There were a record number of complaints to the Office of the Ombudsman for Children last year, according to its report, 
published today.
The report [1] showed that the Office received 1,393 complaints last year, a 22pc on 2010.
Forty seven percent of these complaints related to dealings with the education system, with a further 32pc relating to dealings with the health system.
Overall, the report showed that the proportion of complaints relating to education increased significantly from 38pc to 47pc.
Meanwhile, the overall proportion of complaints relating to health matters fell from 37pc to 32pc.
The report also showed that the overall proportion of complaints related to the justice sector decreased from eight percent to five percent and that the percentage of complaints relating to housing/planning and other issues each showed a decrease of one percent.
When broken down, the report revealed that the two most common causes of complaints in the education sphere were the actions of teachers or principals and school transport, (both 21pc).
Bullying was the source of 14pc of complaints, with special needs resources issues leading to12pc of complaints. Ten percent of complaints resulted from issues with actions of Board of Management .
Emily Logan (pictured), the Ombudsman, also said that there was a “need for public sector reform”.
She said: “It is a dominant feature of our investigations that, with few exceptions, they highlight a lack of awareness about the impact of civil and public administrative decisionmaking on the lives of children and families.
“In this respect, we continue to see more concern for the system than for the best interests of the child and family.
“We continue to see a reluctance to engage with parents about new policy decisions resulting in a lack of communication with parents. For parents it is often a lack of communication that leads to unnecessary concern and upset about their children.”