Federation OfHanbury’s Farm And

Oakhill Community Primary Schools

Compliments, Comments

and

Complaints Policy

This policy is approved for use at Hanburys Farm / Oakhill (delete as appropriate) Community Primary School

Signed ______

(Headteacher)

Date ______

Signed ______

(Teaching Lead – if applicable)

Date ______

Signed ______

(Governor)

Date ______

This policy will be reviewed annually.

Next Review: September 2018

Purpose

All schools are required by law to have a complaints policy. This policy should help resolve problems and provide a means for issues of concern to be raised and subsequently addressed. All complainants will be treated respectfully during and after the course of any complaints investigation and will receive a written response to their complaint, unless appropriate and reasonable measures have been put in place as a result of the ‘Persistent and/or Vexatious Complainants’ policy set out below.

At Hanbury’s Farm Primary School, we all work very hard to build positive relationships with all parents. Therefore we have a compliments, comments and complaints policy to ensure all types of parental views are considered. The different sections below summarise the different ways in which parents can input into our whole school community and share their views and thoughts with the school.

Compliments:

Over the years, many parents have complimented the school on how happy their children have been and the progress they have made during their time at our school. This section formalises the way in which parents can share these compliments with our whole school community. When a compliment is received, the school will share this compliment with the members of staff immediately and will also be shared at termly Standards and Curriculum Governor Meetings. These compliments will be stored in staff Hr folders.

In the appendix, there is a compliments form for these compliments to be recorded and sent into school.

Comments:

As above with the compliments, there are times when parents have comments about systems or schemes of work that are in place in school. As a school, we find the views and thoughts of parents extremely important. These comments can be recorded on the form in appendix 2 and also sent into school.

Formal Complaints

Formal procedures will be invoked when initial attempts to resolve the issue are unsuccessful and the person raising the concern remains dissatisfied and wishes to take the matter further. All details of a complaint will be kept confidential except in so far as they need to be shared with people who might contribute to their resolution. The complaint will be dealt with in line with the school’s complaints procedure.

In most cases it will be your choice as to whether to mount a formal complaint, but the School reserves the right to utilise the formal complaint procedures where the School feels that ‘informal’ methods of resolving concerns have been exhausted but a complainant clearly remains dissatisfied.

It should be noted that some outcomes of a complaint may lead to action being initiated under other formal procedures, such as safeguarding or disciplinary matters. Where this is the case you will be advised and informed of the procedures that are to be followed. It should be noted, however, that the school will not necessarily be able to provide you with the details of the outcome of those procedures for data protection reasons or otherwise, depending on the circumstances.

If a formal complaint is made to the School you will be provided with a copy of this complaints policy. It is not a requirement that a formal complaint is made in writing, but the school will need to be clear what the complaint is about, and may therefore request clarification from you before investigating the complaint.

Please be aware that the School reserves the right not to review a complaint made by a complainant that has not been brought to the attention of the school within 8 weeks of the alleged incident occurring. However, the School will consider any complaint outside of that timescale in certain circumstances.

An overview of our school complaints process:

Stage1.
Informal expression of concern made to the school. / In the first instance, the matter should be discussed with the child’s class teacher. If any parents are unhappy with the education that their child or children are receiving, or have any concerns relating to the school, we encourage you to talk to the child’s class teacher immediately. There is no doubt that if a concern is shared with the class teacher they can either reassure worried parents or together devise steps to take to address the concern. Parents must never worry about sharing their concerns with the class teacher. They will always be taken seriously and due consideration given to a mutually agreeable resolution.
Stage 2. Discussion with a member of the senior management team. / At this stage the person investigating the complaint will meet with the complainant to clarify the nature of the complaint and any unresolved issues, recording the information on a parent concern form. Following this the member of SMT will investigate to establish what has happened so far, interview those involved in the matter, recording detailed notes. Once the member of staff has conducted their investigation, they will meet with the parents and inform them of the outcome and any necessary further actions. The school will aim to respond within 7 school days.
Stage 3. Head Teacher.
Complaints rarely reach this formal level but should you need to you should make a formal complaint to the Head Teacher / Complaints at this stage should be written and received within 10 school days of the senior managements feedback. Your letter or complaint form in appendix 3 should be addressed to the Head teacher and marked “private and confidential”. The letter should say why you remain unhappy and what you wish to see happen. The head teacher will let you know when your complaint is to be considered. If a meeting with you and others involved is considered necessary you will be given adequate notice to prepare. You will be informed of the outcome of the head teachers’ investigation and decision on what further action will be taken within 10 school days.
Stage 4. Governors
You may take your complaint to the school Governors within 6 months of the Head Teachers’ response. / If the complaint is not resolved, and all previous stages have been explored, a parent may make representation to the Governors. A letter addressed to the Chair of Governors marked “private and confidential” can be left at the school office. If the Governors consider from your letter that the complaint warrants further investigation they may ask you to explain your case in person before a specially appointed panel. However, it is also possible that, following investigation, they may make a decision without needing you to appear. When considering a complaint, the chair of governors may wish to seek technical or procedural advice from the County Education Service on the most appropriate course of action to be followed.
The Chair of governors following investigation may: dismiss the complaint in whole or part, uphold the complaint in whole or in part, decide on appropriate actions and/ or recommend changes to schools system’s or procedures to ensure that any similar problems do not occur.
When a complaint is not upheld a response will be given and any actions recommended given.

The Role of Staffordshire County Council (Local Authority)

The Local Authority does not have a statutory duty to consider school complaints and you do not have a right of appeal to the Local Authority should you disagree with a decision of the governing body. You may, however, raise the matter with the Local Authority if you consider the complaint wasn’t investigated properly or fairly. So long as the governing body followed a proper procedure and considered the complaint in a reasonable manner, then the Local Authority will simply inform you of that fact. It cannot reverse a decision of the governing body.

If you wish to raise the matter with Staffordshire County Council please write to:

Commissioner for Learning and Skills

Wedgwood Building

Tipping Street

Stafford ST16 2DH

In your letter please explain:

  • what your complaint to the governing body was;
  • what response they have made to it;
  • why you think that the governing body has not followed a proper procedure in considering your complaint, and/or
  • why you think that their consideration of it was unreasonable.

You will receive a written response to inform you of any further enquiries made into your complaint.

The Role of the Secretary of State for Education (the Department for Education)

If you still remain dissatisfied and feel that the School has not followed the appropriate procedure, any relevant policies, or has failed to discharge a statutory duty, you may wish to refer your complaint to the School’s Complaints Unit (SCU) within the Department for Education at the address below:-.

The Schools Complaints Unit

Department for Education

2nd Floor Piccadilly Gate

Manchester

M1 2WD

Please note that the SCU will not re-investigate the substance of the complaint as this remains the responsibility of the School, but if legislative or policy breaches are found, SCU will report them to the School and, if necessary require the School to take remedial action.

Persistent Complaints

You may remain dissatisfied despite all the procedures having been followed and reasonable responses being provided. It may be the case that it is not possible to resolve all your concerns and meet all your wishes. Sometimes it is preferable to ‘agree to disagree’ and move on.

If you do continue to make representations to the school on the same issues, the Governing Body reserves the right to inform you, in writing, that the appropriate procedures have all been followed, that all reasonable actions have been taken to try to resolve the issue and that the matter is now closed. Should you then write to the School again on the same issue (s), there is no obligation on the School to respond to you in that case.

Correspondence received from any complainant subsequent to closure will be kept on file, indefinitely, as will notes of telephone calls and any further personal calls referring to the matter.

If complaints are seemed to be unreasonable:

AT Hanbury’s Farm Primary School, we are committed to dealing with any complaints raised in a fair and impartial manner. However, we do not expect our staff to tolerate unacceptable behaviour and will take action to protect staff from any behaviour which we believe is unreasonable. This unreasonable behaviour will include any face to face meetings, by telephone, in writing or electronically.

A complaint may be regarded as unreasonable when the person making the complaint:-

  • refuses to articulate their complaint or specify the grounds of a complaint or the outcomes sought by raising the complaint, despite offers of assistance;
  • refuses to co-operate with the complaints investigation process while still wishing their complaint to be resolved;
  • repeatedly makes the same complaint (despite previous investigations or responses concluding that the complaint is groundless or has been addressed);
  • refuses to accept the findings of the investigation into that complaint where the school’s complaint procedure has been fully and properly implemented and completed including referral to the Department for Education;
  • seeks an unrealistic outcome;
  • makes excessive demands on school time by frequent, lengthy, complicated and stressful contact with staff regarding the complaint in person, in writing, by email and by telephone while the complaint is being dealt with.

A complaint may also be considered unreasonable if the person making the complaint does so either face-to-face, by telephone or in writing or electronically:-

  • maliciously;
  • aggressively;
  • using threats, intimidation or violence;
  • using abusive, offensive or discriminatory language;
  • knowing it to be false;
  • using falsified information; publishing unacceptable information in a variety of media such as in social media websites and newspapers.

Complainants should limit the numbers of communications with a school while a complaint is being progressed. It is not helpful if repeated correspondence is sent (either by letter, phone, email or text) as it could delay the outcome being reached.

Whenever possible, the headteacher or Chair of Governors will discuss any concerns with the complainant informally before applying an ‘unreasonable’ marking. If the behaviour continues the headteacher will write to the complainant explaining that their behaviour is unreasonable and asking them to change it.

For complainants who excessively contact causing a significant level of disruption, we may specify methods of communication and limit the number of contacts in a communication plan. This will usually be reviewed after 6 months.

In response to any serious incident of aggression or violence, the concerns and actions taken will be put in writing immediately and the police informed. This may include banning an individual from the school.

Signed by headteacher:

Dated

Signed by Chair of governors:

Dated:

Appendix 1:

Compliments Slip

Child’s Name: / Year group:
Please record your compliments, adding as much detail as possible.
Signed: / Dated

Many thanks for completing this form.

Please email a copy of this form to or

Appendix 2:

Comments Slip

Child’s Name: / Year group:
Please record your comments, adding as much detail as possible.
Signed: / Dated

Many thanks for completing this form.

Please email a copy of this form to or

Appendix 3:

Complaints Form

Please complete this form and return it to the Head Teacher or Chairman of the Governing Body as appropriate, who will acknowledge its receipt and inform you of the next stage in the procedure.

Your name: ______

Relationship with school [e.g. parent of a pupil]: ______

Pupil’s name [if relevant to your complaint]: ______

Your Address: ______

______

Daytime telephone number: ______

Evening telephone number: ______

Please give concise details of your complaint, (including dates, names of witnesses etc.) to
allow the matter to be fully investigated.:
You may continue on separate paper, or attach additional documents, if you wish.
What action, if any, have you already taken to try to resolve your complaint? [i.e. who have you spoken with or written to and what was the outcome?]
What actions do you feel might resolve the problem at this stage?

Signature:______

Date:______

School use:

Date Form received: ______

Received by:______

Date acknowledgement sent:______

Acknowledgement sent by:______

Complaint referred to: ______

Date Referred:______

Please email a copy of this form to or

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