Parents as Partners in Learning

Complaints procedure

The education authority’s strategy must set out the authority’s arrangements for handling any complaints from a person, or someone acting on their behalf, in connection with how the authority carries out its functions under the Act, or fails to carry these out, in respect of that person. In doing so the authority must:

ensure its proposed procedure covers the authority’s duties to provide advice and information to parents about their own child; what it does in relation to promoting parental involvement, and its duty to promote and support the operation of Parent Councils
consult with parents, Parent Councils, and anyone else who has an interest (e.g. staff who deal with other complaints), when setting up the procedure
make sure the procedure is reviewed and updated when necessary
give a copy of the procedure free of charge to anyone who requests it.

An authority’s complaints procedure should enable issues to be resolved at as early, and as local, a stage as possible. Many issues can be dealt with adequately at school level. Therefore, the headteacher and school staff should have effective arrangements in place to deal with parental concerns or complaints. These arrangements should:

be easy to access and well publicised
be simple to understand and use
be clear about timescales for action and keeping people informed
be confidential
be effective in providing suitable solutions
provide information on next steps, if parents still unsatisfied.

The education authority should consider how complaints about parental involvement might link with its duties in relation to other pieces of legislation. This includes arrangements for handling representations made under the 2004 Act. In the case of complaints relating to an individual child’s education, the education authority should consider whether the complaint requires to be addressed under its duties within the legislation on additional support for learning, including the duty to provide information about mediation and dispute resolution. Every effort should be made to prevent parents being passed from person to person. A ‘one stop shop approach’ is helpful to both parents and staff. The authority’s arrangements for dealing with complaints should be set out in its strategy for parental involvement. The diagram at Annex C outlines how complaints under the Act might sit alongside other formal and informal appeal routes.

Given Parent Councils’ role in representing the collective view of parents, the education authority must consult them on their arrangements for a complaints procedure. Parent Councils can also make general representations on matters arising from individual complaints where these raise issues of a wider policy or strategic concern.

Further information on resolving disagreements is available in section 4 of the Toolkit. A checklist of tips for dealing with complaints is available in section 6 of the Toolkit.

Key points

Education authorities are required to prepare a strategy setting out their policies on parental involvement which must cover their duties under the Act. (para 1)
Views of all those with an interest must be taken account of when developing or reviewing a strategy. (para 2)
Important to involve parents with differing experiences to ensure the strategy reflects the broad parental view. (para 3)
Views of early years providers and parents as well as the wider community should be taken into consideration. (para 4)
Equal opportunities must be taken into account when developing strategy. (para 7)
Consider the different barriers that some parents face in getting involved and ways of supporting them to overcome these barriers through joint working with other services. (paras 8-10)
Needs of looked after children and their parents or carers must be included in the strategy. (paras 11-17)
Strategy should set out the authority’s arrangements for involving parents who do not live with their children and authority should provide guidance to their schools on this issue. (paras 18-20)
Education authorities should consider how their strategies link with wider policies for supporting children and families. (paras 24-25)
Schools must ensure their school development plans take account of the authority’s strategy and include objectives relating to parental involvement. (para 27)
Education authorities must establish a complaints procedure covering how they carry out their functions under the Act. (paras 28-32)