Letter before proceedings

A letter before proceedings is the letter that children’s services must send to a parent to start a pre-proceedings process. It should also be sent to anyone else who has parental responsibility for the child. There are five things that a letter before proceedings should detail. These are:

• Information about getting legal advice
• The concerns children’s services have and changes they would like the parents to make
• The plans for a pre-proceedings meeting
• Details of any proposed assessments and support
• Information about involving wider family and friends.

See the How the pre-proceedings process begins and letters before proceedings section of our Pre-proceedings page for more information about the letter before proceedings.