If you have already followed the school or college’s formal complaints procedure, or if there are reasons why you cannot use that procedure, the next step is to complain to the Department for Education (DfE) (unless your complaint is about an independent nursery, school or college, see further down this page below).

Your complaint should set out the facts and explain why the school or college’s formal complaint procedure failed to resolve matters. You should explain why the school or college’s actions are unreasonable or unlawful. You should also provide evidence, including copies of any letters or emails which show what has happened.

It may be helpful to send a copy of the letter to a local councillor and ask them to take the matter up directly with the local authority (LA).

However, if the matter is urgent and serious, and cannot be resolved by making a complaint (for example, because it would take too long) you should get advice from a solicitor on a process called judicial review. This process can look at decisions made by public bodies to decide whether they were made in a lawful, fair and reasonable manner. Not all schools and colleges are public bodies, so do check if your child or young person’s setting is.

Remedies

The DfE has considerable powers to direct schools and LAs to take action. Department officials may put pressure on a school or LA or issue guidance where it believes the law or good practice is being ignored.

However, the DfE keeps no records of the outcome of the complaints it receives so it is hard to know how effective this course of action is. It probably depends on whose desk the complaint falls. Our understanding is that the Secretary of State rarely uses their powers and if there is no remedy, for example because the child has left the school concerned, the DfE is unlikely to take up the complaint.

If the complaint is about an academy, the DfE cannot change an academy’s decision. It will instead look at whether the academy considered your complaint properly, by following a procedure that is in line with legal requirements. If the DfE agrees that the academy did not deal with your complaint properly, it may:

• ask the academy to reconsider the complaint from an appropriate stage of its complaints procedure
• ask the academy to change its complaints procedure so that it complies with legal requirements, or
• remind the academy of its requirements to comply with its complaints policy.

Complaining about an independent school (excluding academies)

The DfE can’t investigate individual complaints about independent schools. But it has certain powers as a regulator if the school is not meeting standards set by DfE for:

• education
• pupil welfare and health and safety
• school premises
• staff suitability
• making information available to parents
• spiritual, moral, social or cultural development of students

The DfE will consider any reports of a major failure to meet the standards. It can arrange an emergency inspection to look at pupil welfare and health and safety, and make sure serious failings are dealt with.

The DfE can also ask the school inspectorates to take minor complaints into account when the school is next inspected.

Many independent schools are members of associations such as the Independent Schools Council, which conducts its own inspections (for example through the Independent Schools Inspectorate). If the school is a member of an association like this, you should complain to the relevant association rather than the DfE.

How to make the complaint

Complaints to the DfE about schools (including academies) and colleges are made using this online portal.

Next steps

If your complaint to the DfE does not resolve matters, you could complain to Ofsted. (Note that Ofsted does not consider complaints about independent schools, sixth form colleges or further education colleges.)

 

If you haven’t been able to find the answer to your question, you can book an appointment to speak with us.