Guidance when writing to us

Writing about your case

If you are asked to put details of your case in writing please try to provide a word processed copy or write extremely legibly.

When writing, try to be succinct and outline the salient points with dates, times and witnesses if possible - "stream of consciousness" letters can be therapeutic for you but make difficult reading for those trying to grasp the key points of your case.

It helps if you use headings and use short paragraphs with spaces in between them

If you mention people indicate clearly who they are / what position they hold. Do not refer to colleagues by initials or by the "code" used in your school and known only to the initiated.

If there is background material, e.g. a previous case or a similar situation affecting a colleague, please put this in a separate appendix to your main report about the current case.

Do not mark envelopes "Private and Confidential" - all our work is treated as confidential and we have strict rules about this which apply to all staff.

Supporting evidence

If we ask for documents (e.g. letters of appointment, letters from or to your Headteacher) or you think that some documentation or photographs are relevant to your case please send copies to us with your statement.

Do not send us the originals of documents. If we need them at a later stage we will arrange to collect them securely.

Our response

Will be as prompt as possible but please appreciate that we may need to consider some issues and seek further advice before replying or we may have even more urgent business to attend to before turning our attention to your letter - 'phoning or e mailing for an immediate response will not speed matters up and may even delay our response to you.

In the very small number of cases where delay of over 10 working days is necessary or inevitable we will send you a holding letter to explain this.