How-to Guide: Complaints to schools

This how to guide sets out the steps that you can take to make a complaint against a school or teacher and how to escalate this matter further.

How do you know if you have a complaint? 

A complaint is a step that a person can take where they consider something the school has done as unsatisfactory or unacceptable. The action or failure to act could have caused the parent to believe the school acted unreasonably, unfairly or unlawfully. 

The acts by the school can be wide ranging but generally include: 

• Bullying by another pupil or a member of staff 
• The mishandling of behavioural matters e.g. disciplinary action that is not proportionate to the child’s behaviour or the outcome of the behaviour 
• Failure to conduct the relevant investigations or respond where concerns are raised about the child’s wellbeing 
• Failure to provide appropriate support, whether obligatory or requested e.g. where a child with Special Educational Needs is required to have a level of support that the school refuse to provide or a child with particular medical needs which the school disregards 
• Failure to respond to concerns raised with regards to the child whether educational or welfare concerns 
• Inappropriate behaviour by a member of staff towards a child. This can include the misuse of force against a child 
• Lack of safeguarding measures to reduce risk of harm to children 
• Failure to comply with their own policies 
• Failure to publish relevant policies to deal with key issues 
• Failure to follow statutory guidance- e.g. failure to comply with the procedures outlined in the Department for Education guidance on Exclusions for Maintained schools, Academies and Pupil Referral Units 
• Discrimination 

In the majority of cases a problem can be resolved by contacting the appropriate member of staff. This can include the subject teacher, head of department, form tutor, head of year or the member of staff directly involved in the issue. Where you are unable to resolve the problem informally, the following steps can be taken to raise the matter further.

How to initiate the complaints process 

Step 1: Establish what type of school your child attends

See our page on Types of School

The different types of schools include: 

• Academy 
• Maintained school 
• Community school 
• Foundation School 
• Voluntary Aided School 
• Voluntary controlled school 
• Independent school 

It is imperative to establish what type of school the child attends as it will determine who the school is accountable to and therefore the relevant authority if the complaint is to be escalated externally. 

You can check this online here. 

Step 2: Request a copy of the school’s Complaints Policy and other relevant policies 

Maintained schools must have a written complaints policy under s.29 Education Act 2002 and Independent Schools and Academies must have a written complaints policy  under part 7 of the Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations 2014. 

There is Department for Education best practice advice available for school complaints procedures for both maintained schools and academies. 

The complaints policy in particular should set out how the school deals with complaints. When you obtain the policy you should make a note of: 

• The different stages of the complaints procedure 
• The person to whom the initial complaint is to be made to 
• The timescales in which a complaint should be made and dealt with 
• How to raise a further complaint where you are dissatisfied with the way the school handles your complaint 

Example 1 

If your child has been experiencing bullying and this has been brought to the school’s attention several times, in raising your formal complaint, you may wish to request the schools’ Anti Bullying policy and their Behaviour and Discipline policy. 

The Anti Bullying policy should clearly outline what would be considered bullying and the steps the school take to stop and tackle bullying. Furthermore, the Behaviour and Discipline policy should outline the sanctions the school implement where a pupil breaches the school rules which would include bullying another pupil.

Example 2 

You have been made aware of pupils including your child being in a science lab and handling equipment and chemicals without supervision. 

In raising a formal complaint, you may wish to request the school’s Heath and Safeguarding policy. You would highlight to the school the fact that the child’s safety was compromised by the school’s inability to put certain measures in place and therefore comply with the relevant policy.

Policies can usually be downloaded from the school’s website. However, if they are not available you can request them directly from the school and they should be provided to you. 

The Department for Education September 2014 guidance on Statutory Policies for Schools specifies the relevant polices schools should have by law, dependent on the type of school. 

Step 3: Request for the disclosure of your child’s educational records 

To request a copy of the records you will need to write a letter to the school. Where the school is a Local Authority maintained school, your letter can state that you wish to obtain a copy of the records under the Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005. These records should be made available within 15 school days. The school can charge a small fee (maximum of £50) for photocopying but not for viewing these records. 

For Academies, you may wish to check their funding agreement for information on disclosure; they generally tend to follow the same regulations as maintained schools. If your child attends an Independent School, the records should be disclosed to you in accordance with part 6 of the independent school standards. 

The purpose of obtaining your child’s school records is to establish if there are any key points that you can make reference to in your complaint.

Step 4: Write your complaint letter 

Procedures for complaining to a school may vary from school to school, in general a complaint should be made in the form of a letter making it clear that a formal complaint is being made. 

You can enclose any relevant documents with the letter to support your complaint. 

The complaint’s policy should outline to whom the letter should be addressed. Normally, the first stage of a complaint is dealt with by the Head teacher; therefore the letter can be addressed to the Head teacher. Please see below a sample letter.

The school’s address

Dear Sir/Madam (include the name of the Head Teacher if possible)

Re: Formal Complaint

I am writing to make a formal complaint with regards to…

• We would suggest detailing the incident/s that have taken place in chronological order, the most recent one first. (This will assist the school with the subsequent investigation)
• Make reference to the relevant school policy and how you believe the school have breached it.
• Include a paragraph about how you have tried to remedy the situation for example meeting with class teachers/other teacher or any letters that have previously been written to the school with regards to the matter.
• Finish the letter outlining how you would like the situation resolved.
• You should also send a copy of the letter to the Board of Governors.

Yours sincerely/faithfully,

Sign your name

The Process 

The School 

The first stage of an internal complaint to the school will generally begin with the head teacher. Schools normally encourage resolution by informal means; this would normally be the first stage of the complaints process. 

The policy should also outline the timescales in which complaints are dealt with and when you are likely to receive a response. 

Generally, the head teacher would appoint a senior member of staff to conduct an investigation and report their findings. 

The school should then address the complaint either via letter or with a meeting but this should be set out within the complaints policy. The school should outline their conclusions and any actions that will be taken as a result of the complaint. 

The Governing Body 

Where you are unsatisfied with the outcome at this stage, a further complaint can be made to the school’s Governing Body. You should be informed of the timescale in which you can escalate the complaint to them.

In your complaint to the Governing Body, you should outline your reasons for escalating the complaints and request that it reviews the actions taken by the school to deal with the complaint. 

The complaints policy should outline how the Governing Body will deal with the complaint. This can include arranging a meeting to discuss the matter. The Governing Body should communicate the outcome within the specified timescale outlined in the complaints policy. 

Escalating a complaint outside the school 

Where a parent is dissatisfied with the way the school or the Governing Body has dealt with the matter, the complaint can be escalated externally. The procedure for complaints concerning local authority maintained schools and academies can be found below:

Department for Education

If your child attends a Local Authority maintained school or an Academy, the next stage of your complaint will be raising a complaint further with the Department for Education.

Usually the Department for Education will expect a person to have exhausted local complaints procedures (for example, the school’s internal complaint procedure) before making a complaint to the Department for Education. The exceptions to this are when:

• children are at risk of harm
• children are missing education
• a complainant is being prevented from having their complaint progress through the published complaints procedure
• there is evidence that the school is proposing to act or is acting unlawfully or unreasonably

The Department for Education will usually only intervene when it is expedient or practical to do so. They will also usually need to be satisfied that a governing body or local authority has:

• failed to act in accordance with its duties under education law
• acted (or is proposing to act) unreasonably when exercising education related functions

The Department for Education does not take action to punish schools that have breached education law. If the Department for Education feels that action is necessary, this is typically in the form of explaining the legislative framework and its practical implications at the school level, or recommending improvements to statutory school policies. In situations where serious breaches have occurred, the Department for Education may pass its findings on to other relevant bodies, such as Ofsted or the Local Authority.

Complaining to the Secretary of State 

The final stage of your complaint will be contacting the Secretary of State for Education. This step can be taken if all relevant complaints procedures and avenues have been exhausted. 

The Secretary of State can take six months to respond to letters of complaint and very rarely finds it necessary to become involved. 

The Secretary of State can make directions as they consider appropriate to ensure that the Governing Body or Local Authority exercises its duties, functions and powers as it should. 

The Role of the Local Authority

Local Authorities do not generally become involved in complaints about schools, even those which the Local Authority maintains. 

The Local Authority will usually only accept complaints about actions taken by the Local Authority in relation to education matters, such as those relating to EHCPs or school admissions (where these have been coordinated by the Local Authority). If you have issues with the actions which have been taken by the Local Authority in relation to an educational matter then you should first consider whether there is a formal review process for the decision which has been made (such as for home to school transport) and follow this process if available. If there is no appeal or review process then you can make a formal complaint to the Local Authority. It is usually possible to obtain a copy of the Local Authority’s formal complaints process from the Local Authority website or by contacting the Local Authority directly.

The Local Government Ombudsmen has issued best practice guidance for Local Authorities for dealing with complaints which can be found here.

Complaints against independent schools 

If your child attends an independent school you should follow their in-house complaints procedure. You should also look through your contract with the school to see if there are any breaches as a result of the school’s actions. A Solicitor specialising in Contract Law should be able to assist you with this. 

As a regulator, the Department for Education does provide standards and if you feel that your school is not meeting these standards you can make a complaint. The standards are: 

• education 
• pupil welfare and health and safety 
• school premises 
• staff suitability 
• making information available to parents 

The Department will consider any complaint that their standards are not being met and it can carry out an emergency inspection to make sure that pupils welfare, health and safety are safeguarded and that serious failings are dealt with. 

Individual complaints should be addressed by the head teacher of the school and the chair of governors. However, if a parent considers that the school has not taken their concerns seriously or investigated them properly they can contact the Independent Schools Inspectorate.

Complaints to Ofsted 

Ofsted can hear complaints about maintained schools and Academies once internal procedures have been exhausted. Ofsted will only look into systematic issues affecting the school as a whole and not cases of individual pupils. Complaints can be submitted to Ofsted.

Can I make a complaint about teacher misconduct?

You can report serious professional misconduct of a teacher to the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA). The TRA will only look into cases where the misconduct could result in that teacher being disqualified; this could include, for example:

• unacceptable professional conduct;
• conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute; or
• conviction of an offence such as sex, violence, terrorism, hate crime, fraud, theft, possession or supply of drugs.

 The TRA cannot look into complaints about a teacher’s performance or competence.

Under the Teachers’ Disciplinary (England) Regulations 2012, the TRA can only look into allegations against teachers who are, or have ever been, employed or engaged to carry out teaching work at:

• a school in England;
• a sixth form college in England;
• relevant youth accommodation in England;
• a children’s home in England; or
• a 16 to 19 Academy;

and when employed in these settings have been engaged in:

• planning and preparing lessons and courses for pupils;
• delivering lessons to pupils;
• assessing the development, progress and attainment of pupils; and
• reporting on the development, progress and attainment of pupils.

The TRA cannot usually consider allegations against teaching assistants, higher level teaching assistants or other support staff not engaged in unsupervised teaching activities.

To make a complaint to TRA you must have tried all local complaints procedures including contacting the school’s head teacher and/or chair of governors and contacting the Local Authority.

To make this complaint you should use the teacher misconduct referral form and include:

• details of the allegations;
• chronology of events including any previous complaints made;
• documents as evidence of previous complaints, correspondence with the school, the school complaint policy, any complaints to the police, any complaints to other bodies such as the local authority and signed witness statements.