You can use this letter to make a complaint about a council or health body, for example if you’re unhappy with the amount of support available to your family or the way decisions have been made.

If the authorities can’t agree on who’s responsible for helping your family, don’t try and work it out yourself – use our template letter to complain about them both for failing to work together.

If you think an official has told you something that’s incorrect or inappropriate, you can use this letter to ask the council/health body to confirm whether the comment is true or not.

Public bodies shouldn’t adopt rigid policies which prevent them from exercising their powers in individual cases (the legal term for this is ‘fettering discretion’). Use this letter to ask the council to confirm in writing what their policy is.

You have the right to ask any organisation that processes your personal data for a copy of the information they hold about you. This is known as a ‘subject access request’. Use this letter to make a request.

You have a right to request any recorded information held by a public authority. This is known as a ‘Freedom of Information request’. Some information may not be given to you because it is ‘exempt’, for example because it would unfairly reveal personal details about somebody else. Use this letter to make a Freedom of Information request.

Use this letter if you need to chase a public body for its response to previous correspondence.

Use this letter to ask for an assessment of your child’s needs or your needs as a carer.

Use this letter to make a formal complaint about delays in completing an assessment of your child’s needs (or your needs as a carer) and/or putting interim support in place in England.

Use this letter to complain about a proposed cut in your child’s care package.

If your (or your child’s) needs have been assessed but you’ve been waiting a long time for support, the council might say that it needs to do a new assessment before it can progress your case. If you’re worried that agreeing to a new assessment will cause delay, but refusing will label you as ‘uncooperative’, use this letter to get your concerns on the record.

Use this letter if the council has assessed your family and agrees you need support, but hasn’t given you a written care plan explaining how that support will be provided in practice.

Councils must be able to show that they’ve reached a decision fairly and rationally – use this letter to find out why the council has decided that your child isn’t eligible for support.

Use this letter to complain that your local continence service isn’t providing suitable continence products for your child.

If your local continence team has refused to assess your child’s needs at home, you can use this letter to make a complaint.

If your local health authority has told you that your child isn’t old enough to have a continence assessment, you can use this letter to make a complaint.

Use this letter to make a complaint if the NHS has refused your request for transport to hospital appointments.

Councils should start planning for the move to adult services by assessing your family’s needs. Use this letter to ask the council to start planning for your child’s transition.

Use this letter to complain about the council’s delay in making arrangements for your child’s transition from children’s services to adult services.

Use this letter if the council/health body has agreed that you need help, but says that it can’t afford to provide support.

Use this letter to complain if you’re still waiting for the council/health body to find the type of support that will meet your family’s needs.

Use this letter to complain that your local continence service isn’t providing enough pads/nappies to meet your child’s needs.

Use this letter to ask for school transport for a child who can’t walk to school because of his/her special educational needs or disability.

The Government has recently issued revised statutory guidance for school transport. We are in the process of analysing the new guidance and updating our letters. If you require individual help on school transport you can complete our LEaP request form and we will assess your request.

If the council hasn’t provided a properly trained escort to keep your child safe on the journey to and from school, you can use this letter to make a complaint.

The Government has recently issued revised statutory guidance for school transport. We are in the process of analysing the new guidance and updating our letters. If you require individual help on school transport you can complete our LEaP request form and we will assess your request.

Use this letter if the council have refused to carry out an assessment of your family’s needs.

You can use this letter to make a complaint about a health body if your child has been referred to the specialist autism team and is still waiting for an initial assessment 3 months after the referral.

You can use this letter to make a complaint about a local authority if your child has received a needs assessment which was distressing and heavily focused on whether there was a safeguarding issue rather than a consideration of your family’s social care needs.