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Concerns and Complaints topics
SchoolDocs appreciates the guidance of James Cowan and Fiona McMillan from Anderson Lloyd who have reviewed the changes we made to the Concerns and Complaints section as a result of our three-yearly review. We recommend boards seek legal advice at the earliest stages of any serious complaint to ensure the correct process is followed.
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Concerns and Complaints
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- Added space for schools to add a special character or policy statement to the introduction.
- Added the Concerns and Complaints flowchart to this topic.
- Added information about directing complaints to the Ministry of Education.
- Noted some organisations parents and students can seek advice from.
- Added fuller information about the complaints register, and clarified its purpose.
- Added wording about unreasonable complaints.
- Added links to related topics.
- Added relevant legislation.
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Concerns and Complaints flowchart
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- Refreshed the look of the flowchart and updated it to align with changes to the Concerns and Complaints section.
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Raising Concerns
(previously Guidelines for Raising Concerns)
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- Made it easier to change who to speak to about various concerns.
- Added a section about follow-up and feedback.
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Making a Formal Complaint or Serious Allegation
(previously Formal Complaints)
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- Moved a large amount of content from this topic to Investigating a Formal Complaint or Serious Allegation.
- Clarified when a complaint about the conduct or competence of a teacher can be made directly to the Teaching Council.
- Altered headings and added more headings for readability.
- Clarified why it will not usually be possible to effectively investigate anonymous complaints.
- Removed the statement about disclosing all written complaints to the person concerned, as according to legal advice, there may be good reasons not to.
- Added information about taking advice and seeking further help when not satisfied with the outcome of an investigation.
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Investigating a Formal Complaint or Serious Allegation
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- Substantially revised these guidelines to make them clearer and easier to follow.
- Removed the wording about confidential resolution and settlement agreements that was in the introduction to the guidelines. Our lawyers advise us that there is new public sector guidance about agreeing confidentiality in a settlement agreement. We will follow this up and update our content as appropriate.
- Added information about what an investigation terms of reference should usually cover, as well as outlining the investigator's role (see dropdowns).
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Student Concerns and Complaints (secondary and composite schools)
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- We've noted some organisations parents and students can seek advice from.
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