CHILDREN in foster care could be given a diary containing phone numbers to ring if they want to complain about the way they are treated.

The recommendation, to be put before Middlesbrough Borough Council's executive scrutiny panel next week, is part of a review into the complaints procedure for foster homes in the borough.

As a result of the recommendations in the Waterhouse report into abuse in children's homes in South Wales, Middlesbrough councillor Robert Smith visited a foster carer and child to see if they were aware of the council's complaints procedures.

In his report to the council, Coun Smith said that child C claimed he had never seen council literature about the complaints procedure and did not know about the Children's Rights Service or his right to complain to his councillor, or organisations such as Childline.

Coun Smith said: "It may be that C has been given all the necessary information during his stay at another placement.

"He did not have anything he could show me which would help him make a complaint, except his social worker's phone number."

Coun Smith went on to say that although instructions about making a complaint were displayed in children's homes, there was a lack of information in a normal home environment.

He said: "It is probably unlikely that young children would keep information safely stored away.

"We may need to look at ways of making sure it is always to hand. Perhaps we could provide children with a diary with all the necessary information in it."

Next Thursday, the council will discuss the possibility of providing a diary for children in care, containing relevant phone numbers to make complaints.

The information would be presented to the young people in a way they would understand and want to keep.

Councillors will also discus the possibility of putting dates and information about other activities in the diary, such as the summer playscheme, so children have more incentive to look at it.

Details of the complaints procedure are handed to every foster carer and child by the council.

On Thursday, it will be discussed whether information on the complaints procedure should be reissued to youngsters and foster carers at regular intervals, in case original copies are lost.