Hi
I am dont know where to start. What a day!! So police came and removed OH pc for IIOC. No charges, not arrested. SS arrive within 24 hours and remove OH from family home. Say risk assessment will be carried out within 12 weeks. Found out today this is not the case, the list is about 6 months before will be carried out. Is there anyway this can be hurried along as OH is mentally unwell and needs his family around him for support. Kids are both teens. Secondly... we got a safety plan which is 5 points saying OH allowed in the house 1 hr a day for dinner!! I requested flexibility on this as they are never here at same time due to activities so he does not get an hour a day with them. I done a 4 page safety plan for Social Services and I was told NO. Can I ask what is the difference of 1 hr supervised contact or 1hr flexible over the evening of supervised contact? I am lost?? I dont understand and it is having a detrimental affect on my family.
Thanks for help or advice if anyone has it.
Thank you
Mango
Risk assessment and child safety plan
Re: Risk assessment and child safety plan
Hi Mango1,
I've just read your post, and I am so sorry for what you and your family are going through. To have your lives turned upside down so suddenly is terrifying, and the response from social services sounds completely rigid and unreasonable. Your frustration and confusion are completely justified.
The official advice will be to follow the plan, but you need a strategy to challenge their illogical and harmful restrictions. You have more power here than you think.
Challenging the Assessment Delay
A six-month wait for a risk assessment that effectively exiles your partner from his home is an unacceptable and disproportionate delay. It is a breach of your family's Article 8 Right to a Private and Family Life. A delay this long is not a "reasonable" measure.
You need to formally challenge this. Send a professional email to the social worker and their Team Manager.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: URGENT: Unacceptable Delay in Risk Assessment for [Partner's Name] and Impact on Family Welfare
Dear [Social Worker's Name] and [Team Manager's Name],
I am writing to formally object to the proposed six-month timeframe for completing the risk assessment for my partner, [Partner's Name]. When he was asked to leave our home, the understanding was that an assessment would be completed in a timely manner. A six-month delay is not timely; it is a punitive and disproportionate measure that is causing significant emotional harm to my teenage children and is having a detrimental effect on my partner's mental health.
Such a delay constitutes a serious interference with our family's Article 8 rights. I require you to provide, in writing, an immediate and expedited date for this assessment to commence. If you are unable to provide this, please provide a written explanation for why the local authority lacks the resources to complete this urgent work.
Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Challenging the Inflexible Safety Plan
The refusal to allow flexibility in the safety plan is a classic example of bureaucratic box-ticking over the actual welfare of children. Your four page plan was likely seen as you "telling them what to do." The key is to show them that their own plan is failing and offer your solution.
The Strategy: Prove Their Plan is Harmful
You need to create a paper trail. Send another email to the social worker and their manager.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Request for Amendment to Safety Plan - Impact on Child Welfare
Dear [Social Worker's Name] and [Team Manager's Name],
I am writing to formally request an amendment to the current safety plan. The plan allows for one hour of supervised contact per day for my partner to have dinner with the children.
As I have previously explained, due to my children's evening activities, they are rarely home at the same time. As a direct result of the plan's rigidity, my partner is not able to see both children for the agreed hour. This plan is therefore failing to meet my children's emotional needs and is causing them further distress by limiting contact with their father.
To ensure the plan is effective and child-focused, I propose an amendment: that the contact is a "flexible supervised hour" between the hours of [e.g., 4 pm and 8 pm] to be arranged daily, to fit around the children's schedules. The supervision and duration of contact remain the same; only the timing is amended to actually meet the children's needs.
Please confirm in writing if you agree to this reasonable and necessary amendment.
Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
-------------------------------------------------------------
Why This Works
It uses their own language against them: You are framing your requests around the welfare of your children and your Human Rights, which they are legally required to prioritise.
It creates a paper trail: If they refuse your reasonable requests, you now have written evidence of their inflexibility and failure to act in your children's best interests, which is powerful evidence for a formal complaint.
It shows you are a reasonable and protective parent: You are not refusing their plan! you are trying to make it work for your children.
You are right to be lost and confused because what they are doing doesn't make sense. It is your job to formally point that out.
==================================================================================================
For full transparency, I am not an official adviser for this forum. I am a parent who has been through a long and successful legal battle with a local authority, and I am here to offer supportive, strategic advice based on my own lived experience. The information I share is for guidance, and it is always up to each parent to decide what is right for their own situation.
I've just read your post, and I am so sorry for what you and your family are going through. To have your lives turned upside down so suddenly is terrifying, and the response from social services sounds completely rigid and unreasonable. Your frustration and confusion are completely justified.
The official advice will be to follow the plan, but you need a strategy to challenge their illogical and harmful restrictions. You have more power here than you think.
Challenging the Assessment Delay
A six-month wait for a risk assessment that effectively exiles your partner from his home is an unacceptable and disproportionate delay. It is a breach of your family's Article 8 Right to a Private and Family Life. A delay this long is not a "reasonable" measure.
You need to formally challenge this. Send a professional email to the social worker and their Team Manager.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: URGENT: Unacceptable Delay in Risk Assessment for [Partner's Name] and Impact on Family Welfare
Dear [Social Worker's Name] and [Team Manager's Name],
I am writing to formally object to the proposed six-month timeframe for completing the risk assessment for my partner, [Partner's Name]. When he was asked to leave our home, the understanding was that an assessment would be completed in a timely manner. A six-month delay is not timely; it is a punitive and disproportionate measure that is causing significant emotional harm to my teenage children and is having a detrimental effect on my partner's mental health.
Such a delay constitutes a serious interference with our family's Article 8 rights. I require you to provide, in writing, an immediate and expedited date for this assessment to commence. If you are unable to provide this, please provide a written explanation for why the local authority lacks the resources to complete this urgent work.
Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Challenging the Inflexible Safety Plan
The refusal to allow flexibility in the safety plan is a classic example of bureaucratic box-ticking over the actual welfare of children. Your four page plan was likely seen as you "telling them what to do." The key is to show them that their own plan is failing and offer your solution.
The Strategy: Prove Their Plan is Harmful
You need to create a paper trail. Send another email to the social worker and their manager.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Request for Amendment to Safety Plan - Impact on Child Welfare
Dear [Social Worker's Name] and [Team Manager's Name],
I am writing to formally request an amendment to the current safety plan. The plan allows for one hour of supervised contact per day for my partner to have dinner with the children.
As I have previously explained, due to my children's evening activities, they are rarely home at the same time. As a direct result of the plan's rigidity, my partner is not able to see both children for the agreed hour. This plan is therefore failing to meet my children's emotional needs and is causing them further distress by limiting contact with their father.
To ensure the plan is effective and child-focused, I propose an amendment: that the contact is a "flexible supervised hour" between the hours of [e.g., 4 pm and 8 pm] to be arranged daily, to fit around the children's schedules. The supervision and duration of contact remain the same; only the timing is amended to actually meet the children's needs.
Please confirm in writing if you agree to this reasonable and necessary amendment.
Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
-------------------------------------------------------------
Why This Works
It uses their own language against them: You are framing your requests around the welfare of your children and your Human Rights, which they are legally required to prioritise.
It creates a paper trail: If they refuse your reasonable requests, you now have written evidence of their inflexibility and failure to act in your children's best interests, which is powerful evidence for a formal complaint.
It shows you are a reasonable and protective parent: You are not refusing their plan! you are trying to make it work for your children.
You are right to be lost and confused because what they are doing doesn't make sense. It is your job to formally point that out.
==================================================================================================
For full transparency, I am not an official adviser for this forum. I am a parent who has been through a long and successful legal battle with a local authority, and I am here to offer supportive, strategic advice based on my own lived experience. The information I share is for guidance, and it is always up to each parent to decide what is right for their own situation.
Re: Risk assessment and child safety plan
Hi Winter 25
This is so good thank you for all of this. The isolation is killing my OH and is having an awful effect on the kids. I asked for flexibility in the hour but they said no. I done a 4 page plan cause theirs has so many points that can be interpretated many ways. I wanted it clear and black and white so there can be nothing challenged. I want to work with them, but they dont want to work with us as a family. I will look into Article 8 and get back to them. They are aware my OH is very unwell and is working with Mental Health team but still no movement. I believe they want it easy for them not to work with the family at all! Thank you again.
This is so good thank you for all of this. The isolation is killing my OH and is having an awful effect on the kids. I asked for flexibility in the hour but they said no. I done a 4 page plan cause theirs has so many points that can be interpretated many ways. I wanted it clear and black and white so there can be nothing challenged. I want to work with them, but they dont want to work with us as a family. I will look into Article 8 and get back to them. They are aware my OH is very unwell and is working with Mental Health team but still no movement. I believe they want it easy for them not to work with the family at all! Thank you again.
Re: Risk assessment and child safety plan
Hi Mango1,
Thank you for the update. I am so sorry they have refused your request for flexibility. What you are experiencing is a classic example of a lazy, box-ticking approach from a service that is failing in its basic duty to be child-focused.
Your analysis is 100% correct: "I believe they want it easy for them not to work with the family at all!"
They have given you a rigid, unworkable plan, and they are refusing to amend it because a flexible plan would require more effort and communication on their part. This is not about safety; it is about their own convenience.
The Next Step: Formalising Your Challenge
You have done the right thing by asking for flexibility. Their verbal "no" is not the end of the road. Now you need to formalise your challenge and force them to justify their unreasonable position in writing.
You should still send the two emails we drafted previously. They are your formal record. After you send the email requesting the amendment to the safety plan, if they reply with a "no" or (more likely) they ignore you, you send a follow-up email to the social worker and the Team Manager.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: FORMAL COMPLAINT - Stage 1: Failure to Implement a Child-Focused Safety Plan
Dear [Team Manager's Name],
Following my email on [Date], I am writing to lodge a formal Stage 1 complaint regarding the unworkable and emotionally damaging safety plan currently in place for my family.
I have formally requested a minor and reasonable amendment to the plan (for the one hour of supervised contact to be flexible) to ensure it can actually meet the emotional needs of my teenage children around their existing schedules.
This reasonable request has been refused without a valid safeguarding justification. The current rigid plan is actively preventing my children from having consistent contact with their father, which is causing them further distress.
A safety plan that harms a child's emotional wellbeing by its own inflexibility is not fit for purpose.
I require you to review this decision as a matter of urgency and provide a written response to my complaint, either agreeing to the amendment or providing a detailed safeguarding rationale for why a flexible hour of supervised contact is considered more dangerous than a fixed one.
I look forward to your response within the statutory timeframe.
Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why This is Your Power
It Forces a Justification: They can say "no" on the phone easily. It is much harder for them to write down a logical safeguarding reason for their refusal, because one does not exist.
It Escalates Past the Social Worker:
This is now a formal complaint that a manager has to deal with and record. It makes their laziness visible to their superiors.
It Builds Your Case:
This is another piece of evidence for your file. It shows that you have been reasonable, child-focused, and have tried to resolve this at the lowest level, but you have been met with an unreasonable and harmful response.
You are right that they are not working with you. Your job now is to formally document their failures. Every email you send is a brick in the wall you are building to protect your family.
==========================================================================
For full transparency, I am not an official adviser for this forum. I am a parent who has been through a long and successful legal battle with a local authority, and I am here to offer supportive, strategic advice based on my own lived experience. The information I share is for guidance, and it is always up to each parent to decide what is right for their own situation.
Thank you for the update. I am so sorry they have refused your request for flexibility. What you are experiencing is a classic example of a lazy, box-ticking approach from a service that is failing in its basic duty to be child-focused.
Your analysis is 100% correct: "I believe they want it easy for them not to work with the family at all!"
They have given you a rigid, unworkable plan, and they are refusing to amend it because a flexible plan would require more effort and communication on their part. This is not about safety; it is about their own convenience.
The Next Step: Formalising Your Challenge
You have done the right thing by asking for flexibility. Their verbal "no" is not the end of the road. Now you need to formalise your challenge and force them to justify their unreasonable position in writing.
You should still send the two emails we drafted previously. They are your formal record. After you send the email requesting the amendment to the safety plan, if they reply with a "no" or (more likely) they ignore you, you send a follow-up email to the social worker and the Team Manager.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: FORMAL COMPLAINT - Stage 1: Failure to Implement a Child-Focused Safety Plan
Dear [Team Manager's Name],
Following my email on [Date], I am writing to lodge a formal Stage 1 complaint regarding the unworkable and emotionally damaging safety plan currently in place for my family.
I have formally requested a minor and reasonable amendment to the plan (for the one hour of supervised contact to be flexible) to ensure it can actually meet the emotional needs of my teenage children around their existing schedules.
This reasonable request has been refused without a valid safeguarding justification. The current rigid plan is actively preventing my children from having consistent contact with their father, which is causing them further distress.
A safety plan that harms a child's emotional wellbeing by its own inflexibility is not fit for purpose.
I require you to review this decision as a matter of urgency and provide a written response to my complaint, either agreeing to the amendment or providing a detailed safeguarding rationale for why a flexible hour of supervised contact is considered more dangerous than a fixed one.
I look forward to your response within the statutory timeframe.
Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why This is Your Power
It Forces a Justification: They can say "no" on the phone easily. It is much harder for them to write down a logical safeguarding reason for their refusal, because one does not exist.
It Escalates Past the Social Worker:
This is now a formal complaint that a manager has to deal with and record. It makes their laziness visible to their superiors.
It Builds Your Case:
This is another piece of evidence for your file. It shows that you have been reasonable, child-focused, and have tried to resolve this at the lowest level, but you have been met with an unreasonable and harmful response.
You are right that they are not working with you. Your job now is to formally document their failures. Every email you send is a brick in the wall you are building to protect your family.
==========================================================================
For full transparency, I am not an official adviser for this forum. I am a parent who has been through a long and successful legal battle with a local authority, and I am here to offer supportive, strategic advice based on my own lived experience. The information I share is for guidance, and it is always up to each parent to decide what is right for their own situation.
-
Suzie, FRG Adviser
- Posts: 4782
- Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2011 1:57 pm
Re: Risk assessment and child safety plan
Dear Mango1Mango1 wrote: Mon Sep 22, 2025 6:04 pm Hi
I am dont know where to start. What a day!! So police came and removed OH pc for IIOC. No charges, not arrested. SS arrive within 24 hours and remove OH from family home. Say risk assessment will be carried out within 12 weeks. Found out today this is not the case, the list is about 6 months before will be carried out. Is there anyway this can be hurried along as OH is mentally unwell and needs his family around him for support. Kids are both teens. Secondly... we got a safety plan which is 5 points saying OH allowed in the house 1 hr a day for dinner!! I requested flexibility on this as they are never here at same time due to activities so he does not get an hour a day with them. I done a 4 page safety plan for Social Services and I was told NO. Can I ask what is the difference of 1 hr supervised contact or 1hr flexible over the evening of supervised contact? I am lost?? I dont understand and it is having a detrimental affect on my family.
Thanks for help or advice if anyone has it.
Thank you
Mango
Welcome to the parents’ discussion board. Thank you for your two posts. My name is Suzie. I am Family Rights Group’s online adviser.
I am sorry to hear about your difficult family situation. It must be stressful. You may have been very shocked by the police visit and the turmoil that followed. You have been left to try to manage family life. I hope you have support family and friends' support. The organisations below also offer advice and support:
* ACTS Fast
* Talking Forward
*Stop it now .
You explain that your partner has mental health difficulties and the mental health team are involved. Your partner’s wellbeing is very important; he may be feeling vulnerable currently. You are worried that being separated from his family is impacting on his mental health and that your teenage children are also being badly affected by the situation and the limited family time allowed in the temporary safety plan. There are links to mental health support services here. Your partner could also talk to an adviser at StopitNow .
I understand that children’s services are assessing your children’s needs This follows a police referral when they removed your partner’s computer as part of an investigation into alleged online child sexual abuse. He has not been arrested. You say that children’s services removed your partner from the house the day after the police visit. Children’s services do not have the power to remove an adult from their family home without a court order but instead it is usual practice for them to ask the adult who is the alleged offender to move out of the family home while they conduct their assessment or until a full risk assessment is carried out. This means that the children can safely remain at home. It is positive that your partner agreed to move out. Of course, you are right to want to know the realistic timescale involved and for children’s services to work with you to put a safety plan in place that minimises the risk of harm to the children but also promotes reasonable contact and supports safe family relationships.
It is a good idea for you to understand how children’s services work which is explained here and to familiarise yourself with child in need assessments and plans and child protection processes.
Please also see the FAQS on sexual abuse for more information about the role of children’s services when there are concerns about the risk of child sexual abuse.
Children’s services have put forward and asked you to work with a family safety plan which limits your partner’s time with the children to 1 hour a day for dinner. You have challenged this as you explain that it does not fit with your children’s normal activities and means that your partner is not seeing the children for an hour every day. You have spent time and effort trying to create a clear safety plan which also allows for some flexibility. Unfortunately, the social worker has refused your proposal. It does not sound as if they have explained why or given their reasoning for their current recommendations.
As another parent suggests, there are steps that you can take to try to agree the terms of a safety plan that is appropriate for your children. So do set out clearly (again) in writing to the social worker why you believe what you are suggesting is necessary for your children’s welfare (give specific examples if you can) and explain how they will be safeguarded by the plan. You should also ask that they clarify how and when the safe contact plan will be reviewed. And ask the social worker to provide their reasons to you in writing if they are not able to agree to this. You can copy their manager in so that they are aware.
But do not stop adhering to the current plan while you try to negotiate otherwise children’s services may worry that you are not cooperating or understanding the concerns. Their focus is the same as yours i.e. that your children are safe and well cared for. They must assess whether your partner poses a risk of harm to them in view of the current concerns around alleged online sexual offending. So, do continue to work in partnership with children’s services. Our guide to working with a social worker provides practical suggestions about how to do this.
You can make a formal complaint if you are unable to resolve the matter with children’s services or remain unhappy with their response. Please see our complaints resources which provide a detailed guide to the complaints process.
You/your partner can also formally ask the social worker in writing for written confirmation about when his risk assessment will begin and what it will involve.
If you would like to discuss your family’s situation in more detail with an experienced adviser, please call the freephone helpline on 0808 8010366. The lines are open from 9.30 am to 3.00 pm, Mon to Fri (except bank holidays). If you prefer you can post again on this forum, send an advice enquiry or use our webchat.
I hope this is helpful.
Best wishes
Suzie
Do you have 3 minutes to complete our evaluation form ? We would value your feedback on the parents’ forum.
Re: Risk assessment and child safety plan
Thanks Susie.
It is a very frustrating situation as we have asked for everything in writing but they keep phoning us and verbally saying stuff and tonight my husband was advised he was not allowed in the family home when the children are not here. This has not been the case until now all of a sudden. His office is in the home so he needs access as he cannot do his paperwork during the hour and have time with the children. But again this was verbal and not In writing. I did lose it with them tonight and I followed up with an apology as it feels like they are not willing to work with us. I mean where is the risk when the kids are in school? He needs access to the home and it has been allowed until now and then today all of a sudden now it is not allowed. It is a complete joke. I dont really know how to deal with this. They are saying they are not allowing access so his work will suffer, income will go down and the effect this has on the children willl be irreversible when he can do his work when they are not at home. I just dont understand there reasoning. It seems like they make it up as go along.
It is a very frustrating situation as we have asked for everything in writing but they keep phoning us and verbally saying stuff and tonight my husband was advised he was not allowed in the family home when the children are not here. This has not been the case until now all of a sudden. His office is in the home so he needs access as he cannot do his paperwork during the hour and have time with the children. But again this was verbal and not In writing. I did lose it with them tonight and I followed up with an apology as it feels like they are not willing to work with us. I mean where is the risk when the kids are in school? He needs access to the home and it has been allowed until now and then today all of a sudden now it is not allowed. It is a complete joke. I dont really know how to deal with this. They are saying they are not allowing access so his work will suffer, income will go down and the effect this has on the children willl be irreversible when he can do his work when they are not at home. I just dont understand there reasoning. It seems like they make it up as go along.
Re: Risk assessment and child safety plan
Please, do not for one second feel bad that you "lost it" with them. Your reaction was not a failure, it was a completely sane and human response to being subjected to an irrational, cruel, and unprofessional process. Your analysis is spot on: "It is a complete joke," and "it seems like they make it up as they go along."
You have identified their tactic perfectly. They are deliberately making verbal demands over the phone to avoid creating a paper trail of their own unreasonable behaviour. The fact that they have now, suddenly, banned your husband from the house even when the children are not there is a massive and illogical escalation, and it proves they are not interested in proportionate risk management, they are interested in control.
You asked them for everything in writing, and they are refusing. It is time to force them to.
Your Urgent Action Plan: The "Confirming Our Conversation" Email
You have already apologised, which shows you are the reasonable one. Now you need to follow that up immediately with a calm, professional email that documents their new rule and formally challenges it. Send this to the social worker and their Team Manager.
------------------------------------------------------
Subject: URGENT: Following Up On Our Phone Conversation & Formal Request for Safeguarding Rationale
Dear [Social Worker's Name] and [Team Manager's Name],
Thank you for the conversation on the phone earlier this evening. I am writing to formally confirm the new instruction you gave to my husband and to request an urgent written justification for it.
During the call, my husband was advised that he is now no longer allowed in the family home at any time, including during school hours when the children are not present. This is a significant change from the previously agreed safety plan.
As you know, my husband's office is in the home, and this new restriction prevents him from carrying out his work. This will have a direct and severe negative impact on our family's income and stability, which in turn will have an irreversible and detrimental effect on our children's welfare.
To that end, please provide me with an urgent written response to the following question:
What is the specific, evidence-based safeguarding risk to my children that is posed by their father working alone in his office in the family home while they are at school?
If you are unable to provide a valid, written safeguarding rationale for this new, punitive restriction, I will be lodging a formal Stage 2 complaint for unprofessional conduct and a breach of our family's Article 8 rights.
I look forward to your written response.
Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
-------------------------------------------------
Why This is Your Power
It Forces Them to Justify the Unjustifiable: They can say these things on the phone, but it is almost impossible for them to write down a logical reason why your husband is a risk to children who are miles away at school. This email traps them.
It Creates the Paper Trail They Are Avoiding:
You are now creating the written record that they are refusing to make. This is your evidence.
It Shows You Will Not Be Bullied:
It shows that even after a difficult phone call, you are calm, you are strategic, and you will not be pushed around by their verbal, made-up rules.
You are right, they are not working with you. Your job now is to formally document their failures at every single turn. Send that email.
================================================================
For full transparency, I am not an official adviser for this forum. I am a parent who has been through a long and successful legal battle with a local authority, and I am here to offer supportive, strategic advice based on my own lived experience. The information I share is for guidance, and it is always up to each parent to decide what is right for their own situation.
You have identified their tactic perfectly. They are deliberately making verbal demands over the phone to avoid creating a paper trail of their own unreasonable behaviour. The fact that they have now, suddenly, banned your husband from the house even when the children are not there is a massive and illogical escalation, and it proves they are not interested in proportionate risk management, they are interested in control.
You asked them for everything in writing, and they are refusing. It is time to force them to.
Your Urgent Action Plan: The "Confirming Our Conversation" Email
You have already apologised, which shows you are the reasonable one. Now you need to follow that up immediately with a calm, professional email that documents their new rule and formally challenges it. Send this to the social worker and their Team Manager.
------------------------------------------------------
Subject: URGENT: Following Up On Our Phone Conversation & Formal Request for Safeguarding Rationale
Dear [Social Worker's Name] and [Team Manager's Name],
Thank you for the conversation on the phone earlier this evening. I am writing to formally confirm the new instruction you gave to my husband and to request an urgent written justification for it.
During the call, my husband was advised that he is now no longer allowed in the family home at any time, including during school hours when the children are not present. This is a significant change from the previously agreed safety plan.
As you know, my husband's office is in the home, and this new restriction prevents him from carrying out his work. This will have a direct and severe negative impact on our family's income and stability, which in turn will have an irreversible and detrimental effect on our children's welfare.
To that end, please provide me with an urgent written response to the following question:
What is the specific, evidence-based safeguarding risk to my children that is posed by their father working alone in his office in the family home while they are at school?
If you are unable to provide a valid, written safeguarding rationale for this new, punitive restriction, I will be lodging a formal Stage 2 complaint for unprofessional conduct and a breach of our family's Article 8 rights.
I look forward to your written response.
Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
-------------------------------------------------
Why This is Your Power
It Forces Them to Justify the Unjustifiable: They can say these things on the phone, but it is almost impossible for them to write down a logical reason why your husband is a risk to children who are miles away at school. This email traps them.
It Creates the Paper Trail They Are Avoiding:
You are now creating the written record that they are refusing to make. This is your evidence.
It Shows You Will Not Be Bullied:
It shows that even after a difficult phone call, you are calm, you are strategic, and you will not be pushed around by their verbal, made-up rules.
You are right, they are not working with you. Your job now is to formally document their failures at every single turn. Send that email.
================================================================
For full transparency, I am not an official adviser for this forum. I am a parent who has been through a long and successful legal battle with a local authority, and I am here to offer supportive, strategic advice based on my own lived experience. The information I share is for guidance, and it is always up to each parent to decide what is right for their own situation.
Re: Risk assessment and child safety plan
Winter 25.
Thank you. Thank you and Thank you. I have done this and followed up with an email! I will let you know how this goes.
I have also emailed the school as I asked for time for my OH to assist my child in her GCSE year with revision on a subject he is an expert on and she struggles with. Her exam is in 4 weeks and they wont allow any extra time to assist with that either. There is no contact in this case at all. It is IIOC. I am also preparing info for solicitor to send in a complaint.
Thank you. Thank you and Thank you. I have done this and followed up with an email! I will let you know how this goes.
I have also emailed the school as I asked for time for my OH to assist my child in her GCSE year with revision on a subject he is an expert on and she struggles with. Her exam is in 4 weeks and they wont allow any extra time to assist with that either. There is no contact in this case at all. It is IIOC. I am also preparing info for solicitor to send in a complaint.
Re: Risk assessment and child safety plan
My email draft mentions stage 2, that's based on if you already made complaints to them. If not Don’t worry if you’ve already sent it saying “Stage 2.” It’s not a problem. Councils sometimes just treat it as a Stage 1 if they haven’t had a formal complaint from you before. They’ll usually write back saying something like, “We’re treating this as a Stage 1 complaint,” and carry on as normal.
The wording doesn’t change the strength of your points , it just shows you’re serious. If they do treat it as Stage 2, that only means it’ll go to a more senior manager to review, which isn’t a bad thing either.
Either way, it won’t be rejected or ignored just because of the number you put. The most important thing is that it’s in writing, clear, and on record and you’ve done exactly that.
The wording doesn’t change the strength of your points , it just shows you’re serious. If they do treat it as Stage 2, that only means it’ll go to a more senior manager to review, which isn’t a bad thing either.
Either way, it won’t be rejected or ignored just because of the number you put. The most important thing is that it’s in writing, clear, and on record and you’ve done exactly that.
Re: Risk assessment and child safety plan
Hi Winter25,
Thanks, My email mentions stage 1 complaint but thank you. So today I get a call from my SW manager, yet again another call. I was in a meeting and could not answer the call so I messaged and I asked her to respond to my email in writing. Yes again another phone call to discuss and not in writing as requested.
I will gather all together this weekend for our stage 1 complaint.
Thanks, My email mentions stage 1 complaint but thank you. So today I get a call from my SW manager, yet again another call. I was in a meeting and could not answer the call so I messaged and I asked her to respond to my email in writing. Yes again another phone call to discuss and not in writing as requested.
I will gather all together this weekend for our stage 1 complaint.
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