Decision report 201201400

Summary

A nurse working for the board's child and adolescent mental health services wrote to the local social work department about Ms C's teenage son, who lived in a children's home. Ms C considered the letter to be one-sided and unfair, and said that the nurse should not have written an assessment of her son without having met him.

Our investigation found that the nurse had been asked to assess Ms C's son. She had written the letter at the request of the social work department, and it was intended solely to represent the views that the nurse had obtained in discussion with the manager of the children's home. The discussion with the manager had been the starting point of the assessment that the nurse was asked to make, and he had also arranged to have two meetings with Ms C's son as part of his detailed assessment. We were satisfied that the letter was accurately based on the nurse's clinical record of his discussion with the manager, that it accurately explained the purpose of the letter and the context of the information in it and that it was appropriate for such a letter to be written.