Dealing with school complaints

As a school you may from time to time receive complaints. It is always important to address these in a timely manner with as little disruption to the child’s education as possible. As part of this an effort should be made to reduce as much animosity as possible between the school and the complainant.

This guide specifies which parts apply to maintained schools and which applies to academies. 

If your school is a Local Authority Maintained School

Every maintained school (including maintained Pupil Referral Units) must have a written complaints policy. This is set out in section 29 Education Act 2002. You must follow the procedure of your own complaints policy or you could risk further action being taken against you.

Your complaints policy should follow a clear route that enables the relevant party to follow the procedure easily and which details any further rights of appeal available to the complainant.   

Complaints can be dealt with either through written or telephone correspondence or through a meeting with yourself or with the Chair of Governors depending on your individual complaints procedure. Please note should you wish to address the matter directly with the relevant party in a face to face meeting you do not have to tolerate threatening or abusive behavior directed to you, other staff members or pupils by a relevant party.

If the complaint is escalated

If the complaint against your school has been escalated after exhausting your complaints procedure it is possible that parents can ask a Local Authority to intervene under s.62 School Standards and Framework Act 1998. This provision gives a Local Authority the power to take such steps as it considers necessary to prevent the breakdown, or continuing breakdown, of discipline in a school. The power can only be exercised where the Local Authority is of the opinion that the behaviour of certain pupils is severely prejudicing the education of other pupils.

It is important to note that not all Local Authorities will look into school issue complaints particularly if they feel it can be addressed within the internal school management system.

For more information about what the complaints procedure should include please see the Department for Education’s Best Practice Advice for School Complaints Procedures 2019.  

Academy Schools

As an Academy you will follow different rules to a Local Authority Maintained School. Although there is no express statutory provision requiring Academy schools to have a complaints procedure, you will only meet the required standard set by the Department for Education if you have established one. Furthermore, without one you could be open to further legal action as a body that performs a public function. It is always important to check your Academy’s Funding Agreement in order to find out if it contains provisions on how to deal with complaints. It is very good practice to have a comprehensive and recognisable route for those wishing to make a complaint.      

The Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations 2010 highlight that to meet the required standard your complaints policy should be in writing, available to parents and sets out clear timescales for how complaints will be handled. 

The complaints process should have three stages: 

1. Informal (usually an informal meeting between complainant and staff);
2. Formal (the complaint is submitted in writing to the school);
3. A Panel Hearing consisting of three people who were not directly involved in the matters detailed in the complaint.

If a parent wants to progress the complaint to a Panel Hearing, you must allow the complainant to attend that hearing (and be accompanied if they wish) and have at least one independent panel member (independent of the management and running of the Academy). The findings and recommendations of the hearing should be made available to the complainant following the panel hearing.

The whole complaints process should be kept confidential.  

If the complaint is escalated 

If a complainant is dissatisfied with the Academy’s response, a complaint can be made to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). The ESFA will not usually investigate complaints more than twelve months after the decision or action was taken.

Matters which the ESFA will investigate:

• Undue delay or non-compliance with published complaints procedures
• Allegations that the academy has acted unlawfully or failed to comply with a contractual duty imposed on it under its Funding Agreement with the Secretary of State or any other legal obligation.

Matters which the ESFA will not investigate:

• Examination results or curriculum content where a more appropriate form of redress would be the examining body or Ofqual;
• Statements of special educational needs or Education Health Care Plans where there is an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (SENDIST);
• Matters that are already the subject of legal action.

If the ESFA finds that your Academy has not dealt with a complaint properly they will not overturn your decision but will ask your Academy to reconsider and ensure the decision complies with the relevant Regulations. 

Such actions may include:

• Ask your Academy to review its procedures to ensure non-recurrence.
• Ask your Academy to review its decision in the individual case.

If the Academy does not comply, the Secretary of State may, if appropriate, seek to enforce the terms of the Funding Agreement through the courts.

Common types of complaint

• Failure of a school to take action following an incident of bullying. It is understandable for a parent to be upset if their child is being bullied and if they feel your school has not taken the appropriate action. To make sure it does not happen again they may try to claim there has been a breach of S.175 Education Act 2002. This section places a duty on governing bodies of maintained schools and Local Education Authorities to promote the wellbeing of the child.      
• Failure to follow statutory guidance or advice. If you are a Local Authority Maintained school you must adhere to Department for Education statutory guidance applicable to you. Failure to do so could result in legal action being taken against you. You do not have to follow departmental advice but if you do not follow it you should have a good reason for not doing so and this should be explained to parents at the outset of a complaint. For Academies you will have to follow the statutory guidance if this is contained in your funding agreement. It is recommended to follow the departmental advice if contained in your funding agreement.
• Exclusions. Exclusion of a child is likely to raise a certain amount of animosity between a school and parents. Many parents may not accept their child should have been excluded. It is always advised to make sure you as a school are up to date with the Department for Education’s guidance on Exclusions. Local Authority Maintained schools and Academies must adhere to this. By adhering to this guidance you should be able to limit the amount of complaints you receive in regards to exclusions.
• Failure to implement a Statement of SEN or Education Health and Care Plan. The Local Education Authority has the responsibility to make sure the Statement or Plan is adhered to. If you cannot maintain the provision in the Statement or Plan for whatever reason you must explain this to the Local Education Authority responsible for the Plan. You may have to ask the Local Authority to hold an annual review, possibly on an emergency basis, of the Plan or Statement to explain why you cannot meet the provisions from what is already provided.
• Disability Discrimination. Regardless of what type of school you work in you must adhere to the Equality Act 2010. This specifies that you must not discriminate against a pupil because of their disability. It also specifies that you must make reasonable adjustments to accommodate a pupil with a disability to ensure they are not placed at a disadvantage because of their disability.

If you need extra information on the complaint being made against your school it is always worth considering the Department for Education’s guidance and Advice pages available from https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education 

Requests to see a child’s educational records

As part of any complaint received you may be faced with enquiries from a party (with Parental responsibility) for a child asking for disclosure of the child’s educational records. You will be under a duty to provide these under the Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005 and the Data Protection Act . You should make the records available within 15 school days. 

Legal Action

It is always important as a school to remember that you perform the public function of educating children and young people and you could be amenable to an action for judicial review if a complainant feels a school’s decision is unreasonable or unlawful. Judicial review involves the High court scrutinising the lawfulness of the decisions or actions of a school and can make them reconsider those decisions. Examples of decisions that could be judicially reviewed are unlawful exclusions from school, removal from the school roll or withdrawal of a place offered at the school without justification.

It may also be possible for a complainant to bring an Educational Negligence case for their child. This must be brought before the child reaches 21 years of age.

To prove Educational Negligence the following must be proved:

• That you owe the child a duty of care
• That you have breached this duty
• That the child has suffered identifiable loss/damage due to this breach

There would need to be proof demonstrating that the duty of care has been breached and that the child has suffered loss.