If your complaint does not result in a satisfactory outcome, or if the problem recurs, you may move to the next stage by putting the concerns or complaint in writing to the pre-school manager, with a childminder this would be to the local authority Early Years Co-ordinator.

Model letter: head this with your name, address, date as is usual, with a contact telephone number.

To save an example letter to your computer that you can alter to suit yourself, right click on the following link and choose 'Save as'.

Example complaint letter

As some parents are not comfortable with making written complaints, there is usually a template form available in the pre-school that you can complete instead of writing your own letter.

After the pre-school manager has heard your complaint, a plan of action and a time limit that you agree with should be decided upon. It may be helpful for you to request a written copy of this signed by you and the pre-school manger so that there is no confusion about what now should happen. You should then be contacted again with the results of the action that was agreed and be given the opportunity to talk this over at a convenient time with the pre-school manager from the point of view of your child. You should be clear that in the event of any more difficulties that staff observe you will be contacted immediately.

Generally the pre-school stores written complaints from parents in the child's personal file. If the complaint involves a detailed investigation all information may be stored in a separate file designated for this complaint. When the complaint is resolved at this stage, its main points are logged in the Complaints Summary Record.

Hopefully you are now satisfied with the outcome and will not need to continue to the next stage.

Click on the following links to open a PDF, use the back button on your browser to return to this resource. To save the handout to your computer, right click and choose 'Save as'.

Text for this page: Stage 2: Putting concerns or complaints in writing
Text for this whole section: When you have to make a formal complaint