Parental complaints guidance for schools: Legal comment

New guidance has been published for schools and parents on how to make and respond to complaints.

The Department for Education, in partnership with Ofsted and ParentKind, has published new guidance for parents on how to make complaints. ParentKind has also published a similar guide designed to help schools to respond.

The two documents – School guide to parent complaints and Parent guide to school complaints – are designed to provide a checklist to resolving concerns quickly, easily and positively.

Victoria Hatton, Partner in the education team at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson, specialises in parental complaints.

She said: “Schools have been desperately seeking official government support in managing complaints after witnessing a significant rise in volume and complexity in recent years.

“Two-thirds (65%) of respondents to our School Leaders Survey reported an increase in parental complaints during the 2023/24 academic year, with many noting a quicker escalation to formal stages, while in the past nine months we have witnessed a significant spike in AI-generated complaints.

“Schools and parents will welcome the DfE’s belated attention to this issue and the principles underpinning the guides in terms of resolving concerns in a quick and positive manner.

“The guides offer schools an opportunity to reopen the conversation with parents about how to give effective feedback or raise concerns or complaints appropriately. It also gives school leaders the chance to reconsider their own complaints management policies and ensure staff are adequately trained on implementing these.

“However, many gaps remain in addressing the complaints issue. From a legislative perspective, there are still different frameworks and best practice guidelines for maintained schools and academies, which continues to create unnecessary confusion. The DfE best practice guidance was last updated in 2021 and is out of step with the scale of the issue – it is therefore hoped this is on the DfE’s list for a refresh.

“Practically speaking, the premise of the guidance is that all parties are looking to resolve complaints reasonably. We know this isn’t the case with a sizeable and impactful minority of parents. Schools will have hoped for greater acknowledgement of the scale of this issue and the impact this is having on staff wellbeing and the use of school resources – particularly in relation to AI-generated complaints, which are addressed only fleetingly in the guidance.

“Schools can only hope the upcoming schools White Paper will provide the much-needed root-and-branch review of school complaints, including clear enforcement powers for school leaders where there is unreasonable behaviour and a co-ordinated system for the effective triaging of parent complaints referred to multiple third-party agencies, such as Ofsted, DfE and the Teaching Regulation Agency.”