Dear [NAME]

I am writing to you in respect of my [son/daughter/brother/sister/family friend, etc]. He/ she [insert here a summary of their disabilities], and as a result lacks the capacity to make decisions concerning his/her welfare [be more specific if there is a particular issue of concern, eg where they live, medical treatment decisions, contact with others, etc].

As you will be aware, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) governs the process for decision-making in someone’s best interests where they lack the mental capacity to make that decision themselves. The Act says that when a person lacks capacity to make a decision themselves, a decision must be made in their best interests. If there is a dispute over mental capacity, the MCA and its code of practice also govern the process by which that dispute should be resolved.

While the term ‘best interests’ is not defined by the MCA, section 4 of the Act provides a list of some of the matters that should be taken into account when considering what is in an individual’s best interests. The code of practice to the MCA provides detailed guidance on what should be considered, and the steps that should be taken, when considering best interests. In particular, I would like to draw your attention to the requirement that a best interests decision must take account of all the relevant circumstances and, in particular, should include the following steps:

1. Encourage [insert name] to participate as fully as possible in the decision-making process.

2. Consider [insert name]’s past and present wishes and feelings and the beliefs and values that would be likely to influence his/her decision if he/she had capacity. [Insert specifics here if relevant, eg your cultural or religious background].

3. Consider the views of anyone engaged in caring for the person or interested in his/her welfare. Clearly this would involve me as [insert name]’s [insert relationship]. Steps need to be taken to properly consult.

This does mean that both [insert name] and I should be fully involved when any decision is being made on his/her behalf.

Involving [insert name] will mean taking practical steps to assist him/her in communicating his/her wishes or preferences, for example [explain how they might do this, eg by using simple language or pictures]. [Insert name] may need help to express his/her wishes or preferences, so you may need to involve someone who knows him/her well – such as me – in this.

In addition, you need to consult with me and anyone else interested in [insert name]’s welfare, to get our views. I do not need to be appointed a ‘welfare deputy’ in order to be consulted.

I have written this letter using a guide that has been published by Ambitious about Autism, Mencap and the Challenging Behaviour Foundation. The guide was based on legal advice. I would therefore be grateful if you would contact me on [insert your contact details] so we can work together to ensure that all decisions regarding [insert name]’s welfare are taken in his/her best interest.

I have copied this letter to [insert name of LA/NHS body/care manager, etc].

I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

Yours sincerely

[Print name]

Dear...

I am ... Mother to ... Aged ... Who is known to your local authority.

I wish to raise a formal complaint with regards to the way my case has been handled by our allocated social worker ............... and about the lack of care, understanding, patience and support she has not offered or provided to my family. The fact she has not taken the time to explain things properly and she has left me with no understanding of what is being said to me at any meetings.

To elaborate a little I suffer with .......... a condition which affects ....................               .

As a result of my disabilities I struggle to understand and process information or take onboard what is being said, especially during meetings as they can be very lengthy and confusing to me with different people all talking either together or separately this has happened everytime throughout my case im left  with no knowledge or understanding of what is being said or what is going to happen afterwards. The social worker uses against me, the fact that I have never had any support network in place to help me throughout my case, which in truth she herself has a duty of care to provide me with the correct support network who are willing to help and support me. She has made no attempt to make contact or to invite my disability social worker who is appointed to assist me in understanding the information that has been said me by explaining things properly, or to offer me any kind of addition support. I feel very let down by your local authorities omissions in failing to support me or allocate the appropriate support.

I therefore wish to raise this complaint against your local authority for failure to provide me with this support or assistance which could have resulted in a very different outcome for my case. Please respond via email for my legal teams own viewing.

Yours sincerely

Complaint Template to complain against a foster carer and social worker

Dear...

I am ... Mother to ... Aged ... Who reside in your authorities care.

I wish to raise this complaint against the foster carers and the social worker on the basis that ..........  , resulting in .............. . I am also aware that the foster carer .............. whilst my child was in her care.

This is completely unacceptable and amounts to putting my child in harms way and danger.

This issue needs to be corrected now as a matter of priority before something serious might happen to my child.

Therefore I raise this formal complaint regarding the foster carer and the social worker for their actions this is completely unacceptable and shows complete incompetence not to mention malpractice and gross misconduct.

Please respond via email only for my legal teams own viewing.

Failure to respond to and/or acknowledge this complaint will result in further failings to my family and my making further complaints about yourself as the director of services.

Yours sincerely

To judge ............

I am ... Mother to ..., Aged, date of birth, who is subject to these court proceedings.

I have received the CAFCASS report and recommendations.

I have recently been informed that regrettably my solicitor can no longer legally represent me for the final hearing, which this has left me in an extremely awkward predicament one of which I am left without legal representation and at such short notice, with only a few days to write my own witness statement along with compiling the necessary court bundles and to submitting them to the court directly myself, and therein lies the reason behind this statement.

I would like to start off by telling the court, that I understand the concerns about the risk of emotional harm and around the surrounding issues that if myself or my sons father was to talk negatively about each other in front of or in ear shot of my child that this would amount to emotional harm and parental alienation, and how detrimental the effects would be to my child's emotional health and well being.

I wish to make it clear for the record that I have absolutely no intentions whatsoever in trying to destabilise or sabotage my son's contact with his father by behaving in such a way. All i want is what is in the best interests for my son and to see him happy, carefree and enjoying his childhood as any child should, I do not want him to have to worry about his future contact with his father or to worry about being caught in the middle of adult disagreements which he most certainly would suffer if myself and his father cannot amicably co-parent together, he is just a little boy who wants to grow up care free with a stable routine and the security and reassurance of knowing when he is going to see his father and the knowledge that both his parents love him very much and without fear of mum and dad falling out with each other.

I would simply like to state that I am a good mother to my child and I am fully supporting positive contact between my son and his father, in line with his best interests and his emotional and developmental needs. I also want it known and understood that this would need to progress at my child's own pace and not mine or anyone else's in order to avoid any negative impact to himself.

Further more I appreciate that the court may have concerns because of the history between myself and my son's father. I accept that in the past we have had our differences on the way we both separately bring up our son and I understand that what I deemed to be me acting defensively, which may have been interpreted previously as me acting in such a way to obstruct or make contact difficult. Though this was never my intention I would like to apologise now for any of my actions that may or may not have caused professionals to feel as though I was being difficult or obstructive in any way. I am not vindictive or spiteful in nature, I am just a concerned mother trying to care and worry about my child though as I said above I admit that when I feel threatened I will be defensive in order to protect myself and my family. I can assure the courts that this is no longer a matter that exists. I am a lot calmer now I fully understand and have learned to control my emotions under stressful situations.

In respect to how I may or may not feel towards my child's father. I do not wish to see my son upset in any way, shape or form, and as such would not seek to speak negatively at all in front of him nor would I seek to act in a negative manner and I hope that his father can on an equal balance behave with the same respect while our son is in his care.

I write this statement line with the Judge's request at the last Court hearing on ../../..... and I can only apologise for submitting it late and I acknowledge that this court bundle should have been submitted In on ../../.... i hope that you can appreciate my reasons why the delay and ask for your honours forgiveness and understanding.

I declare that the contents of this letter is true and accurate to my knowledge and i understand that if any part of my statement is found to be untrue, that I may be liable for prosecution.

Yours faithfully

I am ______________ mother to ________________ date of birth ____________whom of which are under your Local Authorities.

I am writing this email to raise a formal complaint. I feel that your Local Authority has acted ultra vires, that is outside of their powers. My reason are outlined below.

On __/__/___ the social worker assigned to my families case namely __________________
Completed a public law outline as part of my pre-birth assessment, she has behaved in such a way while performing her professional duties that can only be described as gross misconduct, malpractice and incompetence with a total disregard to my human rights.

I gave birth to ___________ on __/__/____ during my Court hearing I was lead to believe I was being served papers, namely a section 20 which I was made to sign under duress, i was pressurised into signing the section 20 and lead to believe if i refused to comply then she would be forcibly removing my children from my care where they would be placed on an interim care order. Forcing a person to sign any legal document under duress or threat is not only extortion but is against the law and is a gross misuse of a section 20 of the Children's Act 1989.

I have been forced against my will into residing at ______________ which is a mother and baby unit.

I wish to formally raise an official complaint against the aforementioned social worker namely __________ who performs her duties under your Local Authorities, for the following.....

A)Gross misconduct in relation to providing me with the correct information or informing me of my legal rights in regards to making me believe that I had no other choice other than to signing the section 20, which I since have been informed that this is infact a voluntary agreement. I have been forced in to signing this unlawfully and unfairly and against my own free will. Which is a misuse of the government’s legislation covered under section 20 of the Children's Act 198. This is in fact a criminal offence.

B)Being forced to stay somewhere against my own free will, by use of extortion which is a criminal offence and imprisonable if found guilty of such a crime and also a breach of my human rights under the legislation of the European Convention Of human rights act 1998.
Article 1, obligation to respect Human Rights.
Article 5, the right not to be unlawfully detained.
Article 8, the right to respect for private and family life, for home and correspondence.
Article 10, freedom of expression and freedom to receive information without interference.
Therefore I request a call of action against this email, please respond only via email as a matter of urgency for my legal teams own viewing.

Failure to respond to or acknowledge this email will result in further failings to my family and will ultimately result in a further complaint being made against your Authority as well as the possibility of your staff being held accountable and facing a disciplinary hearing to further possible criminal charges.

Yours sincerely

Dear

As you will be aware, I am ... Mother to ... Aged ... Who is known to your authority.

I wish to raise a formal complaint regarding your social worker ...., Named social worker for the case, for the following reasons.

The aforementioned social worker has in fact put your local authority in breach of the existing court order which states that my contact with ... Should take place  .... Hours,... Days per week/month. He/she has deliberately and knowingly gone against the court order in a bid to prevent me and my child spending time together and has failed to even arrange the following contacts between me and my child.

(List all times and dates known and if none are known write the date you last had contact).

It is absolutely abhorrent that your local authority feels fit to play god, as can only be described as acting ultra vires in relation to contact as opposed to what the court ordered!! This is extremely inexcusable behaviour, putting your authority in breach of a court order which may amount to contempt of court on the social workers part, as she has gone against a court order to do what she pleases and not what was court ordered. This behaviour is certainly not inline with anyone's best interests except the social workers, and it is disgusting that your authority is prepared to go to the lengths to get what you want.

Therefore I formally and respectfully raise this complaint against the aforementioned social worker for the above reasons.

I would formally like to request

1) a full written and signed apology

2) all of those contacts the social worker neglected to arrange, rearranged and made up to myself as a matter of priority and inline with the court order and what's in my child's best interests.

3) a change of social worker because this I've had acted unprofessionally and without integrity in deliberately breaching a court order. This means she can not be trusted, our working relationship is non existent because she fails to communicate with me regarding anything at all, therefore a change of social worker is absolutely justified and necessary as this one is failing to follow the social workers code of conduct as written by the hcpc. Namely acting with honesty and integrity. 

I feel it necessary to inform you that today I have in fact applied to court for an enforcement order against your authority because this breach of court order is not acceptable in any way shape or form and I will not sit by while I am unfairly removed completely from my child's life at the hands of a social worker who thinks it is acceptable to breach Court orders against what's in the child's best interests entirely, in order to fulfill what she wants to happen.

Please respond via email for my legal teams own viewing. Failure to acknowledge or respond to my complaints results in further failings to my family by yourselves and will result in further complaints being made against yourselves.

Yours sincerely

Dear

I am ... Aged... Who is known to your local authority care system.

It has come to my attention that it costs your local authority around £50,000 per annum just to keep me in care. This will include the costs for the social worker and her wages, the care home staff wages and care home fees, as well as administration fees, the wages of the independent reviewing officer who chairs my meetings etc. All of this money goes into keeping me in your local authorities care, a child who doesn't like being in care, a child who wishes to be returned to my mothers care, a child who has been repeatedly failed by your local authority and to whom your social worker, continuously lies to.

With this in mind I respectfully and formally ask you to discharge me from your authorities services with a view to living at home with my mum again. To assist with this, I request that the authority funds an independent assessment of my mothers parenting capabilities, undertaken by an independent social worker to this authority because they will simply be biased. Not only would I be much more happier and settled by living with my mum again, but the £50,000 a year, spent on keeping me in care, could then be utilised to assist another child who genuinely needs the services. This would save your authority money that would have been spent on me as a child in your care system.

With this in mind I request that you look into my suggestions as a ward if your authorities care and assist me in this matter. The social worker informed me aged 16 I could return to my mums care but now that my 16th is approaching ive been told I have to wait longer til I'm 18. I am not happy with the dishonesty this social worker has shared and therefore invite you respectfully to consider discharging me from your authorities services.

Please respond via email for my legal teams own viewing.

Yours faithfully

Dear

I am ... And I reside in your authorities care. I wish to raise a complaint regarding my care.

..., my named social worker for my case, told me that he/she is putting me in a residential home. As a local authority you are bound by the Children Act 89, and the Adoption and Children Act 2002 & 2004 to follow my wishes and feelings.

The social worker is using the residential home as a form of punishment for my behaviour and attitude, which has been severely damaging to my emotional stability and I feel your authority failed to support me with. To punish me by putting me in a care home is disgusting behaviour.

I have stated repeatedly I do not wish to remain in care. I want to live with my mum. However your authority continuously ignore my wishes and feelings, and act as though I never raised my wishes and feelings. Not only is this breach of the relevant acts of parliament which give your authority its powers, bht this amounts to emotional abuse to myself on behalf of your local authority.

I will not lie, I have lost my temper with the social worker on many occasions but it is to be expected considering the treatment I have gone through at the hands of someone under your authority. I do not feel that I have acted unreasonably, when you consider that this social worker continuously lies about my care and dismisses my wishes and feelings as unimportant at every opportunity. Your authority is supposed to help me, and ensure that my wishes and feelings are followed to the letter. I am disgusted that a residential care home is being used as a form of punishment for me and this entire situation is causing me severe distress as a young people.

I am tired of being ignored and therefore raise this complaint.

yours

Dear ...

I am ... Aged ... And I reside within your local authorities foster care system under a care order. I am writing this email because I simply don't know who else to go to.

I do not wish to stay in your authorities foster care. It is my express wish to be returned home to my mothers care. I have spoken to social worker (name) about this .... Times and every time I am either ignored or told two separate things.

First ... Told me that I could go home at 16. Now ... Has told me this isn't the case. I am led to believe by social workers that my wishes and feelings are extremely important in the case, however my wishes and feelings are definitely not being listened to. This leaves me feeling very isolated by your care system and upset and feelings like I have no real support. I can tell you 100% that I do not want to remain in foster care for another day longer.

I therefore invite you, as my director of services, to consider an independent assessment of my needs and my mother ... Capabilities to parent me in the community. I ask for this to be independent because the local authority do not care about my wishes and feelings and I feel that they devalue my opinions and feelings as a person. This makes it harder for me to trust the people I need to.

Therefore I write this email to yourself. Begging you to be the first person to hear my voice and help me, in the way that I need it. Please respond via email only for my legal teams own viewing. Failure to respond to this email will result in a further failing to myself and a complaint will be raised. I thank you advance for any help you offer.

Yours faithfully

Dear

I am ... Mother to.. Aged... Who has recently been subject to court proceedings with your local authority.

I wish to raise a complaint regarding .... our allocated social worker for my case, for the following reason.

On ../../.. the social worker unlawfully and with prejudice did unscrupulously exclude me from a meeting in relation to my child.

This is completely unethical and unacceptable behaviour considering that I still hold full parental responsibility for my child, meaning that I am lawfully entitled to be made aware of and present at all meetings regarding my child.

I am appauled and disgusted that your local authority feels that it is acceptable to hold meetings and to work on my case without informing or inviting me it is a complete unjustifiable exclusion of myself. This is misconduct on your social workers part and as such she has breached your local authorities own policies and procedures not to mention a breach of the social workers code of conduct. As my child has not yet been adopted and I have not been disruptive or aggressive in any meetings, there is absolutely no excuses for this kind of behaviour, and this is inexcusable it is a violation of my rights as a parent. To make the situation worse, I have not been provided with the minutes for this meeting either I am excluded on purpose where my  voice and opinion, wishes and feelings have not been heard, which in the event of justified exclusion from meetings still must be sought in order to add this in to the minutes of the meeting.

Therefore I formally and respectfully make this complaint regarding the aforementioned social worker. I formally request ...

1) a formal written apology

2) to be invited to every single meeting at least one week in advance every time, with relation to my child.

3) to be provided with a copy of all conference notes prior and in good time for me to be able to prepare for these meetings.

4) to be provided with all previous conference minutes of all past meetings.

5) for my child's social worker to at the very least be given a written formal warning for her inexcusable behaviour.

I feel it is necessary to inform you that today I have in fact applied to the court for an enforcement order against your local authorities because this week of the court order is not acceptable any way shape or form and I will not sit by while I am unfairly removed completely from my child's life at the hands of a social worker who thinks it is acceptable to breach Court orders against what is in the child's best interests entirely in order to fulfill what she wants to happen please respond via email for my legal teams own viewing failure to acknowledge or respond to my formal complaint will result in further sailings to my family by yourself and by your local authorities and that will result in further complaints being made against you yours sincerely

Dear

I am... Mother to ... Aged ... Who is known to your local authority.

I wish to raise a formal complaint against ... Named social worker for my child's case for the following reason.

Since ..,/../.. the aforementioned social worker has completely failed to communicate with me in any way shape or form. This is as far as I'm concerned, him/her acting to the exclusion of myself, a person with parental responsibility for the child.

This behaviour is completely unjustified and unacceptable. I have since nothing to warrant being treated this way and am disgusted that this is happening. Miscommunication is a massive problem with this social worker and I can prove they have blatantly ignored my attempts to contact them via text messages I have sent which have gone ignored.

This is disgusting and only adds to the fact that I believe this social worker is deliberately cutting me out of my child's life against the court order. This is not acceptable and as such I formally and respectfully raise this complaint against the aforementioned social worker.

Please respond via email for my legal teams own viewing.

Failure to acknowledge or respond to this complaint will result in further failings to my family by your authority and further compassionate being made against yourselves.

Yours sincerely