Andrew Blench is school business management consultant and coach at School Business Partner. In this long-read he discusses how you can deal with complaints in your school effectively and efficiently
Schools sometimes receive complaints about the service they offer and, in most cases, these can be resolved quickly by the class teacher or a member of admin staff – but when complaints aren’t resolved easily, and get escalated through the school’s formal complaints procedure, things can become time-consuming and stressful.
How can schools handle complaints well, and take the learning from formal complaints?
Statutory requirements
It is a statutory requirement that schools and trusts have an approved and published formal complaints policy, which is accessible to anyone. The DfE have published guidance around the school complaints process and also shared generic policy documents which can be adapted for your school or trust.
As a consultant I work with over 30 school governing boards on a regular basis, and have supported many with difficult and protracted formal complaints. I am going to share my ‘top tips’ with you based upon this experience.
As publicly-funded bodies you need to have a mechanism for anyone to register a formal complaint – not just parents and pupils of school. Your complaints policy and procedure can be all-encompassing, but you may wish to separate out community-related complaints; it is is for your setting to decide how it wishes to handle this aspect.
Check your mindset
Whilst we would prefer to not receive any formal complaints, I would be very suspicious of a setting if they said that they never ever get any! This might be a controversial statement but if a setting has never received a formal complaint could this suggest that the procedure is inaccessible, or that something is being hidden from sight?! None of us are perfect and, for this reason, it is my view that we should (to a degree) welcome formal complaints.
Upon receiving a formal complaint we may inwardly – or out loud – groan, and issue a few expletives – because we know that this is going to take time, could be quite stressful and we can’t please everyone all the time can we!
A relentlessly positive colleague I used to work with would say ‘Every problem is simply a solution opportunity in disguise’! To apply this to formal complaints would be to say that every one represents an opportunity to strengthen relationships with the communities we serve and improve school processes, practices and communication.
If we enter the process with a mindset that school is right, and the complainant is wrong, then no one is going to win so, can I encourage us all to approach complaints with an open mind; in my experience things are seldom what they seem to be and there is vital learning there for all of us.
Don’t prevaricate
Sometimes we treat a formal complaint like something unpleasant that our beloved pet has brought into the house from outside – like the cat with a freshly slaughtered mouse or bird. It’s something that we know needs to be dealt with, but no-one wants to volunteer to deal with it – but it’s vital that we respond to complaints within the timelines expressed in our policies.
Acknowledging communications from complainants in a timely, professional and courteous manner goes a long way. When schools drag their heels on complaints this has the effect of ‘winding up’ the complainant even further; I have even known schools to receive a complaint about how the complaint was handled!
Be clear on the resolution sought
What is it that the complainant wants? Be careful to not jump to conclusions here; often this isn’t what we assume it to be. We might assume that the complainant wants someone to be sacked, a decision reversed (there are other policies for this), a financial settlement or a pupil disciplined. All these could be true but, in my experience, often it’s the more basic things that people are looking for – for example, to feel that someone has listened to them (properly, I mean), that a verbal apology has been given (why do we find this so hard?) or an acknowledgment of how someone is feeling. So, ask the question of the complainant, ‘What are you wanting to see happen here?’
This is a question which can be asked informally outside of a stage two/three meeting by someone who is not formally involved in the complaints process – perhaps by the clerk to the governing board, or an investigating officer where one has been appointed. Sometimes a quick ‘phone call can elicit the answer – a solution can maybe be put in place which might result in the process being cancelled.
You will also need to be clear on the resolution sought from any formal letters, such as the outcome from a formal panel or chair’s hearing. Better letters will say, ‘You said you wanted to see XYZ happen and we, EFG, agreed that ABC will/will not happen for the following reasons’
Time limits
Make sure that your policy and process has a clearly written timeline in place. Better policies will state that a complaint which relates to a decision/event must be made within three months of the date of that occurrence. One school I worked with had no such clause in their policy and received a complaint from a parent relating to an incident which took place three years ago. The child had left the school, as had the staff who were originally involved.
Be clear on the time limits between the different stages within your policy. There should be a deadline for completion of each stage, and also a deadline for response from the complainant if they are dissatisfied and wish to escalate to the next stage of the policy.
Outcome letters need to clearly state deadline dates – for example, ‘If you are not satisfied with the findings of my investigation you need to write to Jim Smith by 1st December 2022 at the latest’. This keeps a momentum in the process and also gives a sense of closure. It is perfectly legitimate and helpful to state to a complainant that, ‘If we haven’t heard anything from you by DD/MM/YYYY, the school will consider this matter closed’.
Be clear on what isn’t covered
Your complaints procedure does not cover things such as admissions, exclusions, HR – grievance/disciplinary/ capability, whistleblowing, child protection and statutory assessments; you should have separate published policies and procedures for handling appeals, complaints and procedures in relation to these.
The role of the investigating officer
Schools need to consider if it would be appropriate to appoint an investigating officer (IO) to look into the complaint; a good policy will highlight the circumstances when this should be considered. Choosing an IO can be a difficult decision to balance; the IO needs to be someone who has an understanding of the workings of education, but also needs to be sufficiently independent to avoid accusations of bias. The IO can be sourced externally, but this brings into the frame considerations of costs and also GDPR data disclosure aspects. Where the IO is brought in from a neighbouring school or trust this can be done a quid pro quo basis.
Many complaints I have sought to help schools with have escalated because the investigation report produced by the headteacher, chair or external person has been cursory – by that I mean running to a single page of A4 and endorsing everything the school has said. This is a tricky thing to manage; completing a thorough investigation and producing a comprehensive report requires a time commitment and skill set that many do not have. I would recommend that schools balance the cost of bringing in a professional IO against the costs in terms of their own time attempting to deal with this internally.
Dignity in all things
Remember that education as a service is covered by the Equalities Act. Some complainants may need reasonable adjustments to be made to enable them to access the complaints process. Even if someone does not fall into one of the protected characteristics in the Equalities Act, we should still treat them with dignity; I am thinking of people for whom English is not their first language, or who have low levels of literacy.
Take the learning
Quite understandably, schools focus upon the processing of the formal complaint and meeting statutory requirements but it is good practice to also create space to take the learning from complaints. Many governing boards make this part of their work – for example, the executive leader’s termly report to the board will contain stats on the number of complaints handled at each stage within the policy, and also a narrative around the learning taken from the complaints.
Another way of doing this is to build in a short review of each individual complaint after the process has completed asking questions such as ‘What could have been done better/improved?’, ‘What was handled well?’ ‘What processes and/or policies need to be reviewed or amended in the light of this?’, ‘Are there are any training requirements for staff or governors arising from this, and how do we address them?’
We know from our own experience of making complaints about poor customer service that when this is handled well we can be retained as customers and will speak well of the organisation.
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