will acknowledge a formal complaint within 5 working days.

Formal complaints are normally handled by our Complaints Officer, who will consider your concerns, review relevant information and speak to the people involved where appropriate.

We aim to send you a full written response within 20 working days. If the matter is complex and we need longer, we will explain why and tell you when you can expect our response.

To make sure complaints are handled fairly:

  • if your complaint is about our Complaints Officer, it will be handled by our Director;
  • if your complaint is about our Director, it will be handled by the Chair of our Board of Trustees; and
  • if your complaint is about the Chair, it will be handled by another trustee who has not been involved in the matter, or by an appropriately independent person.

No one will investigate or decide a complaint about their own conduct.

3. Review

If you are not satisfied with our formal response, you can ask us to review it.

You should normally ask for a review within 20 working days of receiving our response and explain why you remain dissatisfied.

The review will be carried out by someone who was not responsible for the original investigation and has no conflict of interest.

We aim to provide the outcome of the review within 20 working days, subject to any applicable regulatory time limits.

What if I am still unhappy?

Depending on the service you received and the nature of your complaint, you may be entitled to take your complaint to an independent organisation.

Legal services
If we have been unable to resolve a complaint about legal services, you may be entitled to refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, which independently considers complaints about legal services.
PO Box 6806 
Wolverhampton 
WV1 9WJ 
Via email on enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk 
By phone number:  0300 555 0333 or at www.legalombudsman.org.uk 

Debt and money advice
For relevant complaints concerning our Debt and Money Advice services, you may be entitled to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Via email at: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk 
By phone number: 0300 123 9 123 or 0800 023 456 

Immigration advice

For complaints concerning immigration advice, you may also have a right to complain to the relevant regulator.
Contact the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) at any time. 
Please complete the attached complaint form and email it to: complaints@oisc.gov.uk

Professional conduct

Concerns about the professional conduct of a solicitor may, where appropriate, be reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

We will tell you about any external complaints route relevant to your complaint, including applicable time limits and contact details, when we provide our final response.

Our Complaints Policy

This page is a summary of how to make a complaint and what you can expect from us.

We regularly review complaints and use what we learn from them to improve our services.

For further information about how Youth Legal records, investigates, reviews and learns from complaints, you can read our full Complaints Policy here:


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