All schools must have a complaints policy that explains how parents and members of the public can lodge a complaint.
The policy must also say how complaints are handled, how they can be escalated and who will investigate the issue at each stage.
Statutory Requirements For Complaints
Maintained schools must “establish procedures for dealing with all complaints relating to the school or to the provision of facilities or services”, according to section 29 of the Education Act 2002. The Act also says schools must “publicise the procedures”.
Academy trusts must ensure “that a complaints procedure is drawn up and effectively implemented which deals with the handling of complaints from parents”, according to part seven of The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014.
The 2014 Regulations for academies also prescribe how complaints from parents are handled.
Complaints Not In Scope
In all schools the complaints procedures must cover all complaints except those that are deemed “complaints not in scope”.
This is where separate procedures already exist for handling complaints. For example, if a parent is unhappy with their child’s exclusion there is a statutory appeals process available to them.
Complaints not in scope include complaints about:
- admissions
- school reorganisation (eg: merging an infant and junior school to form a primary)
- statutory assessment of SEN
- issues likely to require a child protection investigation
- exclusions
- whistleblowing
- staff grievance (deal with under the school grievance procedures)
- staff conduct (dealt with under disciplinary procedures)
- outside companies using the school site
- the curriculum
- collective worship
- withdrawal from the curriculum.
DfE Complaints Guidance and Model Policies
The DfE provide best practice guidance for school complaints, plus model complaints policies for all schools.
Maintained schools: Best Practice Guidance for School Complaints Procedures
Academy trusts: Best Practice Guidance for Academies Complaints Procedures
Can only parents complain?
No. Maintained schools must consider complaints from anyone.
“You must not limit complaints to parents or carers of children that are registered at the school.”
Best Practice Guidance for School Complaints Procedures (Maintained Schools)
In academies the law sets out rules that apply to parental complaints only. However, DfE best practice guidance says academies are expected to handle complaints from members of the public “respectfully and expediently”.
“As public bodies, the Secretary of State for Education expects academies to handle complaints from people who are not parents of children at the school respectfully and expediently. They are not obliged to follow the complaints policy though.”
Best Practice Guidance for Academies Complaints Procedures
The DfE model policies for both maintained schools and academies say that “any person, including members of the public, may make a complaint”.
Can staff complain?
Staff can raise complaints informally, but formal complaints from staff are dealt with under grievance procedures rather than the complaints policy.
Must the complaints policy be online?
Maintained schools must publish their complaints policy online.
Academy trusts must give their complaints policy to anyone who asks for it and the expectation is for the trust to publish it online.
All schools must publish online procedures for handling complains from parents of children with special educational needs (SEN). (Maintained schools must include this within their SEND information report.)
“You must also publish (as part of your SEND information report) any arrangements for handling complaints from parents of children with SEND about the support the school provides.”
What Maintained Schools Must Publish Online
“Academies must publish any arrangements for handling complaints from parents of children with special educational needs about the support provided by the school.”
What Academies, Free Schools and Colleges Should Publish Online
How often should the complaints policy be reviewed?
The DfE Governance Guides recommend that the complaints policy is reviewed annually.
On the other hand, the DfE best practice guidance for complaints recommends that complaints procedures are reviewed “at least every two to three years” in all schools…
It seem sensible to review the complaints policy annually to comply with the DfE Governance Guides.
How many stages should our complaints process have?
In all schools there should be an informal stage first. If the complaint cannot be resolved informally the DfE recommends slightly different processes for maintained schools and academies.
Maintained schools can choose how many stages are in their policy, but the DfE recommend the following.
- An informal stage (although schools should allow the person to go straight to a formal complaint if they wish).
- A formal complaint heard by a member of staff, usually the headteacher.
- An appeal stage heard by a panel of governors.
“We recommend that complainants and schools attempt informal resolution before making a formal complaint, if it’s appropriate to do so.
“You’re free to choose how many stages your procedure will include. However, we recommend two stages, where the second, an appeal stage, is heard by members of the governing body who’ll consider the complaint afresh.”
Best Practice Guidance for School Complaints Procedures (Maintained Schools)
(The DfE confusingly refer to “two stages” for maintained schools, when they are actually recommending three stages: an informal stage first, before the head or another staff member investigates at stage two and governors hear an appeal at stage three.)
For academies the DfE advise that at minimum the following three stages must be used to comply with law for independent schools. This law sets the rules for complaints from parents of pupils.
“1. Informal (usually a meeting with the complainant).
2. Formal (the complaint is put in writing).
3. A panel hearing, with an independent panel member.”
Best Practice Guidance for Academies Complaints Procedures
Note that academies must have an independent member at their panel stage. The panel hearing can be heard by trustees or local governors as long as one panel member is independent of the academy, or it can be heard entirely by independent people.
What is the timescale?
In all schools the DfE advise that three months is a reasonable period of time after the incident to allow a complaint to be lodged, although in “exceptional circumstances” schools should accept complaints outside this timescale.
DfE guidance does not set a timescale for the complaints process to be completed. Neither does the DfE model complaints policy for maintained schools or the model complaints policies for academies.
The DfE do advise that all schools can set cut-off times for lodging or escalating a complaint, as long as it is clear that in exceptional circumstances they may allow complaints to be lodged or escalated outside of these timeframes.
Example Complaints Timescale
A maintained school I clerked for used the following timescale for complaints.
- Acknowledge formal complaints within five school days.
- Provide a written report of the formal investigation within 20 school days of receiving the complaint. (Any complaints received in school holidays are considered to have been received on the first day back at school.)
- Allow the complainant 10 school days to escalate their complaint to the governor panel stage.
- If a governor panel is requested the clerk acknowledges this within five school days and aims to convene the panel within 20 school days of the request.
- After the panel has met the decision and reasoning of the panel is sent to the complainant within 10 school days.
Who can sit on governor complaints panels?
In all schools governors must be impartial, or what is sometimes known as being “untainted”. This means they should not have any prior knowledge of the complaint or have been involved in any of the earlier decision-marking regarding it.
They should also avoid any conflict of interest or any appearance of bias. For example, a parent governor should not hear a complaint involving their own child and a staff governor should not hear a complaint against a colleague.
Below is the DfE advice for all schools on impartial governors. (I’ve linked to the maintained guidance but the advice is the same for academies.) The DfE say that if there is “any reasonable doubt” around a governor’s impartiality they should not sit on the panel.
“We generally consider that governors with no prior exposure to the complaint are suitably impartial, unless the complainant provides us with evidence to the contrary.
“Persons who have a conflict of interest should not take part in the complaints process, including proceedings of governing body meetings and committees.
“If there’s any reasonable doubt as to a person’s ability to act impartially, they should withdraw from considering the complaint.
“Where a governor has a financial interest in any related matter, they should also withdraw.”
Best Practice Guidance for School Complaints Procedures (Maintained Schools)
Maintained schools are advised to use “the first three impartial governors available” in the DfE model complaints policy. They can either use only their own governors or can borrow governors or associate members from another school or academy.
The model policy also allows maintained schools to use an “entirely independent” panel made up only of governors from other schools.
“If you arrange complaint panel meetings on an ad-hoc, informal basis, you only need to source governors who are suitably skilled [and] can demonstrate their independence.
“You can approach governors from any category of governor [or an] associate member of another governing body.
“Maintained schools can ask governors in academies to serve on a complaints panel and vice versa.”
Best Practice Guidance for School Complaints Procedures (Maintained Schools)
Academies must by law have an independent panel member, someone who is “independent of the management and running of the school”. They can borrow one or more governors from another academy or from a maintained school. If necessary they can source all members of the panel externally.
The DfE also advise that multi-academy trusts can use a local governor from a different academy within the MAT as the independent member.
How many governors form the panel?
The model policy for maintained schools says the panel should be formed from “the first three, impartial, governors available”.
The model policy for academies says the panel should be formed from “at least three people”, including one independent person.
Who chairs complaints panels?
The DfE model policy for maintained schools say that the complaints panel “will decide amongst themselves” before the meeting who will chair the panel. This is not stated in the academy policy but would be a reasonable approach.
Are minutes taken of complaints panels?
Yes. The DfE recommend that panel minutes are taken in all schools and the complainant provided with a copy. (I’ve quoted from the maintained schools guidance below but the academies guidance says exactly the same.)
If schools refuse to supply the minutes the complainant may be able to request them anyway using data protection laws.
“We also recommend that copies of the minutes are issued to the complainant. Failure to do so may lead to a further complaint. They may also be entitled to them, subject to any necessary redactions, under the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR.”
Best Practice Guidance for School Complaints Procedures (Maintained Schools)
Tips For Handling Complaints
- Try to resolve the complaint informally.
- Ask the complainant what they want. They may just want an apology, a chance to express their concern in person or an admission that something went wrong and was not good enough.
- The school can admit that a situation was poorly handled without admitting to negligence.
- Explain what went wrong and how a similar situation will be avoided in future, including the timescales for any changes made to procedures.
- Tell the complainant how to escalate their complaint to the next stage whenever you are communicating about the current stage.
What solutions can we offer?
A DfE report from 2012 called Parent’s and Young People’s Complaints About Schools gave examples of the most common solutions to school complaints.
- An apology.
Examples: “An apology was made to a parents when there was a delay in communicating with the parent following an incident in school.”
“Where a teacher has not followed the correct procedure or practice in responding to an initial complaint a teacher and head issued an apology.” - A change to school policies or procedures.
Examples: “A change to lunchtime policy and procedures was made where a parent complained about their child missing lunch.”
“The schools introduced accident slips to inform parents of any incidents rather than relying on verbal communication.” - Staff training.
Examples: “Whole school behaviour training was delivered to support children who were biting following a complaint by a parent.”
“Restorative justice training was given to key staff to deal with bullying after a parent complained about the school’s response.”
“Behaviour management at playtimes training was delivered to respond to incidents highlighted by parents.” - Financial compensation. (Note: the DfE report says that financial remedies are not usually appropriate for school complaints.)
Example: “The cost to replace a uniform which was damaged inadvertently.”
What happens if the complaint is about a governor or the headteacher?
If a formal complaint is received about the headteacher or a governor the DfE model policies for all schools say that a “suitably skilled governor” should be appointed to investigate. This will often be the chair of governors.
If the complaint is still unresolved after this investigation the complaint can usually be escalated to a panel of governors.
If the escalated complaint is about a governor it is wise to consider whether independent governors from another school need to hear the complaint, as the other governors at your school may not be impartial.
What is the role of the clerk?
If the complaint is escalated until it reaches the governor panel stage the clerk needs to:
- record the date the complaint is received
- acknowledge receipt of the complaint in writing
- convene a meeting and write to the complainant to inform them of the date and venue of the meeting (if the complainant rejects three proposed dates without good reason the clerk can set the date)
- find any independent governors or people needed to sit on the panel
- request copies of any further written material for the panel
- circulate copies of all written material to all parties in advance of the meeting (eg: the agenda, written evidence)
- take minutes of the panel meeting and ensure the complainant receives a copy.
What if complaints are unreasonable?
The DfE provides a model policy for managing serial and unreasonable complaints in maintained schools which could be adapted for use in academies.
It is a very short (two-page) policy describing what a school might do if complaints are abusive, repetitive, overly demanding or vexatious (eg: a very detailed complaint on a trivial matter).
Actions a school can take include limiting the number of contacts the complainant can have with the school and in extreme situations banning someone from the school site.
Example Agenda For A Complaints Panel
The DfE do not provide a model complaints panel agenda, but the structure of the meeting is fairly simple. A suggested agenda is below.
The complainant explains the issue and answers questions, the head explains the school’s response and answers questions and finally both the head and the complainant give a short summary statement.
Complaints Panel Agenda
A hearing by the complaints appeals panel of (Name of School) Governing Board will be held at (insert venue) on (insert date) at (insert time).
The order of business for the hearing is set out below.
- To elect a chair for the hearing. (Ideally this should be done before this meeting.)
- Introductions.
- The chair to outline the procedure.
- (Name of complainant) to explain his/her complaint.
- Through the chair, the headteacher and the panel may ask questions.
- Headteacher to explain the school’s response.
- Through the chair, (name of complainant) and the panel may ask questions.
- The headteacher to make a statement in summary.
- (Name of complainant) makes a statement in summary.
- All with the exception of the panel and the clerk to leave whilst the panel considers its decision. Written notice of the decision will be sent to the complainant and the headteacher within five school working days of the hearing.
- The panel will then consider the complaint in private session.
At the base of the agenda state the clerk’s name and list any documents that you are sending out with the agenda, eg: a copy of the school’s complaints procedure, a copy of the original complaint, copies of letters between the complainant and the school, copies of written submissions from the complainant/head and any relevant LA guidance.