Complaints about schools – Advice for teachers from legal experts
Two legal experts explain what to do when parents complain, and how to deal with negative social media…
- by Teachwire
Why you need robust reporting
With parental complaints to schools on the rise, it’s worth ensuring your reporting systems are sufficiently responsive, says Tamara Dasht…
All schools must have a complaints procedure, as set out in Section 29(1) of the Education Act 2002 and Part 7 of The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014.
If, however, you’re unsure as to whether your school complaints procedure is fully compliant with current legislation and guidance, it may be worth looking at it afresh, and possibly seeking legal advice.
Some might choose to adopt a templated procedure from a reputable source to ensure their compliance, but do make sure this doesn’t give the name of your school or trust as [INSERT NAME] – because yes, we have seen that before…
Surge of complaints
At Browne Jacobson, we’ve seen a surge in both the number and complexity of parental complaints about schools, with clients regularly telling us about the huge volume of time and resources they’re putting into managing the complaints they receive.
Dealing with complaints about schools efficiently requires having a legally compliant procedure in place (and following it!), but beyond that, we would strongly encourage taking an holistic approach to complaints management.
Key to this is building a culture of open conversation and mutual respect within your school. If parents feel they can approach you with their concerns, and that those concerns will be addressed both promptly and properly, you can avoid later escalations.
Complaints procedure
Your staff also need to know your school’s complaints procedure inside out, and possess the skills needed to follow it to the letter. Managing difficult conversations with parents has always been part of the job, but one that’s unfortunately grown larger in recent years. To that end, we’d urge leaders to provide some form of training specifically designed to prepare staff for such situations.
Staff should always know where they can go to seek support, or simply air their grievances. Consider appointing a nominated individual at the school whose role will include complaints management, and who can offer support and guidance to staff in the event of any challenging exchanges with parents.
Keeping a record
Keeping a thorough record of complaints will help you both identify any similar or recurring issues, and bed in any major changes to your practice or procedures.
For example – is the school currently receiving multiple complaints concerning attainment levels? If so, you might need to review your communication of students’ grades and progress to parents. It’s often cases of mistaken communication – or, indeed, a lack of any communication at all – that lies at the heart of parental complaints.
Keeping parents well-informed, and perhaps seeking their input on occasion, will make them feel more involved in the life of the school, and prevent otherwise robust relationships from breaking down.
In short, get the fundamentals right. Ensure your school complaints policy is legally compliant. Make sure that (suitably trained) staff know and follow it – and more than anything, communicate as much as you can.
You can then sit back and hopefully watch as your volume of parental complaints, and the time/resource investment in dealing with them, both start to decline.
Tamara Dasht is an associate at Browne Jacobson; for more information, visit brownejacobson.com or follow @brownejacobson
Protecting your social media presence
Legal expert Kate Hindmarch offers some pointers for keeping your school community and reputation safe from keyboard warriors…
1. Assess the threat
Social media is a powerful way of communicating useful information to parents and pupils. But what happens when a disgruntled parent takes to the keyboard to vent their anger at you?
Whether due to a particular lesson or a lunchtime incident, it can be easy to panic when the post appears. Get a clear understanding of what the post is saying and how much engagement it has.
Commenting publicly on posts with low engagement can end up fanning the flames and cause others to get involved. If the post has few or no likes, comments or shares it may be best to let it slide. It will probably soon drop off people’s timelines.
2. Where’s your complaints procedure?
When a parent complains on social media, it’ll likely be the result of a snap decision fuelled by anger. If you’ve judged the post as potentially damaging to the school, it’s important to address the issue as soon as possible.
Speak to the individual in question and point them towards your school’s formal complaints procedure and social media policy. Both of these should be easily accessible to all parents online.
Sometimes it’s a misunderstanding that can be ironed out over a phone call or face-to-face. If their behaviour continues, or you receive further abuse from the parent via social media on two or more occasions, you may wish to contact the police.
3. Be prepared
While most schools will – and should – have a social media policy in place, it will often only cover staff and pupils, without stretching to parents.
Though most schools will stipulate that all parents sign up to the school’s Code of Conduct, this will frequently not include social media conduct.
That said, by ensuring all teachers observe best practice and adhere to your school’s social media policy, they’ll be equipped to deal with any issues as they arise.
The policy should clearly outline the consequences for breaches. What steps can the school can take in the event of a social media issue?
4. Contact your solicitor
If an individual is harassing the school or a teacher on social media, you may have no choice but to contact your solicitor and ask for their advice on the matter.
They can help draft letters to the individual. These will advise them as to what laws they might have broken – potentially anything from defamation to breaches of confidentiality.
If the post is more serious, your solicitor might advise taking legal action and applying for an injunction.
5. Apply for an injunction
This will usually be a means of last resort. They’re an effective way of putting the brakes on parent-driven social media harassment. However, it can be tricky for schools to manage, not to mention costly.
You can’t grant an injunction prohibiting a parent from entering or contacting a school. This is because they’ll still need to attend parents’ evenings and access important information about their child.
If, however, a judge sees the parent’s behaviour as damaging to the school’s reputation, they’ll likely grant an injunction to put a stop to their negative social media behaviour.
If you go down this route, be sure to act quickly. Any delay in proceedings could stop the courts from granting an injunction at all.
6. Advise your staff
Advising all staff on how to protect themselves online is another great preventative method. This could include recommending that their social media profiles are made private, not befriending parents and pupils through social media channels and advising them on what to do if they receive unsolicited messages through social media.
It’s also worth outlining the differences between professional and personal social media use. Another move can be to make it harder for parents and pupils to find certain individuals, such as asking teachers to flip the first and last letters of their names around or using nicknames.
Kate Hindmarch is partner and head of employment at Langleys Solicitors, a firm responsible for helping to create one of the first UK academies.
